It’s well-known that women are often misdiagnosed and mistreated. At the same time, physicians are dealing with major burnout. More than 45% of physicians reported at least one symptom of burnout in 2023, according to the American Medical Association.
These two issues are exactly what a new startup aims to address. Monarch, which launched Tuesday, gives women’s health providers the support and technology they need to build independent practices.
“Patients and their physicians are actually asking for the same thing,” said Anna Lohrfink, co-founder and chief product officer of Monarch, in an interview. “They want more time with each other. They want more thoughtful, proactive care, not just treating women when they’re sick or when something is wrong. … And so that’s what we’ve built with Monarch. We built a partner for physicians to help them transition from this broken traditional system into a model that more effectively serves women and keeps them healthy and happy for the long run.”
When partnering with physicians (typically OB/GYNs) who want to build their own practice, the company starts by understanding their existing patients and who would follow them to the new model, as well as their goals for their new practice.
It then helps the company set up the practice, including support for operations, real estate, pricing strategy, branding, email campaigns and more. After that, it helps physicians retain patients and grow their practice, offering webinars and Q&A sessions to explain the new model and providing team training. Once the practice is launched, Monarch provides ongoing support to help the practice scale.
Each practice enabled by Monarch sets its own pricing for patients, which is based on the services it offers, the patient panel size and the regional market. It’s typically between $300 and $550 per month. Some of the women’s health services physicians offer include bone health, cardiometabolic health, menopause support and weight care. Physicians mainly build brick-and-mortar practices, but have the option to add telehealth. The first Monarch-enabled practice is in Los Angeles.
In a traditional model, physicians will see about 30 patients a day, giving them only about 10 to 15 minutes for each patient visit, according to Lohrfink. But in Monarch’s model, patient visits typically last about 45 minutes. The physicians also have complete ownership of the practice, as well as the freedom to make their own clinical decisions. Monarch does not have any equity and instead charges a fee to physicians to help them build their practice.
“We think it’s so important that our doctors retain control and ownership of their practices,” Lohrfink said. “We think our job is to empower physicians. We provide the support infrastructure and the scaffolding to make that possible, but at the end of the day, we see that physicians are looking for a way to provide better care, and we just want to make that possible.”
The name Monarch comes from this idea of giving physicians and patients more control over their care and health. Ultimately, the company wants to “rebuild women’s healthcare,” Lohrfink said.
Several other companies help physicians build their own practice, including Hint Health for direct primary care and Headway for mental health.
Photo credit: Andrii Shyp, Getty Images
