Primary care in Orono is going back to the basics.
Jennifer Kennerk, a registered nurse, last month opened the primary care clinic Renew Health Skin and Wellness on Old Kelley Road in her own home.
“It wasn’t that long ago that this was really very normal in our communities here in Maine,” Kennerk said about opening a clinic in her home.
With monthslong wait times to see a primary care physician in Greater Bangor, Kennerk decided to start her own practice. Renew Health is Orono’s sole direct primary care clinic, which is one that operates on a monthly fee instead of insurance, and is the only primary care option in the town. It’s the latest in a series of such clinics that have opened in the Bangor area, which have seen growing memberships as patients are able to circumvent long wait times.
Kennerk’s clinic has about 50 direct primary care patients about a month after opening, she said. Most of the patients joined the clinic when it first opened, but others have joined within the past month, she said.
Patients can receive wellness tests, annual checkups and come to the clinic for sick visits as part of the monthly fee.
About two-thirds of her patients are University of Maine students, she said, which she offers a discount to. Most of these students can’t get an appointment at the Northern Light facility on the Orono campus quickly, sometimes because they haven’t planned ahead and other times because they have a dire need, Kennerk said.
Renew is bridging that gap by having a smaller number of patients, allowing Kennerk to schedule next-day appointments and see patients that may not have a primary care provider in the area because they moved here for school, she said.
“We’ve got kids coming from all over the country. They don’t have primary care here, and they can’t get into that [Northern Light] facility. There are great people there, but they don’t have access, so this is a way for them to have good care access when they need it,” Kennerk said.
The monthly fee for a UMaine student is $50 a month, a sharp drop from the $110 a month charged to single adults. Prices for couples, families and single parents range from $160 to $250.
The clinic also offers skincare and dermatology treatments and procedures that are included in the membership fees.
Kennerek, who worked as a nurse practitioner with Northern Light before opening Renew, said she saw physicians “burnt out” across the field because of the number of patients they were seeing, disagreements with insurance providers and minimal staffing.
“I don’t think anybody would argue with me that the way health care is run right now is broken. It’s just broken,” Kennerk said.
Renew Health is another addition to multiple direct primary care providers in Greater Bangor, according to Brad and Alley Tuttule, who opened Apotheosis Health direct primary care clinic in Bangor.
Apotheosis is nearing its cap of 400 patients just six months after opening, they said.
Renew shows that the demand for seeing a primary care physician is still growing and people like Kennerk are trying to create more options, they said.
“If you look at it kind of on a micro level, people are trying to make a change. This has been very refreshing to see, because it’s only been a positive feedback loop experience,” Brad Tuttle said.
Through the direct primary care system, Kennerk interacts with services like labs and MRI processing directly, instead of through insurance providers. This has lowered fees from hundreds of dollars to sometimes less than $30, she said.
Long phone calls between her family and their insurance providers after Kennerk’s husband was diagnosed with skin cancer inspired this change. Kennerk couldn’t find a good building or room to rent in Greater Bangor, she said, so she started renovating a room and bathroom in the front of her home.
The space, which has an examination table, a desk and various skin care devices, has made patients more comfortable than they often are in other doctor’s offices. Kennerk also offers telehealth services, including via text messaging.
“When I come into here, I absolutely feel like I’m at work. I do shift into a different mode, and the commute is really good,” Kennerk said.