Carbon Health pay-per-visit model
Carbon Health
This reveals that Carbon is built to win on care usage, not on selling access. Instead of asking patients to prepay for convenience, Carbon gets paid when people actually book visits, use urgent care, or stay engaged in chronic care programs. That makes the front door easier for price sensitive patients, but it also means the business has to drive repeat visits, better reimbursement, and more value based contracts to turn patient relationships into durable revenue.
-
The clearest contrast is One Medical. Its model has long used an annual membership fee to fund digital access, messaging, and white glove services, even though medical care can also be accessed without that fee. Carbon instead advertises no membership fees and publishes self pay visit pricing, including $225 urgent care and primary care sick visits.
-
That choice shapes who Carbon can serve and how money flows. A patient can come in once for a sore throat, pay with insurance or a posted cash price, then later be routed into primary care, virtual follow up, labs, imaging, mental health, or diabetes management. Revenue expands through more touchpoints over time rather than through a subscription collected on day one.
-
The tradeoff is economic. Membership models collect predictable cash before a visit happens. Carbon has to earn revenue visit by visit while carrying clinic leases, staffing, and billing costs. Its own materials say profitability depends on raising visit volume at existing sites, improving payer reimbursement, and growing longitudinal care programs with shared savings and care management fees.
Going forward, the upside in Carbon's approach is that it can look less like a premium club and more like everyday primary care infrastructure. If it keeps moving patients from one off urgent care into recurring chronic care and payer sponsored programs, the model shifts from episodic fee for service medicine toward steadier revenue tied to outcomes and total cost of care.