Kelsey-Seybold Clinic

Kelsey-Seybold Clinic is a multispecialty medical group serving the Greater Houston, Texas area. It brings primary care physicians, specialists and medical technology together in shared locations to deliver coordinated care, with a shared electronic medical record that follows patients to any Kelsey-Seybold physician or site. The group lists more than 65 medical specialties, ranging from allergy, cardiology and dermatology to orthopedics, oncology, sleep medicine and surgical subspecialties, and states that no referral is needed to see most specialists.

Services span adult primary care, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, ambulatory surgery centers, a cancer center, breast diagnostic center, radiology, pharmacy (Kelsey Pharmacy), travel medicine, executive health and concierge health. Patients can book adult primary care and pediatric appointments online through AppointmentsNOW without a login, or schedule primary care and most specialty appointments through the MyKelseyOnline patient portal; a 24/7 phone line and an after-hours nurse hotline are also available. Virtual care includes on-demand Urgent Care and Primary Care video visits as well as scheduled virtual visits for new and existing patients.

The organization also operates corporate-facing offerings, including a KelseyCare employer plan and a KelseyCare Advantage retiree plan, and accepts many Medicare Advantage plans along with most major insurance plans.

Founding story

Kelsey-Seybold Clinic was founded in 1949 by Dr. Mavis P. Kelsey, a fifth-generation Texan who returned from practicing medicine at the Mayo Clinic to start his own clinic in the then-emerging Texas Medical Center. He set out to build a multispecialty group modeled on the Mayo Clinic approach to care, combining primary care physicians and specialists in one location. Dr. Kelsey was the first endocrinologist recruited by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and administered the first dose of radioiodine to a patient in Houston in 1949.

Business model

Kelsey-Seybold operates as a physician-led multispecialty clinic network delivering outpatient and ambulatory services directly to patients, billing commercial insurance, Medicare Advantage and employer health plans. It also markets employer and retiree health plan products (KelseyCare Employer Plan, KelseyCare Advantage Retiree Plan) and corporate services such as executive health.

Revenue is derived from patient care services delivered across primary care, specialty care, ambulatory surgery, cancer care, imaging and pharmacy, reimbursed through accepted commercial insurance, Medicare Advantage and employer-sponsored plan arrangements.

Traction

The provider directory lists 1,129 doctors and the location finder lists 45 locations across Greater Houston. The clinic reported being named Houston Chronicle "Best of the Best" for Primary Care.

Latest developments

Kelsey-Seybold adopted the Luma Health patient engagement platform, with its CIO describing the platform as a core operating system for the clinic's strategic objectives and citing its bi-directional Epic integration; Luma Health announced a $130 million Series C in November 2021.