HEALTH + FITNESS
Jeff Levy
The Learnings of an Entrepreneur Who Took Over an Island Medical Practice
By Liz Lapidus
Jeff Levy is not a doctor, and he’s not a medical administrator. He’s a serial entrepreneur and washashore whose family spent summers on the Vineyard. In 2024, he and his wife became full-time residents. And within months, he read that the Island’s only independent primary care practice was on the verge of closing.
Along with the rest of us, Levy knew that access to health care here is already fragile, and if the practice shuttered, another 1,000 Jeff Levy Islanders would lose their primary care provider overnight, and thousands more would have only the emergency room for their urgent care needs. It was a health care crisis in the making.
The consequences for the Island would be severe if someone didn’t step up. So he did.
Across the country, independent rural medical practices are disappearing, undermined by federal funding cuts, corporate consolidation and relentless financial pressure. Between 2019 and 2024, more than 3,300 rural practices closed. Levy - like most of us - believes that access to health care, like a living wage and affordable housing, is foundational to any community. And this was his community. Now it was personal.
The practice, formerly known as Vineyard Medical Care, had been operating for 40 years. When Levy took the reins, it was losing nearly $200 an hour every hour that it was open. That reality required serious restructuring, but Levy didn’t cut back. With so many Islanders in need of health care, he treated this like a startup and opted to grow.
Knowing that you can’t have a healthy Island without a healthy practice, Levy invested in his people, offering health insurance and ensuring that everyone earned a living wage. He also offered part-time work, flexible schedules and remote working options.
He was able to retain his entire team and start to grow. Under the new name, Martha’s Vineyard Medical (MVM), Levy expanded hours, hired additional providers and staff and cleared the practice’s waiting list. To date the practice has added more than 400 new primary care patients and is actively accepting more.
Here are a few of the lessons Jeff Levy has learned:
• Lesson #1: Independent medical practices have very little leverage with insurance companies. In some cases, providing care to insured patients actually means losing money.
• Lesson #2: Like many businesses on the Island, demand is seasonal. During the summer months, MVM treats everything from tick bites to poison ivy, which relieves significant pressure on the hospital's emergency room. Roughly half of the practice’s traffic comes from people who are not its primary care patients. For those walk-in visits, the practice now charges a modest convenient-care fee to help cover costs and keep the doors open. Without it, the practice couldn’t sustain the level of access the Island needs, especially during peak season when demand can overwhelm capacity. If you need a provider and want to avoid the convenient-care fee, becoming a Martha’s Vineyard Medical primary care patient is the best option. MVM’s primary care patients don’t pay those fees.
• Lesson #3: In the corporate medical system, time is money - and patients feel that pressure. Levy leaned into the fact that being small and independent allows MVM to give patients the comprehensive care they deserve. And it gives the providers the space to honor the oath they took when they entered this profession.
That’s something he’s proud of. That’s the work. Up next for Levy, Tick Free MV, a new non-profit that he helped found with an aim to make Martha’s Vineyard safer from tick-borne diseases and allergies.
For more information: mvmed.org, 364 State Road, Vineyard Haven, Phone: (508) 693-4400, Hours of Operation: Monday - Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.