Enhancing Access through Virtual First Care and Telemedicine Services

Virtual first care and telemedicine services have expanded far beyond their original boundaries, revolutionizing how patients and providers approach healthcare. What once seemed like a futuristic notion—treating people through virtual visits—is increasingly becoming the norm for many healthcare interactions. For some people, access to telehealth services means the difference between a quick online doctor visit from home and a long, costly trip to an urgent care or emergency department. In this article, we explore how one organization, Recuro Health, is expanding digital health solutions nationwide and breaking barriers around accessibility. Through the lens of Kate Sowerwine MD‘s work, we see how telemedicine can serve employers, brokers, and mid-market sectors, all while improving patient and physician experiences and health outcomes.

Beginnings in Telemedicine

Most medical professionals do not initially set out to become leaders in telehealth. Many begin in more traditional, clinical roles, gradually discovering how healthcare technology can complement patient care. That is the case with Dr. Kate Sowerwine, a board-certified allergist and immunologist who completed her training at Georgetown University and later a fellowship at the The National Institutes of Health. Her journey into virtual first care began about eight years ago when she joined a startup called Wellvia.

Wellvia provided urgent care appointments via phone or video, giving patients a convenient alternative to traditional in-person visits for non-emergency issues like rashes, urinary tract infections, or minor illnesses. The timing was opportune: telemedicine services were already on the rise and became critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. With Wellvia’s subsequent acquisition by Recuro Health, Dr. Sowerwine stayed on, guiding the clinical team and expanding virtual health solutions across all 50 states. Today, she serves as Chief Medical Officer at Recuro Health, overseeing more than 1,500 clinician state licenses that serve urgent care, behavioral health, and virtual primary care patients.

Recuro Health’s Expansion of Services

Recuro Health is not just about urgent care. After acquiring Wellvia, the organization set its sights on building out additional healthcare services that could be delivered through their virtual first care platform. Key expansions include:

1. Virtual Behavioral Health: Recognizing a surge in need for mental health support, Recuro began offering virtual behavioral health and counseling services across all 50 states. This initiative started before the COVID-19 pandemic, which positioned Recuro well for the significant behavioral health demands that emerged during lockdowns and beyond.
2. Virtual Primary Care: Moving beyond acute or urgent needs, Recuro launched virtual PCP services. Patients can book scheduled virtual visits with a dedicated primary care clinician, maintaining ongoing relationships that resemble those in a traditional brick-and-mortar setting.
3. Innovative Testing and Screening: To encourage preventive care, Recuro offers at-home lab testing that covers fundamental health screenings such as hemoglobin A1c (for diabetes risk) and lipid panels (for cholesterol levels). Pharmacogenetics (PGX) and genomics testing are also available, helping patients understand how their genes may affect their responses to certain medications. Additionally, genetic screening for hereditary cancers rounds out Recuro’s portfolio of offerings, meeting a variety of patient needs from the comfort of home.

This evolution in virtual health care options highlights Recuro’s ability to adapt to changing healthcare landscapes. By bringing in new clinical capabilities, they can manage a continuum of health needs—whether someone calls about a sudden rash or requires long-term condition management for chronic diseases like hypertension or diabetes.

Personal Motivation and Mission

Telemedicine ventures require more than just technology—they need passionate advocates behind them. Dr. Sowerwine’s own journey was partly inspired by her mother’s struggles within the traditional healthcare system. From a young age, Dr. Sowerwine found herself navigating referrals, administrative hoops, and scheduling complications on her mother’s behalf. These early experiences fueled her desire to make healthcare more accessible and patient-friendly.

In describing her motivation, Dr. Sowerwine notes that telehealth’s inherent flexibility allows her and her colleagues to meet patients where they are—literally and figuratively. For individuals with mobility or transportation barriers, virtual care can provide timely, cost-effective solutions to everyday health problems. For families juggling childcare, full-time work, and tight schedules, connecting virtually with a clinician removes the need to take time off or make complicated arrangements for an in-person appointment.

The Mid-Market Focus

A unique aspect of Recuro Health’s approach is its focus on serving mid-market employers, brokers, and TPAs (Third-Party Administrators). Where some large telehealth companies may aim for enormous volumes—often catering to very large self-insured employers—Recuro thrives in offering a customizable platform for smaller or mid-sized groups, often numbering in the range of a few thousand to tens of thousands of employees.

Why does this matter? For many mid-market organizations, creating robust health plans that include virtual care is challenging. With fewer employees than large corporations, mid-market companies may be overlooked by larger telehealth providers. Recuro leans into this space, working closely with each organization to customize the suite of services—urgent care, virtual behavioral health, virtual primary care, and at-home diagnostic kits—according to that group’s specific needs and budget.

This flexibility extends to how Recuro structures its plans. Most employers pay a monthly, per-member subscription fee. The organization’s job is to use virtual health services to limit unnecessary in-person visits, helping control costs and reduce absenteeism. By ensuring members can connect with board-certified physicians in under 10 minutes for urgent care, or schedule virtual consultations within two days, Recuro addresses many of the access and cost challenges that mid-market employers face.

