Will the Future of Law Look Like the Future of Medical Practice?

As with the legal profession, medicine is rapidly changing, driven by technological advancements, cost pressures and physician shortages.  Healthline reports on some of the  new business models cropping up in response.

One company, Turntable Health is a subscription service. A flat fee of $80 per month buys an adult an unlimited amount of monthly visits – not just with doctors, but also health coaches or participation in yoga and healthy cooking classes.  Another service, Heal will dispatch a doctor and medical assistant for a house call, perform bloodwork or tests and authorize a prescription if needed – all for $99.

The new business models serve several goals. First, they make reduce the cost to access a doctor, so even those individuals with high-deductible health plans can still afford a visit. And in turn, by encouraging individuals to seek treatment for minor problems, these new services can resolve these matters before they become more serious and more costly to treat.

I’ve always thought that services like these make sense to address access to justice. From my experience with pro bono matters, many clients are, sadly, repeat customers because they continue to make the same mistakes. Perhaps many of these unfortunate choices – the usurious car loans and crooked debt settlement deals — that lead to collection or repo actions could be avoided if a client had access to legal counsel before making a decision.  Will be exciting to see what develops in both medicine and law and what our professions can learn from each other.