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2009 Press

Marketwire, Dec 19: Primary Care Doctors See Hope in Today's US Senate Action
"The U.S. Senate today made an important step that could expand health care coverage to more Americans while simultaneously reducing costs."

Health Business Blog, Dec 17: Podcast: Co-founder & CMO, Dr. Garrison Bliss
"I really like the concept and its focus on the patient as the primary customer and user of the service. The company claims its approach can reduce overall health care costs by over half. If true, this could be the wave of the future."

Huffington Post, Dec 2: Health Care Reform Irony: Thousands Could be Denied Low Cost Coverage
"Direct primary care medical homes, which form the foundation for a high functioning, lower cost, higher service health care economy, will no longer be an option for the 50,000 Americans (a number that is growing by double digits annually) who prefer this health care delivery model."

Medical Home News, Nov 16: The Last Resort? The Case for Direct Practice Models in Primary Care
"We have spent the last 50 years trying to tune up health insurance so that the health care works, and every time we fix it, care gets more expensive, less accessible and less effective. You would think that we would have figured it out by now."

KUOW, Nov 13: Ruby de Luna Explores the New Qliance Option for UFCW Union Workers
"Beginning this week the state's largest employee union will offer the Qliance plan."

The Seattle P.I., Nov 12: Qliance Nabs First Union Health Plan
"Qliance Medical Management, the Seattle-based company that operates primary care clinics that don't accept insurance payments, has been selected for a one-year pilot program to offer services to members of Washington state's largest employee union."

ENToday, Oct 28: Putting the Physician-Patient Relationship First
"With some form of health insurance overhaul likely to accelerate the trend of rising practice costs coupled with declining reimbursement for physicians, some doctors will join those who have already exited a practice model funded by insurance payments."

The Milken Report, Oct 15: Low-cost, High Quality Fix for Health Care - Is Qliance the Answer?
"Could there be a low-cost, high quality fix for much of what ails American health care - a fix that requires no new legislation and no additional taxes?"

Always Going On, Oct 8: Qliance Named to the OnDC 100 List
The OnDC 100 competition recognizes the top 100 private companies that are contributing to the renewed and continued prosperity of our country and Qliance has been added to the list!

Venture Beat, Oct 7: Will Health 2.0 Start-ups Usher in Consumer-Driven Healthcare?
"Healthcare really is the last frontier where technology innovations can drive profound changes and grow brand new business models."

The Sunbreak, Sept 29: Can Qliance Revive Primary Health Care?
"This is the kind of story that makes Bliss's eyes light up. He calls our health insurance dependency 'learned helplessness,' and likes to reference Marcus Welby when talking about the Qliance difference."

Xconomy, Sept 28: It's About Health Care, Not Health Insurance
"Health care reform discussions almost always revolve around health insurance, as if care and insurance are synonymous."

KIRO TV, Sept 21: How to Improve Sleep Hygiene
"Dr. Melissa Wolin with Qliance Medical Group talks about the causes of - and some remedies for - the growing problem of insomnia."

The Seattle Weekly, Sept 18: Story Leads to Help for Couple Bankrupted by Group Health Insurance
"Eugene and Yukiko Gatlin, former patients of Group Health who went bankrupt paying its insurance premiums, have found affordable health care."

The Sunbreak, Sept 14: Qliance Expands to Kent
"In an Atlantic Magazine article--'How American Health Care Killed My Father'--making the rounds right now, a local health care provider gets a mention for its innovative business model and it isn't Group Health."

American Board of Family Medicine, Sept 13: New Officers and Board Members Elected: Dr. Erika Bliss
"The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) is pleased to announce the election of 4 new officers and 3 new board members."

NBC Nightly News, Sept 6: Flat-rate Health Care a Viable Option?
"While Congress debates what to do about ballooning health care costs, a growing number of frustrated patients are opting for an alternative plan."

The Seattle Channel, Sept 5: Seattle Voices with Dr. Garrison Bliss
"Dr. Garrison Bliss is a board certified physician with 30 years of practice in primary care. He is a past president and chairman of the Society for Innovative Medical Practice Design and a leading voice for patient-financed medicine in the US."

The Atlantic, Sept 1: How American Health Care Killed My Father
"After the needless death of his father, the author, a business executive, began a personal exploration of a health-care industry that for years has delivered poor service and irregular quality at astonishingly high cost."

Seattle Business Monthly, Sept: Turning Health Care Upside-Down
"But this is more than just a turf battle, because Seattle’s Qliance Medical Group, a subscriber-based primary care startup founded in 2007, threatens to shake the foundation of health insurance as American consumers know it."

Medrants, Aug 21: Direct Primary Care - An Interview
"Direct primary care provide less costly retainer medicine."

Bankrate, Aug 19: 2 Prescriptions to Lower Medical Bills
"While Congress works to reform the health care system, millions of uninsured or underinsured Americans just need cheaper health care."

The Examiner, Aug 14: Is Direct Care an Affordable Health Care Option?
"There’s a quiet buzz stirring about direct care (aka flat-rate primary care, concierge care and direct primary care), a private member-based solution to primary health care."