Ensuring Physician Satisfaction

Physician burnout is a growing concern across healthcare. Long hours, administrative burdens, and the emotional toll of patient care have led to high turnover rates, especially in primary care and emergency care settings. Dr. Sowerwine emphasizes that physician well-being is a cornerstone of Recuro’s model.

One key advantage is the flexibility that telemedicine provides clinicians. They can often work from home in any U.S. state, with schedules that adapt to personal needs. Because Recuro employs a subscription-only model tied to specific member organizations, clinicians are not suddenly overwhelmed by an unbounded surge in patient volume. This controlled, predictable flow helps keep call and wait times low while maintaining quality care.

Moreover, Dr. Sowerwine remains engaged clinically, regularly conducting virtual doctor visits herself. This hands-on approach allows her to set an example, demonstrating she shares the same demands and workflows as her colleagues. As Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Sowerwine also works to solicit feedback from clinicians, refining policies and processes that might otherwise impede efficient care.

Accessibility and Patient Experience

Telemedicine’s core promise is to enhance access. For busy parents, rural populations, or individuals without reliable transportation, visiting a traditional clinic or urgent care facility can be difficult or even impossible. By comparison, picking up a phone or logging onto a virtual health platform is often simpler, less stressful, and more affordable.

Recuro offers various ways to interact with clinicians:

• Phone calls (used by most urgent care patients),
• Real-time video visits (often used for behavioral health and virtual primary care), and
• 24/7 call centers (helpful for administrative support, scheduling, or patient portal assistance).

This versatility ensures that patients are not locked into a single mode of care. If a parent wants to discuss a rash on their child’s skin, they can do a quick video call. If a senior patient has difficulty with technology, a phone call might suffice. With ongoing care, patients can schedule telehealth visits at times that work best for them, including evenings and weekends.

The Power of At-Home Labs and Preventive Screenings

Preventive care is not just about annual checkups. It often involves consistent health screenings for common conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension. However, many patients rarely follow through with their lab work if it requires scheduling an in-person appointment at a lab site. Recuro’s solution: at-home lab testing kits for cholesterol (lipid panels) and hemoglobin A1c. Patients simply place a few drops of blood on a special card, mail it back to the lab, and receive their results in the patient portal.

This service offers two major benefits:

1. Early Detection: Patients discover potential health concerns—like prediabetes—before they develop complications.
2. Engagement: Frequent home-based screening keeps patients in communication with clinicians, encouraging more proactive health management.

In conjunction with these kits, Recuro also offers blood pressure cuffs for high-risk individuals and advanced genetic testing (pharmacogenetics and hereditary cancer screenings). All these measures work together to paint a comprehensive picture of each patient’s health, empowering clinicians and patients to make informed decisions in a timely manner.

Addressing Data Integration

For all its advantages, telemedicine has historically faced a big hurdle: sharing patient health data with outside providers. Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) remain fragmented across hospital systems, and many clinics and health systems do not seamlessly exchange records. Recuro’s immediate solution is to provide patients direct access to their records through an online portal. If they wish to share those records with a local specialist or a primary care physician outside Recuro’s network, they can download and share them or request Recuro’s call center to fax them securely.

While full interoperability remains an elusive goal industry-wide, Recuro’s platform-based approach ensures that a patient’s telehealth data is at least readily available to them, bridging some of the gaps until larger EMR systems become more interconnected.

Looking Ahead

Recuro Health’s journey, as explained by Dr. Kate Sowerwine, illustrates the rapid growth and evolution of digital health solutions. The willingness to serve mid-market organizations, the emphasis on physician satisfaction, and the addition of proactive, preventive services set the company apart. Far from being a one-off solution only for urgent care needs, Recuro offers a broad continuum of care, allowing patients to address mental health, chronic diseases, and preventive screenings all from the same integrated healthcare program.

Virtual first care is far from a passing trend. As new healthcare technology surfaces—including remote care tools, better wearables, and more nuanced data analytics—telehealth providers like Recuro will continue to redefine what is possible. The result could be an environment where most routine healthcare takes place virtually, ensuring immediate, convenient access for patients who would otherwise encounter significant barriers.

For employers, brokers, or anyone in the mid-market space seeking to enhance healthcare options for their members, Recuro Health’s model provides valuable insights. The benefits—rapid physician access, simplified preventive screenings, and improved mental health support—all converge into a comprehensive strategy that addresses cost savings, employee well-being, and productivity.

In an age where traditional healthcare systems are often stretched thin, this new generation of telemedicine champions the idea that healthcare should be flexible, accessible, and integrated with real-time data. Dr. Sowerwine’s passion, fueled by her personal experiences and her drive to remove obstacles for patients, exemplifies how virtual care can transform lives by meeting individuals where they are—on their phones, laptops, or even through mailed-out lab kits.

As virtual health solutions continue to evolve, one lesson remains clear: enhancing access has the power to improve health outcomes, reduce costs, and bring about a more patient-centric healthcare system.