About Square 1
Healthcare built around people, not paperwork.
Square 1 Healthcare exists to make excellent primary and urgent care accessible, affordable, and personal for families across Champaign County.
Our mission
A simple way to better patient care
We removed insurance from the primary care equation so time, access, and honesty could come back into it.
- Unlimited primary and urgent care for one predictable monthly fee.
- Visits measured in half hours, not minutes — because listening is the treatment.
- Wholesale, at-cost pricing on labs and imaging so cost never delays care.
- Direct text and call access, so members never navigate a phone tree to be heard.
Meet the team
James Chandler, Founder & Clinician
Family medicine. Emergency medicine. Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army. And your neighbor.
"I knew from a young age that medicine and helping people was my calling. That calling came into practice when I graduated from Southern Illinois University in 2007."
James brings extensive experience in family medicine and emergency medicine to every member relationship — the range to handle what walks through the door, and the continuity to know what came before it.
Alongside his civilian career, he serves his country as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army. That service took him to Afghanistan, where he famously ran the Chicago Marathon distance on a deployed base — a story Runner's World covered. The same stubborn endurance shows up in how he practices medicine: he sticks with people, especially when things get tough.
Off the clock, you'll find James with his wife Marie and their daughters Harper and Finley, at church on Sundays, rooting for the Cubs, volunteering as a camp counselor at One Step Camp for children with cancer, or on his kayak reeling in fish.
What we stand for
Three commitments
Relationship first
You get one clinician who knows your history, your family, and your goals — not a rotating cast.
Radical transparency
Prices posted, labs at cost, no billing surprises. Ever.
Community rooted
Square 1 is a Champaign County practice, recognized locally for the way we care for neighbors.
Community recognition
Honored by Champaign Center Partnership
"Let's give a round of applause to James Chandler of Square 1 Healthcare for being recognized by Champaign Center Partnership."Read the post on Facebook
Care from someone who knows you
Have a question for James? Text the practice directly — a real person answers.