Category: Telehealth

Ro Rumored to Be Acquiring Dadi

Posted on by Jason Barry

Direct-to-consumer health company Ro is rumored to be in talks to acquire at-home sperm storage startup Dadi, according to recent reporting from TechCrunch. 

Ro, which was valued at $5b when it raised a $500m Series D in March, is reportedly pursuing a $100m transaction for the men’s fertility startup, a healthy multiple for a seed-stage company (no pun intended) with $10m in total funding.

  • Dadi provides an at-home fertility test / sperm collection kit, designed to encourage men to become more aware of their reproductive health and contribute to family planning conversations. The company allows men to go from testing to sample storage without stepping foot in a clinic, an approach that could improve the patient experience for a stigmatized issue.
  • Ro has roots in male health, focusing on erectile dysfunction products that still account for half of the company’s revenue. The search for growth beyond its flagship product has led to three acquisitions over the past year, including Workpath (at-home health software), Kit (at-home diagnostic tools), and Modern Fertility (female fertility).
  • While the home-care theme is apparent in the Dadi rumors and Ro’s overall strategy, TechCrunch reports that the rapid pursuit of acquired revenue is leading Ro employees to feel like many of the moves “came out of nowhere” with little integration into the company’s broader business.

Industry Impact

For Ro to overcome its growing pains, it’s aiming to create a more cohesive at-home care platform through acquisitions aligned with that goal, making the Dadi rumors seem more probable than not.

Ro is one of the most valuable privately-owned health tech startups, a title many suspect will change to “publicly-owned health tech startup” through an IPO in the not-too-distant future.

It’s closest competitor, Hims & Hers, recently unveiled a new mobile app to serve as a unified hub for the brand’s telehealth offerings and treatments, and Ro’s fast-paced acquisitions are seemingly positioning the company to pursue a similar long-term care model as it prepares to go public.

Mental Healthcare Demand Pressures Psychologists

Posted on by Jason Barry

Following a pandemic-driven surge in demand for mental healthcare, a new American Psychological Association survey is indicating an even greater demand increase in 2021, with psychologists reporting heavier workloads, longer waitlists, and low capacity for new patients.

The APA surveyed 1,141 doctoral-level active psychologists in the US between August 30 and September 17, providing insights into the evolving mental health landscape in 2021.

Psychologist capacity highlights:

  • 43% reported an increase in overall number of patients (up from 29% last year)
  • 65% reported no capacity for new patients due to current caseload
  • 46% reported feeling burned out (up from 41% last year)

Psychologist telehealth adoption:

  • 96% reported treating patients remotely (slight decrease from 97% last year)
  • 50% reported hybrid in-person / remote treatment (up from 33% hybrid last year)
  • 46% reported seeing all patients remotely (down 64% all remote last year)

Changes in treatment areas:

  • 82% reported an increase in demand for anxiety disorder (up from 72% last year)
  • 70% reported an increase in demand for depression(up from 58% last year)
  • 2021 demand increases for: trauma (58%), substances (27%), sleep (38%)

The Takeaway

More psychologists reported increased demand across all treatment areas than before the pandemic, a trend that has accelerated since last year. While nearly all psychologists are providing remote services to meet rising patient volumes, a growing number of them are still reporting no capacity for new appointments, highlighting a continued need for digital health solutions that address the supply and demand imbalance for the specialty.

Equum Medical Expands Decentralized Provider Network

Posted on by Jason Barry

Acute care telehealth and tele-ICU provider Equum Medical has been busy. After raising $20m in funding this August, the company has been actively hiring and broadening the reach of its multispecialty clinician teams.

The timing of the moves is not a coincidence. As the pandemic continues to pressure hospital bandwidth and cause burnout among healthcare workers, Equum’s services could be a part of the solution.

  • Equum’s unique approach to care delivery supports health systems with telehealth-enabled physicians working in close proximity to patients. These clinical “pods” allow physicians to build durable relationships with local patients.
  • The company’s goal is to create a critical mass of local physicians and intensivists to provide uninterrupted care for partners, with the nationwide network available as a safeguard during local surges in demand.
  • This allows health systems to fill coverage gaps, reduce the labor load of on-site clinicians, and extend patient care in specialty areas. Equum’s modular services also allow partners to right-size coverage options while keeping their existing tech platforms.

The Takeaway

Unlike in other industries where specialization reigns supreme, health systems have yet to outsource a wide range of functions. With a growing number of “prosumers” taking an active role in their care and demanding more from providers, many hospitals are having difficulty meeting rising expectations.

