What Recent Business
Relationships Tell Us About
The Future Of Telehealth
2020

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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Covid-19 has drawn an unprecedented amount of attention to telehealth.
Between February and April, monthly telehealth news mentions tripled.
Meanwhile, investor interest in the space is picking up. Telehealth startups
have already raised $2.6B across 194 deals — on pace to set new funding
and deal activity records in 2020 ($6.6B across 490 deals).
An array of healthcare stakeholders
— from payers to providers to drug
developers — are increasingly joining
forces with telehealth companies to
expand access to “socially distant” care.
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
At the same time, a wide range of healthcare stakeholders are forging
business relationships with telehealth companies to bridge gaps in
a challenging healthcare landscape and to minimize opportunities
for viral transmission.
More than 80 companies have established relationships with telehealth
companies so far in 2020. These relationships demonstrate the
expanding breadth of services that telehealth technology can provide.
Below, we look at some of these newly formed relationships — from strategic
partnerships to license agreements — and consider what they could mean for
telehealth going forward.
The highlighted business relationships are categorized by telehealth use case.
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Table of Contents
CARE NAVIGATION AND TRIAGE
Providers


5
Insurance and benefits


6
PRIMARY CARE

Providers


8
Insurance and benefits


10
Healthcare IT


12
DIAGNOSTIC TESTING

Clinical laboratories


13
Device manufacturers


13
ACUTE CARE

Providers


15
Healthcare IT


17
FOLLOW-UP CARE

Providers


18
REMOTE MONITORING

Providers


20
Healthcare IT


21
Device Manufacturers


23
CHRONIC CARE MANAGEMENT

Providers


25
Insurance and benefits


26
Healthcare IT


27
MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT

Insurance and benefits


28
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Providers and payers have increasingly sought out digital solutions to better
engage and guide patients through the path of care. The global health crisis
brought on by Covid-19 has only accelerated that trend.
By using automated triaging and care navigation tools, providers can
achieve more efficient care prioritization (e.g. based on patient risk level)
and optimize clinical workflows to relieve capacity constraints in the
overburdened healthcare system.
These solutions also allow patients to initiate care on their own terms —
using their own devices — from the comfort and safety of their homes. In the
context of infectious diseases like Covid-19, this helps contain transmission
by reducing unnecessary points of contact between patients and providers.
PROVIDERS
One recent business relationship here is Intermountain Healthcare’s
partnership with “digital front door” startup GYANT. In April, the companies
co-developed and deployed a Covid-19 “Screener and Emergency Response
Assistant” (SERA) branded as Scout.
Scout, accessed through the health system’s homepage, offers automated
chat-based screening and care navigation support to Intermountain’s
patients. The solution has been especially useful during the Covid-19
pandemic as it allows patients to check their symptoms quickly from home
— making it easier to follow social distance guidelines and improving the
accessibility of healthcare resources to those at higher risk.
Less than 3 weeks following its launch, Intermountain says it saw more than
157,000 users with Scout. Over the same period, the health system reported a
30% decrease in call center volume, freeing up lines of communication for the
highest priority cases.
Care Navigation and Triage
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
GYANT has also partnered with patient-provider matching startup
Kyruus to offer chat-based care navigation and triage tools to their
health system customers.
GYANT has raised $7M in total disclosed funding to date from investors
including Grazia Equity and Polytech Ecosystem Ventures and accelerator
programs like those offered through Cedars-Sinai and Mayo Clinic.
INSURANCE AND BENEFITS
Payers are pursuing similar strategies. For example, Cigna and its wholly-
owned subsidiary Express Scripts joined forces with Buoy Health to create
an early intervention screening tool for members concerned about potential
Covid-19 symptoms. Cigna and Express Scripts are currently offering the tool
to their members for free.
The digital tool incorporates guidance from the CDC to help categorize
individual risk levels, triage symptoms, and recommend next steps for care.
By connecting with individuals before they seek care and helping to triage
them appropriately, Buoy’s app aims to ease capacity strains while also
improving the patient experience.
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Buoy Health has raised $29.2M in total disclosed funding from investors such
as F-Prime Capital, Optum Ventures, and Humana.
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Health systems, payers, and healthcare IT companies continue to forge
relationships with telehealth companies operating in the primary care arena.
By leveraging their partners’ proven telehealth models, health systems can
improve the primary care experience of patients without having to make
significant investments in capital, technology, or managerial resources. At
the same time, they can reduce administrative burden and cost by helping to
integrate care coordination processes.
Payers have increasingly expanded their telehealth offerings in an attempt to
expand access, make care more convenient, improve health outcomes, and
reduce costs. Payers hope that these virtual care benefits will help gradually
shift consumer behavior away from reactive care toward a more proactive,
predictive health management approach.
In response to payers’ and providers’ growing interest, healthcare IT
companies serving those end markets are developing relationships with
