Teladoc, the telehealth company whose stock has swooned spectacularly — with its price dropping by more than 85% since reaching highs early last year — announced it is expanding the services offered under Primary360, its virtual primary care platform.
The new offerings include care coordination support and health plan in-network referrals, as well as same-day medication delivery provided by Capsule and on-demand home phlebotomy services from Scarlet Health.
Primary360 is ideal for patients who lack a primary care provider or who see theirs less often than they should, according to Teladoc’s website. The platform’s new capabilities are designed to improve its members’ post-visit care coordination. The Primary360 care team can now view information such as member benefits and clinical data in one place to gain a holistic view of patients’ coverage. This will allow the care team to make streamlined referrals to Teladoc services, as well as ensure patients are referred to an in-network provider when they need in-person care, such as a surgery or MRI.
Through its partnership with digital pharmacy Capsule, Teladoc is trying to improve patients’ medication adherence — the company said data suggests roughly 50% of consumers fail to pick up their prescriptions. Capsule is trying to address this problem by providing free, same-day prescription delivery to Primary360 patients.
Teladoc is further centralizing care in patients’ homes through its partnership with Scarlet Health, an on-demand, mobile laboratory specimen collection company. Primary360 patients will now access Scarlet’s phlebotomy services so they can draw their own blood at home. This option gives patients convenience and increases access to testing for those who lack reliable transportation, according to Kelly Bliss, Teladoc’s president of U.S. group health.
“These ‘last mile’ services allow us to seamlessly blend the virtual and physical components of care, delivering an integrated, more convenient care experience,” Bliss wrote in an email.
In its Wednesday announcement, Teladoc also said Michigan-based health plan Priority Health signed on with Primary360. The payer will integrate the platform’s services into its portfolio of telehealth, chronic condition and mental health programs, as well as roll out a new virtual-first plan design.
Financially, 2022 has been a difficult year for Teladoc. For its first quarter earnings report in April, the telehealth giant reported a total net loss of $6.7 billion. This was driven mainly by an $6.6 billion impairment charge to write down the value of its acquisitions, reflecting the decreasing market value of its acquisition of chronic care company Livongo.
Teladoc completed its $18.5 billion acquisition of Livongo in October 2020 — when demand for virtual care was still soaring amid pandemic-era protocols. Now, the demand has dropped drastically across all specialties except for mental health. A recent report from healthcare appointment booking platform Zocdoc showed that just 9% of all appointments booked on its site were virtual in May. This was down from one-third in May 2020 and 17% in May 2021.
If its stock price is any indicator, Teladoc is still struggling immensely. Its price is down from a high of more than $290 in February 2021 to now around the $40-45 range.
The strategy behind Teladoc’s new partnerships and expanded primary care services is unclear — Bliss declined to answer questions about how Teladoc will measure the success of its partnerships and expanded offerings or how this announcement fits into the company’s plan to bounce back.
Photo: ronnachaipark, Getty Images
