The doctor is in: Heyday Health expands in-home, telemedicine services to Kentucky

May 18—Two years ago, Dr. Nupur Mehta co-founded Heyday Health — a house call and telehealth primary care practice for adults on Medicare and Medicare Advantage — in northeast Ohio after the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

At the time, it seemed to be a solution to help combat the challenges patients and healthcare workers faced regarding restrictions and widespread closures of medical facilities.

"Most face-to-face care, pretty much overnight, switched from 100% in-person to 100% virtual," said Mehta, who is Heyday's chief medical officer and lead physician, "and what I found in sort of thinking about this practice is that a lot of people actually did better."

Mehta realized people were able to thrive without leaving home and could reach him and his team "just with a click of a button through a video visit or by picking up the phone and contacting us."

"Because we had already established a relationship already from the clinic, it was easy for (the patients) to translate that into a virtual visit," he said.

Mehta said Heyday Health helps address an issue many patients can face regularly.

"When you think about it, ... one of the biggest barriers to (seeking) care is transportation (and) getting to the doctor's office ...," he said. "Instead, we are bringing it to them."

Heyday follows a model in which each patient has a care team that consists of a primary care physician, a nurse practitioner and a health ally.

After having a successful launch in Ohio, Mehta said the company received requests from different parts of the country that were interested in the company's model, including western and south central Kentucky.

Heyday launched in the Commonwealth in January and has received positive feedback.

"Owensboro, Bowling Green and Elizabethtown ... were three of the geographies that we felt we could make the most impact," Mehta said. "... Things have been going great. We've been growing; and I think most importantly, the patient experience has been really good."

Dr. John Walker, a former family physician with Owensboro Health and former medical director for Audubon Area Community Care Center, is a physician with Heyday and its medical director for the state of Kentucky.

Walker appreciated the model of the company in getting to know the patients better.

"In the clinic, you take care of your patients there, but you spend 15, 20, 25 minutes and you get a snapshot of the patient," he said. "When you're in a home, you get to see their pets, you get to see what their living arrangements are ....

"You get a whole picture, and I think patients show you more of who they really are in the home because they're a lot more comfortable there ...; and rather than having that snapshot, you really get to spend time with the patient ... and really get to care for them."

The Owensboro care team also consists of nurse practitioner Krystal Medley and health ally Katie Lowe.

Medley, who worked in a wound care clinic and did home visits in palliative medicine, felt seeing patients in their everyday environment was a "game changer."

"... I fell in love with getting to know the patients, getting to know their lives," she said, "and they almost become part of your family."