Imagine an app like Uber, but instead of a ride, it brings healthcare to your doorstep. A registered nurse would show up at your home, run a few routine vitals, and consult with a physician over telemedicine. You’d pay a flat cash fee for the exam.
This was the first iteration of what would become Vytalize Health, the fastest-growing company in America according to Inc. Magazine, managing over 300,000 Medicare patients across 30 states and saving the healthcare system tens of millions annually.
Behind that company are Dr. Amer Alnajar ’08, Dr. Hasan Bayat ’07, and Faris Ghawi ’09, who turned a shared vision for better primary care into a national model in value-based healthcare.
Shared Roots, Shared Vision
Bayat and Alnajar first met in a Lehigh biology class, quickly becoming lab partners and close friends. Ghawi met Alnajar soon after, and the three — all of Middle Eastern heritage — became inseparable, studying, debating, and having fun.
Their Lehigh experiences formed a bond and a set of critical thinking skills that rose above their individual talents, smarts, and egos. Together they learned to solve problems and work as a team. These skills became the foundation for their entrepreneurial journey.
After graduation, Bayat and Alnajar pursued medical school in Philadelphia, while Ghawi began a career in consulting at EY and later earned his MBA at Columbia. Even as their professional paths diverged, their conversations increasingly turned toward healthcare’s inefficiencies — and how they might fix them.
They soon started to bring those ideas to life.
From Idea to Impact
Their first Uber-style idea involved Medicare home visits for complex patients, still staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants while supported by telemedicine. They built their own marketing capabilities, slowly growing to a few hundred patients in New York and New Jersey.
The real turning point came in 2018, when the team recognized the potential of accountable care organizations (ACO) — a model that rewards physicians for keeping patients healthier and lowering costs. Initially, they joined an existing ACO. But within a year, they made the bold decision to launch their own.
Starting with the required minimum of 5,000 Medicare lives, they built a physician-led organization from the ground up, investing in data analytics, clinical teams, and patient engagement programs. By July 2019, Vytalize Health was officially operating as an ACO.
A Different Kind of Healthcare Company
Vytalize’s philosophy is simple yet radical: deliver the right care at the right time — and avoid care that isn’t needed.
That last part might sound like denying care, but it’s about eliminating unnecessary tests, hospitalizations, and specialist referrals that don’t improve patient outcomes. Instead, Vytalize focuses on strengthening the patient–primary care physician relationship, providing more time, support, and personalized care.
It has created savings for Medicare, improved patient satisfaction, and increased the autonomy of primary care physicians.
One patient’s story illustrates their approach. A woman repeatedly hospitalized for heart failure refused a needed valve replacement. The providers at Vytalize built a relationship with her and discovered the reason for her non-compliance: The woman had a dozen parakeets. If she went in for major surgery, no one would care for her birds.
Vytalize found bird sitters, introduced them to the woman, and built trust. The woman had her surgery and hasn’t been readmitted since.
Scaling a National Model
Today, Vytalize operates in 30 states and partners with hundreds of primary care practices. Its patient population has roughly doubled each year.
While the scale has changed, the founders’ mindset remains rooted in their Lehigh days: challenge assumptions, pivot quickly, and focus relentlessly on outcomes.
“We know we can’t control every variable,” says Alnajar, “but we can control our preparation, our actions, and how we respond. That’s where the impact happens.”
Impact is happening. Rather than assist a single physician, Vytalize serves whole practices. Rather than treat a single patient, Vytalize improves the lives of many. Rather than cut costs for a single payer, Vytalize delivers genuine value to an entire system.