The Puget Sound Business Journal, Aug 14: While Congress Deliberates, Venture Firms See Promise in "Direct Care" Model and Pump $4 Million Into Qliance Medical
"Some venture capitalists are betting that a way of delivering primary medical care detached from insurance will catch on widely, especially if consumers and employers believe it provides better and less expensive basic care."

The Kent Reporter, Aug 12: Qliance: Leave Insurance Out of it, New Health-Care Network in Kent Says
"Beginning this month, Kent-area residents will have a whole new way to get their health care, and though it's new, it has something of an old flair to it."

Good Morning America, Aug 9: Cutting Out the Insurance Company
"[They say that] flat rate health care is an insurance alternative as easy as a gym membership."

Medrants, Aug 7: Are Retainer Practices the Model for PCMH?
"Through the magic of Twitter, I learned yesterday (after the outage) of Qliance Primary Care."

Q13 FOX, Aug 4: Health Care Reform-Seattle Doctors Have Different Answer Qliance Clinic Deals With Patients, Not Insurance Companies
"As lawmakers in Washington D.C. continue to struggle over a new health care plan, a Seattle clinic says it has a much different solution to the problem."

Seattle Metropolitain Magazine, Aug 3: Seattle's Top Docs: Dr. Frances Broyles
"The survey results are in: Nearly 1,200 physicians, nurses and physician’s assistants in King, Kitsap, and Snohomish counties nominated colleagues they would choose to treat themselves and their loved ones."

Real Change News, Jul 29: A Doctor's Oath: Community, Heal Thyself
"After 28 years in community medicine, Dr. Lester Pittle is changing direction. But not his belief in medicine for all."

Health Leaders Media, Jul 13: Direct Medical Home Offers Health Care Without Insurers
"An insurance-free primary care 'direct medical home' that requires patients to pay low monthly fees, but gives them 24/7 access and cheaper healthcare costs has the potential to save hundreds of billions of dollars if it's included in the national healthcare reform model, one advocate says."

KING 5, Jul 10: Pay-Ahead Health Care Now Available in Seattle Area
"Could the answer to soaring medical costs be flat-fee, no-limit basic health care? A group of Seattle doctors is banking on it and they're about to open a second clinic to prove it."

KOMO 4, Jul 9: Seattle Health Clinic Takes Insurance Out of the Mix
"A new medical clinic has opened up in the city, and it may change the face of health care."

Xconomy, Jul 7: Qliance Raises $4 Million to Expand New Primary Care Model, Circumvent Health Insurance
"Qliance Medical Management, the Seattle-based company that doesn’t accept health insurance for primary care medical services, has raised $4 million in venture capital to expand its practice in Washington and to other states around the country."

Pharma Knowledge Base, Jun 14: Retainer Physicians Help Uninsured but Face Legal Obstacles
"[R]etainer physicians have won legal standing in Washington state, where some employers are starting to provide their employees with paid membership in these practices with high-deductible health coverage for hospitalization and specialty care."

KUOW, Jun 9: Basic Health, What Now?
"Washington State's Basic Health premiums are set to skyrocket in January. We'll hear the latest and find out what options are left for folks without insurance."

The New York Times, Jun 7: If All Doctors Had More Time to Listen
Qliance's own Dr. Lili Sacks is profiled in this New York Times article on physician innovation.

May 29: Governor Christine Gregoire Signs House Bill SB 5436 Into Law; Qliance Welcomes Direct Employer Payment

Washington Policy Center, Jun 3: 7th Annual Health Care Conference
Erika Bliss, M.D., FAAFP, Director of Medical Care, Qliance Medical Group, speaks about Qliance and the alternate primary care model at the 7th Annual Health Care Conference.

Just Cause Magazine, May 26: The Doctor is In and Insurance is Out
" 'Our application process? You ask to be a patient? We say yes,' Bliss says with a chuckle."

KUOW, May 25: Health Care Reform and Congressman Dave Reichert
"Will the Obama administration also push for a government–run health care service? How will it be paid for? What health care reform is actually politically feasible?"

His Talk Practice, Feb 3: An HIT Moment with...Garrison Bliss
"Garrison Bliss, MD, is president of the Qliance Medical Group of Washington, a medical practice that charges patients a monthly fee ranging from $49 to $129 for unrestricted access to its physicians and nurse practitioners."

CNN, Feb 2: New Visions for Fixing Health Care: Health Care for a Flat Monthly Fee
"To keep up in a world where $1 of every $3 spent on health care goes to insurance companies for claims processing, primary care physicians must keep rosters of thousands of patients and book dozens of appointments a day."

The Stranger, Jan 21: Lessons from the Abyss: How to Get Health Care Out of Its Deep, Deep Hole
"As a primary-care internist in Seattle for almost 30 years, I've loved every day and most of the patients I've cared for."

The Stranger, Jan 21: Extremely Great and Incredibly Cheap
"In the fall of 2005, Erika Bliss, MD, was helping a friend install a hardwood floor and got a splinter—a big one, deep under her fingernail."