telehealth platforms and providers to facilitate vendor/partner selection and
to streamline implementation.
PROVIDERS
Health systems have increasingly turned to telehealth companies to help
them modernize and expand their reach within primary care.
Some health systems — like UCSF Health and Partners HealthCare — have
prioritized relationships with end-to-end primary care providers that adopt
flexible models of care delivery (e.g. both in-person and virtual).
Primary Care
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
In January 2020, UCSF Health signed an affiliation agreement with Circle
Medical to improve its patients’ access to, outcomes from, and experience
with primary care. The affiliation plans to launch two clinics in the Bay Area,
which will accommodate same- or next-day appointments, accept most
insurance plans, and not require any membership fees.
Circle Medical treats patients both virtually and in person at its network of
clinics. Through a dedicated mobile app, patients can communicate with
providers between visits, manage medical records, and receive personalized
preventive care recommendations. The streamlined offering is meant to
provide a “modern and digital experience” that better meets consumers’
evolving expectations.
Circle Medical has raised $6.5M in total funding to date from investors
including Tencent Holdings, WELL Health Technologies, and Y Combinator.
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What Recent Business Relationships
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Boston-based health system Partners HealthCare recently announced a
similar arrangement with primary care platform One Medical. One Medical’s
offering is akin to Circle Medical’s though access is membership-based.
In late January 2020 — roughly 2 weeks following the partnership
announcement — One Medical completed a $245M initial public offering (IPO)
at a $1.7B valuation.
INSURANCE AND BENEFITS
Employee health benefits platform Accolade recently introduced a new
virtual primary care option with PlushCare that aims to provide employees
with clinical solutions at home while also easing overburdened healthcare
facilities and supporting social distancing requirements.
The combined Accolade and PlushCare Covid-19 rapid response platform
brings together care navigation and triage with primary care assessment
and referral. In addition to Covid-19-related care, the solution also allows
members to access virtual urgent, preventative, and chronic care in
accordance with CDC social distancing guidelines.
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
In Canada, telehealth startup Dialogue recently partnered with two major
insurers: Canada Life and Sun Life.
Dialogue’s platform allows employees to access on-demand care through
chat or video. Through their partnership with the startup, Canada Life and Sun
Life have moved to make virtual care a standard benefit for employers with
group benefits plans.
Sun Life is making its telehealth services available for free during the
Covid-19 crisis.
The state of Massachusetts is also temporarily waiving telemedicine costs.
Through partnerships with Doctor on Demand, Maven, and Galileo Health,
state-run MassHealth will cover 100% of the costs related to Covid-19 virtual
care for its 1.8M+ members.
These arrangements were designed to take some pressure off front-line
providers while also expanding access to first-line care — two critical
components in the state’s efforts to combat Covid-19.
Compared to a year ago, Doctor on Demand has reportedly seen a 200%+
uptick in usage in the state.
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What Recent Business Relationships
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HEALTHCARE IT
Healthcare IT giant Cerner recently announced a collaboration with virtual
care provider HealthTap to expand and modernize its workforce benefit
solutions for self-funded employers.
Cerner already offers a suite of solutions and services, including employee
health portals, customized on-site and near-site health centers, and
personalized wellness coaching, but the incorporation of HealthTap allows it
to better address the growing demand for more cost-effective, flexible, and
user-friendly care options.
The on-demand virtual care provided by HealthTap could be especially helpful
for employees traveling to or working in remote locations.
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
By integrating easy-to-perform, at-home diagnostics with proven models of
remote care, healthcare stakeholders are aiming to make diagnostics more
discreet, convenient, efficient, and affordable.
These types of solutions provide a host of other benefits in the context of
Covid-19: first by reducing opportunities for transmission and secondly by
reducing triage to diagnosis turnaround time.
CLINICAL LABORATORIES
Telehealth companies are joining forces with diagnostic labs to expand
access to at-home diagnostic tests.
For example, Sweden-based telehealth startup KRY is working with ABC Labs
to enable patients to take Covid-19 tests from home. KRY performs all of the
patient-facing services like prescription writing, interpreting the test results,
and providing follow-up care, while ABC provides the mail-in test kit and
performs the laboratory analysis.
While these types of mail-in arrangements facilitate “socially distant” care
delivery, they can take some time to complete.
DEVICE MANUFACTURERS
Other solutions are being developed to rapidly process results on-site
in patients’ homes. For example, Alveo Technologies is working on an at-
home, smartphone-connected, infectious disease test system that it says
can deliver results in 30 minutes and allows patients to share those results
with remote providers.
Diagnostic Testing
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
To advance its be.well platform of analyzers, nasal swabs, and cartridges,
Alveo has enlisted the technical and regulatory expertise of its partner
Johnson & Johnson. According to the company, Alveo plans to use a phased
approach to first gain Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its Covid-19 test,
