Ultimate Health Direct Primary Care: A New Approach to Medical Care Management

Multi-Service Primary Care Clinic Launches in Leesburg with Assistance from Florida SBDC at UCF – Lake County

October 7, 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Hal Thayer, Communications Director, FSBDC at UCF, 407.420.4850 or HThayer@ucf.edu

                 Jamie Mead, Area Manager/Consultant, FSBDC at UCF – Sumter County, 352.689.4449 or Jamie.Mead@ucf.edu

Orlando, FL – Successful entrepreneurs typically have a spirit, an energy, a kind of determination that drives them to meet and overcome the many challenges faced when starting a new business. For Amanda Neil, now the owner and operator of Ultimate Health Direct Primary Care, LLC, it was the conviction that she had a great idea for improving the delivery of healthcare in Lake County, Florida that inspired her to pursue a new venture. With assistance from the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF), Neil was able to turn her idea into reality.

At Ultimate Health Direct Primary Care, Neil and her team do healthcare a little differently. Direct Primary Care (DPC) is a new and innovative personalized approach to medical care management. This affordable, patient-centric model gives members access to unlimited primary care. The focus is to provide every patient with individualized attention to meet his or her specific healthcare needs; 24/7; days, nights, weekends; and in whatever manner they choose: phone, telehealth, email, in office. And it’s all covered by a single, monthly fee.

Ultimate Health DPC’s monthly direct pay, flat fee is likely to cover 80-90% of the issues for which patients need to seek medical care, including: routine and preventative care; sick visits, weight loss management, and chronic disease management. Gone are the high costs of standard health insurance with traditional pay-per-visit doctor’s appointment co-pays, and expensive and often unnecessary visits to urgent care centers or emergency rooms. This model works well for patients and their employers alike, resulting in lower expenses and fewer sick days.

“At Ultimate Health DPC, we put the patient back in the center of care,” Neil explains. “Personal attention is what we offer. Our billing model supports that focus; it’s set up as a monthly membership model that offers patients unlimited, 24-hour access to me as their primary care provider.”

“When the idea for Ultimate Health DPC came to me, I approached my credit union for advice,” recalls Neil. “And they referred me to the FSBDC. I am a health care professional, not a businesswoman. At least I wasn’t a businesswoman until I started working with the FSBDC. With their help, today I am.”

“I just know I had an idea. With my FSBDC consultant Jamie Mead, she took my idea and helped me write my business plan,” continued Neil. “Then together we went after an SBA loan. The FSBDC helped me with everything the bank needed. We checked every box. Jamie made sure we presented a strong loan application and helped me educate our banker and answer his questions about our new cash-based, membership health care model. My consultant ensured we had the data, and that our story was iron clad. And we got the loan!”

“If I had to use one word to describe the FSBDC, it would be ‘partner’” said Neil. “The SBDC and my consultant Jamie took on my dream and made it her dream. And now it’s come true. We got the loan and now Ultimate Health DPC is off to a great start. We have only been open for 30 days, and we are already halfway to our first-year patient goal,” Neil shared proudly. “I think they like us” she concluded with a smile.

For information about Ultimate Health Direct Primary Care, please visit https://leesburgprimarycare.com/.

— FSBDC —

About the FSBDC at UCF

Hosted by the University of Central Florida (UCF), and with its main office in the National Entrepreneur Center located at the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando, the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) is part of the UCF Office of Partnership & Innovation and the Florida SBDC Network.

The Florida SBDC at UCF provides aspiring and existing small businesses with no-cost consulting, low-cost training, and access to business data and research resources. In addition to its core service offering, the Florida SBDC at UCF also offers specialized services to qualifying companies, including capital access, market growth, government contracting, international trade, business continuation, cybersecurity, disaster planning and recovery, and more. The FSBDC at UCF serves an eight-county area that includes Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia counties and maintains 9 service centers across Central Florida.

In 2020, the FSBDC at UCF served more than 2,700 entrepreneurs in Central Florida with consulting services, resulting in more than 10,000 jobs created, retained or saved; $1.2 billion in sales growth; $59.1 million in capital formation; $53.4 million in government contract awards; and 86 new businesses started. For more information, please visit www.sbdcorlando.com .

About the Florida SBDC Network

For over forty years, the Florida SBDC Network, the state’s principal provider of business assistance [Fl. Stat. 288.001], has nourished a statewide partnership between higher education and economic development to provide existing and emerging small and medium-sized business owners with management and knowledge resources that enable overall growth, increased profitability, and economic prosperity for Florida’s economy.

In 2020, Florida SBDCs provided 162,519 hours of professional business consulting to more than 24,100 client businesses, resulting in almost 38,000 jobs impacted; $4.4 billion in sales generated; $488 million in government contracts acquired; and $553.5 million in capital accessed.

A statewide network of over 40 offices, the Florida SBDC is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Defense Logistics Agency, State of Florida and other private and public partners. The Florida SBDC Network, headquartered at the University of West Florida, is nationally accredited by the Association of SBDCs and is a 2016 recipient of the President’s E Award for Export Service. Florida SBDC services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Language assistance services are available for individuals with limited English proficiency. For more information, please visit www.FloridaSBDC.org.

FSBDC at UCF | 3201 E. Colonial Drive | Orlando, FL 32801 | p 407.420.4850 | f 407.420.4862
sbdc@ucf.edu | www.sbdcorlando.com