In a recent editorial at MobiHealthNews, Marley Medical CEO Chris Hogg laid out the case for why business-to-consumer-to-business (B2C2B) could be the best future go-to-market strategy for virtual care.
After serving as the CCO of Propeller Health (acquired by ResMed in 2018), Hogg went on to found Marley Medical in August of this year, aiming to help people manage common chronic conditions by taking a new approach to the market.
- Early digital health companies faced problems fitting innovative products into a lagging reimbursement framework, finding themselves misaligned with existing code descriptors. Without a standard classification, most companies began working directly with payors and employers, offering them services that they could then market to their members (B2B2C).
- The B2B2C model allows digital health vendors to be compensated by payors in a variety of ways, usually tied to enrollment or engagement. After finalizing the contract with the payor, the vendors begin overcoming implementation challenges and marketing for new members, hurdles that often lead to slow enrollment and limited revenue.
- Virtual care’s emergence as an effective care delivery method shifts the landscape, allowing digital health startups to classify their products as “traditional clinical services” qualifying for reimbursement. It also allows them to work with and market to individuals while unlocking the ability for payors to compensate them for providing services to their own user base (B2C2B).
- The B2C2B model gives companies control over user acquisition while enabling their offerings to be subsidized by payors – a compelling go-to-market strategy. The need to directly acquire users causes companies to focus on specific populations and build people-centric products with tangible impacts, as opposed to ones that are easy to market to payors or employers.
The Marley Medical Strategy
In a telehealth playing field that seems to be getting more crowded every day, Marley Medical is looking to set itself apart by focusing its virtual primary care offering on specific populations with chronic disease, engaging directly with patients before working with payors as an in-network provider. With Hogg at the helm and a fresh go-to-market blueprint on its side, Marley Medical is in a good position to show how effective B2C2B can be.
