Orchard Health Care is the membership practice for primary care medicine founded in 2006 by Steven R. Kanner, MD, a highly credentialed and experienced internist, to provide comprehensive, scientifically up-to-the-minute and personalized medical care. Dr. Eve N. Sobel, a comparably credentialed and experienced internist, joined Dr. Kanner in July 2017. Dr. David Saie joined the practice in March 2023, and assumed responsibility for Dr. Kanner’s patients when he retired in May 2023.
Dr. Kanner is a graduate and long-term faculty member of Harvard Medical School and several of its major teaching hospitals. Dr. Sobel is a graduate of Tufts Medical School and had practiced at Newton-Wellesley Hospital for 15 years before joining Orchard Health Care.
Dr. Kanner’s and Dr. Sobel’s primary goal is to keep their patients healthy. Their clinical approach is proactive and focuses on health maintenance and careful control of unavoidable medical illnesses using evidence-based best practices. Office appointments are 30 to 90 minutes, longer whenever needed. Members who are infirm can be seen at home.
Each member receives regular, individualized guidance on preventive care and life-style improvement. They may also attend the practice’s small group seminars to help them deal successfully with such difficult behavioral issues as proper nutrition and weight management. Additionally, members have access to the Orchard Health Care blogs where Dr. Kanner’s and Dr. Sobel’s commentaries explain, simplify and put in context current medical issues and developments reported in the professional and lay press.
Orchard Health Care patients may easily communicate with either physician, or their staff, by phone and e-mail in addition to in-person visits. The experienced office staff work to simplify the logistics of referrals and tests required by the patient.
When acute or serious illness arises, the member is usually seen the same day. Dr. Kanner and Dr. Sobel personally treat the patient or arrange and supervise help from top-flight specialist colleagues from affiliates at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, MGH or other Harvard teaching hospitals. They carefully discuss the patient’s problems with the involved consultants as well as with the patient. To assure this level of individualized attention and related benefits, Orchard Health Care limits the number of its members.
Dr. Kanner and Dr. Sobel both affiliate with Newton-Wellesley Hospital. Dr. Kanner additionally is on staff at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Orchard Health Care accepts a wide range of health insurance plans for reimbursement for clinical care, comparable to most standard medical practices.
Membership in Orchard Health Care requires payment of an annual fee, separate from normal office medical care insurance charges. Membership fees paid by the member to Orchard Health Care, LLC are solely for the member benefits that are provided, or arranged to be provided, by Orchard Health Care. The membership fee does not cover or pay for any of the clinical care provided by Dr. Kanner or Dr. Sobel or their clinical practice, Steven R. Kanner, MD, LLC, or any items or services covered by the member’s health plan.