Equum’s decentralized care framework aims to solve this challenge, not with the standard telehealth playbook, but by bringing its services closer to the people that it serves.

Teladoc Virtual Primary Care Expands Nationwide

Posted on by Jason Barry

Teladoc Health is using its scale to reach the 80% of adults that “do not have a strong relationship with a primary care physician” by making its Primary360 solution available to US commercial health plans, employers, and other benefits sponsors.

Primary360 is a virtual primary care service that Teladoc has been piloting for the past two years. It is already being used by several large companies and will be available to Aetna members early next year.

  • Primary360 allows members to select a primary care provider and develop longitudinal relationships with physician-led care teams. Members receive personalized health plans through Teladoc’s virtual care offerings, and can get help navigating to in-person providers.
  • Data from the pilot shows that two-thirds of members previously lacked traditional primary care and that Primary360 helped members detect undiagnosed chronic diseases. One in four chronic conditions identified for members of the pilot were new diagnoses of common disorders such as diabetes and hypertension.
  • Half of Primary360 members enrolled in the pilot take advantage of at least one other Teladoc product, while nearly 30% use two additional connected services.

The Takeaway

Although Teladoc is positioning Primary360 mainly as a way to make primary care more accessible, it also serves as a way to bring in new business following slowing membership growth as the pandemic wanes. Teladoc is establishing Primary360 as a hub for its full suite of virtual solutions, giving more patients the ability to receive primary care while widening the patient funnel for its other offerings.

GoodRx Launches Online Health Resource

Posted on by Jason Barry

Digital pharmacy tool GoodRx recently launched an expansive online resource called GoodRx Health to provide research-based answers to popular health questions.

GoodRx Health takes a different approach than other consumer health destinations, offering actionable insights through GoodRx Answers and a Health Wizard for navigating difficult decisions.

  • GoodRx’s current services include app-based prescription tracking and a telehealth platform called GoodRx Care, which provides virtual primary care services.
  • GoodRx Help adds new ways for users to explore the company’s library of Video Explainers and editorial content, a large strategy shift that pushes the company beyond its current role as a comparison tool.
  • GoodRx’s new strategy targets every stage of a consumer’s healthcare journey, uniting the company’s platforms by directing diagnosis-seeking consumers from GoodRx Health to its GoodRx Care telehealth service for treatment.

The Takeaway

GoodRx Health is far from a small content play to drive more traffic to a website. GoodRx is doing everything in its power to leverage the 20m monthly users already visiting its site, from hiring a 50 person editorial team helmed by the former executive editor of WIRED, Thomas Goetz, to acquiring health video company HealthiNation for $75m in April.

WebMD and symplr announced a similar partnership in August, which allows WebMD users to go from a health information search to scheduling a telehealth appointment in three clicks. GoodRx’s vertical integration of these services could position it as a leader among companies operating in the overlap between health information and treatment.

Spring Health is the Latest Mental Health Unicorn

Posted on by Jason Barry

Digital behavioral health startup Spring Health recently raised a $190m Series C round ($300m total funding), raising its valuation to over $2b and making CEO April Koh the youngest woman to helm a multibillion-dollar company.

The Spring Health investment is the latest movement in an especially active third quarter for the virtual behavioral therapy sector, which has already seen major announcements from companies like K Health and Headspace.

  • Spring Health offers mental health benefits to employers, which include online therapy, coaching, and a guided-exercise app. Its services are marketed as either supplements to employee assistance programs or total replacements in many cases.
  • The company’s differentiator is that it caters to employers with a wide range of health needs and financial capabilities, as opposed to focusing exclusively on large businesses.
  • The new funds will be used to launch “the first cohesive mental health experience for families,” leveraging a single centralized platform to support both employees and their households. The extra capital will also aid in global expansion, adding to the list of over 200 countries that Spring Health currently operates in.

Industry Impact

Spring Health’s Series C round solidifies its position among the ranks of well-capitalized digital health leaders, a list that also includes competitors such as the rapidly growing Lyra Health ($680m funding at a $4.2 valuation).

While Lyra Health widened its strategy with recent expansion into new specialized care areas, Spring Health is instead focusing on depth over breadth by integrating its family health solutions into a single cohesive platform.

Telehealth Expected to Dominate Patient Care

Posted on by Jason Barry

Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) latest Future of Healthcare Survey explored the pandemic’s impact on healthcare technology, finding that 89% of IT decision makers (ITDMs) have made investing in new technology a priority for their organization.

