Q&A: Health care entrepreneur Nick Vailas

“We are burning out primary care providers. Their panel sizes are huge, such that they have only a very limited amount of time with you as your provider. What happens is you’re not getting treated, you’re getting triaged, you’re just getting pushed through the system.”

Nick Vailas has been in the local health care industry for four decades, co-founding and operating a family of businesses that offer physical therapy, outpatient surgical care, urgent care and diagnostics. Among his current business lines are Bedford Ambulatory Surgical Center, ExpressMED and Apple Therapy Services. His brother, Dr. Jim Vailas, who recently retired as an orthopedic surgeon, also has been a business partner.

His latest projects include a display of local sports memorabilia at the downtown Manchester location of Apple Therapy and a subscription service for primary care.

This article was adapted from NH Business Review’s “Down to Business Podcast.”

Q. Can you give us a rundown of the businesses that you’ve helped create over the years?

A. It started 40 years ago with Amoskeag Physical Therapy, which ended up getting acquired by HealthSouth, which was in the community for about 10 or 12 years. Now Apple Therapy is the outcome of that. There are a number of Apple physical therapy services in southern New Hampshire, along with sports and rehab physical therapy, which are entities I still oversee. There are the ExpressMEDs and a few outpatient surgical centers — Nashua Ambulatory Surgical Center and Orchard Surgical Center in Salem. And then there’s some diagnostics, BASC Imaging (in Bedford) and Orchard Imaging, in the Salem Market.

There is a method to my madness. The entrepreneurship stems from a need to create more affordable access to health care. Health care is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy. It’s amazing to me that there’s not a greater outcry, because it’s pretty evil. I have seen families that weren’t necessarily poor until someone in the family got seriously ill.

Q. You have some changes in store for Apple Therapy, including some sports memorabilia you want to bring to downtown Manchester.

A. We’ve had a clinic in downtown Manchester for almost 40 years, now at Apple Therapy and ExpressMED. Over the years, New Hampshire Orthopedic Group was also downtown. My brother, Jim, when he first came back to the community to practice, was also downtown.

We have a very strong sports medical practice downtown. We have a free dropin clinic for all children, regardless of ability to pay. And we want to inspire. Over the years, we’ve had exceptional athletes come get treated and go on to bigger and greater things. It goes all the way back, literally 40 years.

(Former Major League Baseball player) Chris Carpenter and a number of other great athletes have come through. We’ve reached out to the historical society for some pictures of these athletes. We want to put them up in the clinic to inspire young athletes who’ve gotten injured to let them know that you can get through it under the right care. You can make a comeback.

Q. What are your future plans?

A. Keeping with the theme of access and affordability, I’m starting an enhanced primary care program and an enhanced orthopedic program. Basically, it’s to give you more time with your provider.

Presently, we are burning out primary care providers. Their panel sizes are huge, such that they have only a very limited amount of time with you as your provider. What happens is you’re not getting treated, you’re getting triaged, you’re just getting pushed through the system. Physicians are feeling guilty about practicing medicine that way. That’s not why they got into it.

In July, I’m launching Delphi Enhanced Primary Care. We’re trying to improve access and affordability and at the same time preserve primary care practice to allow physicians to have a good work-life balance.

To make that happen, we have an access fee. It’s not insurance. It’s an access fee that, if you want to have a physician or a medical provider who’s going to spend time with you and have access to them any time, it’s $100 a month.

We will still bill your insurance, but we will also help you navigate in a health care system such that we’ll steer you to low-cost providers to save you money. We can easily save you that $1,200 a year that you’re going to pay for an access fee just by having you go to the right MRI place or the right physical therapy place, or the right surgical center.

To listen to the full interview, check out Episode 197 of NH Business Review’s Down to Business podcast.