One Health-Care Company’s Audacious Plan to Lower Costs—and Still Turn a Profit
Oak Street says frequent checkups, meetings with social workers, and free rides can keep patients out of hospitals.
Inside a sleek new health clinic in one of New York City’s poorest neighborhoods, Ramon Jacobs-Shaw is wondering whether his next patient will show up. A Harvard-trained physician who spent most of his career working in large academic medical systems, he took a job last September as a senior medical director for Oak Street Health Inc. The 9-year-old company aims to reinvent care for Medicare patients with low incomes and chronic health problems.
The clinic in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood stands out with its bright green sign, wide plate glass windows, and airy lobby. The neighborhood, where more than two-thirds of residents are Black, has one of the shortest life expectancies in the city, a decade less than those of the wealthiest precincts.