MedLion

Website: https://medlion.com/

Location(s): 350 physicians contracted in 27 states with less than 10,000 patients as of 10/30/2015, (most recent numbers available).

Scope of Practice: MedLion licenses physicians to practice direct primary care (DPC) using MedLion’s name, logo and management, which includes legal services, referral services, billing, collections, marketing, advertising, customer service, business guidance and a proprietary EMR. MedLion utilizes telemedicine and messaging for quick patient access.

MedLion is a hybrid model, with practices participating with insurance while their DPC business grows. MedLion also seeks to partner with employers as part of employee benefit packages.

Practice Focus: MedLion is focused on disease and symptoms, although individual physicians may focus on wellness and treatments as well.

Pricing: MedLion’s model is consistent among all contracted practices. In 2012, MedLion’s monthly membership fee was $59 with a $10 per visit fee. By 2015, MedLion’s fees were $85 per adult and $45 per child with a $10 per visit fee.

Public Information: MedLion was founded in 2009. MedLion started in California before relocating to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Outlook: MedLion physicians receive 70% of their MedLion revenue, with MedLion retaining the balance for administrative services. This 30% management fee is better than the traditional target management expense of 50%. MedLion physicians were limited to 1,500 patients in 2012. This number was reduced to 1,000 by 2015. MedLion claims that a mature MedLion physician can generate $500k to $800k in revenue and earn more than $300k.

The issue with MedLion seems to be the patient/employer demand for its services. The most recent numbers for MedLion are from 2015. MedLion does not publish their locations on their website. The numbers from 2015 on average do not paint a robust picture of MedLion’s impact on most practices. Averaging the 10,000 patients between the 350 contracted MedLion physicians results in a patient average of between 28 and 29 patients. Assuming a 2-to-1 adult to child membership ratio, the average monthly membership payment would be about $73, which would result in monthly revenue of $2,117 before copays and MedLion’s management fee.

MedLion probably has several “mature” practices with 1,000 patients, a couple of other practices mid-way to maturity and the rest of the practices trying to catch-on in their market. For practices with 500 MedLion members and the same 2-to-1 adult to child ratio, monthly membership fees would generate $36,500 for a net of $25,500 after MedLion’s fee. MedLion’s copays would result in an additional $1,400 per month, (7 patients a day x 20 days a month x $10).

Insurance participating providers would have additional revenue from insurance payments, but they would also have additional expenses to maintain insurance services.

The issues surrounding MedLion’s general growth may be due to patient adoption of a DPC model with fees of over $3,000 per year for routine care. While some acute care may be addressed or avoided, patients would still need insurance or pay out of pocket for additional acute care and emergency care.

Update: MedLion Clinic permanently closed on May 31, 2023.

Articles