HPE surveyed 400 healthcare IT decision-makers and patient-facing clinicians throughout the US and UK, each working at organizations with over 500 employees.

Clinician Findings

  • 76% of clinicians believe telehealth will soon account for a majority of patient care
  • 68% agreed they frequently have technology issues in delivering telehealth
  • 82% believe medical devices will have the largest tech impact in the next 5 years

IT Decision Maker Findings

  • 85% of ITDMs say “IT modernization” is their largest IT investment priority
  • 59% say “innovation” is their largest IT investment priority
  • 72% cited IT security as a main concern when moving data to the cloud

Although HPE naturally recommends its own GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform as the optimal answer to each of these problems, the clinician findings highlight that technology’s evolving role in healthcare is a bigger than a single solution, and one that is only expected to get bigger from here.

Tia Raises $100M for Hybrid Women’s Care

Posted on by Jason Barry

Women’s healthcare company Tia recently closed a $100m Series B funding round that will help to scale its “whole-woman, whole-life” model to over 100k women by 2023.

Just two years after seeing its first patient, Tia now has $132m in total funding for its hybrid care model that operates physical clinics in Los Angeles and New York, as well as virtual care in Phoenix.

  • Tia’s hybrid approach combines primary care, mental health, gynecology, and acupuncture to offer women seamless care coordination throughout their entire lives. Tia claims that its proprietary software and care coordination teams can deliver care for 40% less than traditional primary care practices.
  • Tia partners with health systems to provide an integrated inpatient/outpatient experience, creating better care continuity around key periods such as pregnancies. These partnerships also allow Tia members to access specialty care not offered at its clinics, like obstetrics.

According to Tia, women control more than 80% of the US’ $3.6t annual healthcare spend, yet female patients have been repeatedly misunderstood and underserved. Investors have taken notice, with Tia’s Series B arriving within a few week’s of Maven Clinic becoming the sector’s first unicorn with over $1b funding. 

Industry Impact

Up until recently, women’s healthcare has largely been fragmented by body part or life stage, creating an ineffective model that rarely supports holistic care. 

Tia believes its “anti-fragmentation approach” is the solution, driving better outcomes by replacing transactional, condition-based healthcare with relationship-based care that can cater to women throughout their whole lives.

Second Opinions for Anthem Members

Posted on by Jason Barry

Anthem recently signed on with The Clinic to begin offering its members easy access to virtual second opinions. 

  • The Clinic began in 2019 as a joint venture from Amwell and Cleveland Clinic that provides virtual care and digital health records to payers, providers, and patients. The service combines Amwell’s telehealth services with patient support from Cleveland Clinic’s 3,500 physicians.
  • Second opinions are expected to be a $7b market by 2024 (up from $2.7b in 2019), according to research from both companies. Cleveland Clinic studies have shown that second opinions result in a modified treatment plan in 72% of reassessments, as well as a change in diagnosis for 28% of life-altering cases.

Looking Ahead

Anthem is initially making the second opinion service available to its large employer clients, with the potential to expand to smaller employers going forward.

The Clinic CEO Frank McGillin signalled that more is on the way for the partnership, saying that the second opinion services are “just the start of our work with Anthem.” The Clinic anticipates a continued increase in demand for routine expert second opinions when dealing with life-changing health conditions.

Lyra Expands Into New Mental Health Conditions

Posted on by Jason Barry

Mental health benefits provider Lyra Health recently announced a trio of new solutions designed to address complex conditions such as alcohol use disorder and suicidality.

Lyra is seeking to effectively support the employees often overlooked by traditional health plans, such as those with serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders.

The new offerings will launch in early 2022 and include:

  • Lyra Reset addresses problematic alcohol use through virtual therapy, group sessions, symptom assessments, peer support, and medication. Lyra Reset promotes a durable recovery by providing resources for the entire family.
  • Lyra Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Suicidality combines virtual therapy sessions with therapist-prescribed skill-building lessons to help patients decrease suicidal thoughts.
  • Lyra Concierge provides personalized support for children, adolescents, and adults who need help accessing specialized mental health support or rehabilitation facilities.

The Trend

Many new digital mental health companies are focusing primarily on patients suffering from depression and anxiety, a large market given the pandemic-fueled climb in mental health disorders. 

However, as these companies begin to mature (Lyra has raised $680m and is valued at $4.2b), many will expand into other serious conditions.

This trend has the potential to help patients find specialized care that fits their needs, while also supporting employers looking to maintain a healthy and productive workforce.

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