Question 1

1. Why was NEMO formed?

Accepted Answer

NEMO was created during the Covid-19 pandemic, as fee-for-service revenues dwindled, when only emergent and Covid-related services were provided by hospitals. Simultaneously, the healthcare community became suddenly comfortable with telehealth and remote monitoring as vehicles to treat the majority of patients. Meanwhile, insurers collected the same premiums, while spending significantly less on medical care.

In 2020, medical groups which operated global risk (capitated) contracts thrived. Cash flow was maintained through their premium based contracts.
Delivery of care via telemedicine reduced expenses for providers, while delighting patients and doctors.

NEMO was formed to create a SuperMSO environment to drive global risk (prepaid) contracts for medical groups working outside the hospital setting.

The NEMO Care Model was initially designed to improve clinical workflow and optimize communications tools. Subsequently NEMO built tools to provide advanced analytics and to model risk contracts. Then NEMO began to incorporate other components - patient and doctor relationship management (portals), risk curriculum, ‘skinny’ EMR - necessary to provide a full-service platform for global risk management.

Question 2

2. How will the patient-doctor relationship change with NEMO?

Accepted Answer

Physicians engaged in global risk contracting no longer have to rely on volume-based medicine to maintain steady revenue flow. As a result, physicians have more time to spend with individual patients. Doctors and their practices will become more transparent and accessible through advanced communication tools and delivery of care via telemedicine. Care teams are thus able to focus on the patient - and the right care at the right time and in the right setting.

NEMO provides the software and systems which will restore the patient/doctor relationships that have often been fractured by the twin FFS imperatives of volume throughput and time-consuming EMR data entry.

Question 3

3. How does the NEMO clinical model use care teams?

Accepted Answer

NEMO’s model is designed to benefit patients, along with their caregivers, their doctors, and their doctor’s teammates - an ecosystem which the Fee-for-Service payment system has wrought severe fragmentation.

Many doctors have provided fine medical services, but these have been processed as financial transactions. Patient appointments are too often convenient for hospitals and doctors, but very inconvenient for patients.

The patients and their caregivers - usually family members - are ultimately the people that must do the hard work to improve health. The imbalance between the suppliers of care and the recipients of care describes a fundamental inequity: while patients pay for their insurance (either through taxes or, as employees, in lieu of direct compensation) they have received poor customer service from hospitals...and (often perceived) poor care from doctors.

Likewise, the physicians’ staffs have too often been relegated to, and constrained by, endless check-the-box fee-for-service processes.

These problems are turned upside down when both patients and doctors are aligned to prevent disease and manage risk. Preventive, pro-active, pre-emptive care becomes the rule rather than the exception. Extended time with the highest risk patients benefits both patients and their doctors. NEMO will only seek doctors who want to take great care of patients, and who want to participate in contracts that reward them for providing care when and where the patient needs it.

The NEMO risk curriculum, upon which the medical team will be tested - provides outlines for all members of the team - the patient and doctor, the family caregivers, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and others - in order to optimize medical care delivery.

Question 4

4. What do the Doctor's teams look like?

Accepted Answer

1. Primary-care centered, directly connected to all medical and surgical specialists.

2. Higher numbers of Nurse-Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and Psycho-social care providers.

3. Support staff that facilitate care (rather than process transactions).

4. All team members will use the NEMO telemedicine platform extensively, especially to engage the most ‘risky’ patients much more frequently.

The NEMO care model is focused upon the whole person's health, recognizes that chronic conditions are inexorably associated with behavioral problems, and therefore uses an integrated team approach.

All members of the team are trained and tested by the NEMO risk curriculum...with satisfaction graded by patients, and by each other, after each encounter.

Frequently asked questions

1. Why was NEMO formed?

2. How will the patient-doctor relationship change with NEMO?

3. How does the NEMO clinical model use care teams?

4. What do the Doctor's teams look like?