Black-owned primary care facility opens
Young New Albany physician breaking barriers
Crowded waiting rooms. Long wait times. Short appointments.
Those were the downsides Dr. Chelsea Mooreland experienced for two years working on the Northeast Side in a federally qualified health center, which serves underprivileged communities. The upsides were the diverse people, many of whom required a translator.
“It was so beautiful,” said Mooreland, 31, of New Albany. “(I thought), ‘I want to serve this population. (But) what message are we sending to this community of patients who already feel unseen? I want to do something different, where I can still offer patients care that they need, but I can do it in a way that they deserve.’”
Mooreland’s vision came to fruition on Sept. 3, when she opened her own practice, Life Cycle Direct Primary Care in New Albany.
The accomplishment is notable for a few reasons. Few physicians Mooreland’s age open their own businesses. And she joins the less than 3% of doctors in the U.S. who are Black women, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
And as part of the less-common direct primary care model, Mooreland uses a membership-based fee structure, which includes flat monthly rates ranging from $35 for children to $120 for seniors. The patient is billed directly whether they have insurance or not.
Due to contracted/negotiated pricing, most labs, imaging and generic medications will be significantly cheaper than using insurance, Mooreland said. The only exceptions are Medicaid and other plans that offer complete coverage of those items.
Mooreland recommends patients have insurance for hospitalization and specialists, as well as some testing and medications. But she hopes her plan can cover most routine needs.
“We want to keep our price points low enough that most patients can access it,” she said. “We want to keep that more natural relationship between us. We don’t really want to involve insurance. We see how insurance companies, to an extent, take advantage of our patients.”
Additionally, the model allows Mooreland to provide more personalized, culturally competent care. While other primary care physicians manage 2,500 to 3,500 patients, Mooreland will cap hers at 600. Prospective patients can register at lifecycledpc.com.
“I want you to feel at home,” she said. “I want you to feel comfortable to share what you need to because I can’t provide good care if you can’t be honest with me. It’s hard already to come in and open up to a stranger.”
Though New Albany is a predominantly white area, Mooreland said she has noticed an increase in diversity over the last few years.
“But we haven’t seen that same diversity grow in our businesses,” she said. “And we didn’t reflect that in terms of our healthcare offerings. I wanted to change that narrative for the community. I wanted people to feel like, ‘I can get what I need right here in my community.’”
Mooreland also is looking forward to serving diverse patients outside of the neighborhood.
“I want (them) to be able to come here and still feel welcome,” she said. “And I want people to be used to seeing them and not be surprised by their faces being in our community.”
Growing up in Romulus, Michigan, Mooreland said she never had dreams of being a doctor.
“Like a lot of minority children, I didn’t have a consistent physician growing up,” she said. “I went when there were emergencies. I never actually had a relationship with a physician that would have even inspired me.”
By high school, she discovered she liked science and people, but figured she’d be an AP biology teacher. During her senior year, a health teacher planted the idea of being a doctor in her head. After graduating as valedictorian, Mooreland received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Florida A&M University and attended medical school at Ohio State University.
The transition from a historically Black college and university (HBCU) to OSU was challenging; she was one of only a handful of Black students in her class and didn’t see enough faculty who looked like her.
“All of a sudden, people looked at me as this token Black girl,” she said. “It was the first time I really realized some of these inequities that we see in health care in general and why they exist. If the people who are taking care of people don’t necessarily value us and see us as the same, how can they provide the best quality care to us? It’s not necessarily that they are even doing it intentionally, but if you have a blind spot, you don’t see it.”
Mooreland graduated in 2016 and completed her residency training with Grant Family Medicine of Ohiohealth Grant Medical Center.
“It was amazing,” she said. “It was probably one of the first times in medicine that I didn’t feel minoritized. I saw more people who looked like me. I was like, ‘Wow. There’s an opportunity for us to change what (medicine) looks like.
We just have to want it and stay the course.’”
Dr. Nancy Mathieu was in the residency program at the same time as Mooreland.
“She was very passionate about helping people,” said Mathieu, 35, who works in primary care in Mansfield, where she resides. “I felt like she always went above and beyond.”
Mathieu said she applauds Mooreland for starting her own business.
“I wish a lot of us had the same type of courage to do that,” she added. “There are so many restrictions that make it hard for us to care for our patients the way we would want to. I’m proud of her. I think it’s going be an amazing journey for her.”
Mooreland said she relied on resources from the city of Columbus and organizations like the Small Business Administration to educate herself.
“Being a minority, there was always this thing in my mind like, ‘How am I going to make this work?’” she said. “‘People might look at me and not value what I’m offering. People might look at me and not give me the best interest rates.’ Those things definitely came into play, but I was blessed to have opportunities to learn about things ahead of time to know when someone was trying to take advantage of me.”
Mooreland said many young doctors choose to stay in a traditional career path because it is what they’re encouraged to do.
“I think we get taught that this is the system we have to stay in,” she said. “(Doctors) don’t see themselves as a businessperson, and so they wait until later in their career to do it. With direct primary care, I think we’re going to start to see people take that leap sooner. Because of the model, it’s not as overwhelming.”
But it’s still a lot of work, which is why Mooreland’s longtime friend, Dr. Aurielle Fanning, was initially surprised by her decision.
“I said to myself, ‘She’s kinda crazy,’” said Fanning, 32, who practices in Detroit and lives in the Detroit metro area. “I’m like, ‘Are you sure?’ Months later, she was asking me to look over an inventory list. I said, ‘Oh, she’s serious.’ I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like this in my circle. I’m excited to see how things go and all the patients that will be helped. She’s a great person. I know she’ll give great care.” ethompson@dispatch.com @miss_ethompson