The Stranger, Jan 21: Doctor’s Orders: Expanding Medical Clinic Challenges Health-Insurance Moguls
"Insurance premiums, then about $600 a month per employee, were going up between 10 and 20 percent every year."

The Seattle Times, Jan 18: Northwest Primary Care Medicine: Curing What Ails Us
"At the center of fixing the Northwest’s medical mess, primary care becomes the patient in a remodeled office in the Medical Dental Building in downtown Seattle, Qliance Medical Group is betting that its retainer-fee model is what saves primary care."

2008 Press

Xconomy, Dec 22: Seattle Docs, Via Qliance, Aim to Revolutionize Health Care by Freezing Out Insurance
Xconomy investigates with an in-depth look at why Qliance operates outside the traditional insurance system.

Xconomy, Dec 3: Qliance Investor Shares Pearls of Wisdom
Nick Hanauer, a lead Qliance investor, spoke passionately at Seattle University on Wednesday night about new venture companies.

Puget Sound Business Journal, Nov 21: Health Care Reform Irony: Thousands Could be Denied Low-Cost Coverage
"Direct primary care medical homes, which form the foundation for a high functioning, lower cost, higher service health care economy, will no longer be an option for the 50,000 Americans (a number that is growing by double digits annually) who prefer this health care delivery model."

Carol.com, Oct 6: Qliance Partners With Carol.com
Qliance announces a partnership with online heath care marketplace, Carol.com.

Washington Association of Health Underwriters Symposium, Mar 26: Direct Medical Practices, The Un-insurance Solution to the Primary Care Medical Mess

Harvard Medical School Weekly, Mar 3: A New Brew in Seattle
"Many primary care physicians are now finding themselves in hot water. Declining reimbursement for evaluation and management has undercut the economics of providers who cannot also bill for a complement of procedures."

The Artist Trust, Feb 27: Uninsured Individual Artists get Free Health Screening Thanks to a Novel Partnership with Qliance
"This one-day health screening is being offered as part of an innovative partnership with Qliance, a new primary and preventative care clinic that operates outside of the traditional health insurance arena."

Venture Beat, Oct 7: Will Health 2.0 Start-ups Usher in Consumer-Driven Healthcare?
"Healthcare really is the last frontier where technology innovations can drive profound changes and grow brand new business models."

Seattle Business Monthly, Jan 27: Qliance Featured in Seattle Business Monthly
"Concierge Care: Qliance is the latest in a new line of flat-fee health care practices that aim to control costs while improving patient care."

The Stranger, Jan 24: Who Killed Marcus Welby?
A special look at the delivery of health care in America, penned by Qliance's own CEO, Norm Wu.

Consumers for Health Care Choices, Jan 21: Dr. Garrison Bliss on the Genesis of his Vision for Patient-Centered Care
In this video, Dr. Bliss describes the genesis of his vision for patient-centered care using a direct practice model and how Qliance will transform the delivery of health care in America.

Video of Award Acceptance Speech

2007 Press

Nov 2: Governor Christine Gregoire and Senator Chris Marr Speak at Qliance Reception
Qliance Medical Group celebrated its recent launch with a reception attended by over one hundred Washington State legislators and officials, strategic partners, investors and staff, plus many representatives from the Seattle area physician and hospital community.

Senator Chris Marr

Governor Christine Gregoire

Consumers for Healthcare Choices, Oct 19: Dr. Garrison Bliss to be Honored at Second Annual Awards Banquet
"[Dr. Bliss'] new company, Qliance, is bringing the same principles to working people, including those who are uninsured."

The Entreprenurial MD, Aug 5: Pushing a Medical Practice Model to its Limits: An Interview with Dr. Garrison Bliss
"When you have to catch a physician for a few minutes on a Sunday morning for an interview, you suspect he’s a busy guy. When he is a full-time clinical practitioner, prominent thought leader and a serial entrepreneur, you’re not surprised."

Seattle Weekly, Jul 4: Qliance Offers Low-Income Patients a Level of Doctor Access Once Reserved for CEOs & Other Big Spenders
"Recently, Singh joined Qliance, a new boutique medical practice in downtown Seattle set to open on July 23. In fact, he says, so did roughly half of Orange Cab’s drivers after hearing Qliance’s pitch at the company’s offices one day."

Puget Sound Business Journal, May 25: Qliance Medical Group Becomes the Latest Practice to do Business with Patients, Not Insurers
"Critics carp that doctors practicing so-called concierge medicine cater only to the rich, but several Seattle physicians are about to open a monthly fee practice aimed at offering affordable basic medical care to most everyone."

Washington State Legislature, May 3: Senate Bill 5958 is signed by Governor Christine Gregoire!

On May 2, 2007, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire signed Senate Bill 5958, sponsored by Senator Karen Keiser, into law! The bill was endorsed by the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, the Washington State Medical Association, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the Washington Artists Health Insurance Project and hundreds of individual patients and small business owners. Kudos to the Legislature and the Governor for their many efforts to help make quality health care accessible to all!