followed by a multiplex assay that can test for a variety of infectious diseases.
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Telehealth technologies are also being explored to help on-site care teams
deliver more advanced care. These types of solutions have been especially
critical amid the current crisis, as hospitals with full-scale ICUs struggle with
bed shortages and smaller hospitals lack acute care expertise. By connecting
on-site care teams with remote specialists, more patients should have access
to the high-quality, acute care they need.
PROVIDERS
Since the start of the year, Advanced ICU Care has launched high-acuity tele-
ICU services with both HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital (Illinois) and MUSC Health —
Lancaster Medical Center (South Carolina).
The company leverages US board-certified clinicians and a proprietary
telemedicine system to deliver high-acuity clinical expertise to on-site,
bedside care teams.
The extra layer of support provided by the tele-ICU service allows smaller
medical centers to treat more patients within their communities without
having to transfer them to larger facilities. This, in turn, can facilitate greater
comfort during treatment and better overall experiences and outcomes for
critically-ill patients.
According to the company, Advanced ICU Care now serves roughly 100
hospitals and health systems across the US, caring for 95,000+ patients each
year. It has raised $25.9M in total disclosed funding to date from investors
like Versant Ventures and Arboretum Ventures.
Acute Care
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Competitor SOC Telemed partnered with SCP Health to rapidly staff and
deploy on-demand, emergency telemedicine services across hospitals
embattled with Covid-19.
According to SOC, the startup’s telemedicine platform Telemed IQ is currently
being used in more than 550 hospitals nationwide with plans to expand to
more of SCP’s programs — which span 400 healthcare facilities across 30
states — soon.
SOC Telemed has raised $154.5M in total disclosed funding (including a
$50M line of credit) to date.
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What Recent Business Relationships
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HEALTHCARE IT
Another type of relationship spawned from Covid-19 can be illustrated by
DrFirst‘s partnership with the documentation software provider T-System.
T-System’s customers account for more than 25% of US-based hospital
emergency departments, freestanding emergency centers, and urgent
care centers.
With the new partnership, clients using T-System’s Emergency Department
Information System can deploy telehealth services through DrFirst’s Backline
platform. In doing so, they hope to protect patients and medical staff from
unnecessary exposure.
According to DrFirst, physicians using Backline can initiate secure video
consults with patients without making them download any apps, access
any portals, or undergo a registration process.
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Telehealth solutions are also being used to extend patient-provider lines of
communication following discharge. By implementing these systems, providers
are looking to make it safer to discharge patients earlier than may otherwise be
the case, freeing up beds for those in more critical health conditions. Additionally,
by continuing to engage patients, these services may help improve patient
satisfaction, health outcomes, and retention.
PROVIDERS
Hospitals are also turning to telehealth solutions to maintain connectivity with
patients after they’ve been discharged from acute care.
For example, 10 Cleveland Clinic hospitals are now using GYANT’s chat-based
patient engagement platform to facilitate ongoing care with the aim of preventing
future hospitalizations.
Integrated with patients’ health records, GYANT’s system can detect why patients
were admitted and when patients are discharged. Upon discharge, GYANT initiates
context-specific text chats, informing patients about their symptoms and how they
should be progressing. For a more detailed follow-up, GYANT can also connect
patients virtually to their care providers.
A similar system — designed by Twistle and deployed by Xealth — was rapidly
rolled out across Providence St. Joseph’s (PSJH).
To free up hospital beds for high-risk Covid-19 patients, PSJH has given relatively
lower-risk patients a thermometer and pulse oximeter and asked them to check-in
using Twistle’s patient engagement platform 3 times per day.
Follow-Up Care
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What Recent Business Relationships
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The system — which relies on patient self-monitoring surveys — texts patients
reminders and nudges them until a response is collected. It automatically
scores the survey responses (based on risk) and triggers alerts to the care
team if it decides a follow-up is required.
Backed in part by PSJH, Twistle has raised close to $21M in total
disclosed funding.
Home care providers like CareCentrix and Visiting Nurse Association of
Omaha have also turned to telehealth to augment post-acute Covid-19
recovery. The 2 organizations have partnered with Florida-based patient
engagement startup Synzi toward these efforts.
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Relationships in the remote monitoring space have primarily revolved
around startups offering connected health devices. Ranging from wearables
to handheld tools to completely contactless devices, these remote monitoring
technologies could be important in the care and containment of infectious
diseases like Covid-19.
First, since they’re used at home, these devices reduce the degree of contact
between care providers and patients, which can help to contain infections.
Second, due to the robust set of real-time data they generate, connected devices
can be a valuable resource for predictive modeling applications. In the case
of infectious disease, more accurate predictions could enable faster outbreak
response measures.
Remote monitoring can also improve resource utilization and, in some cases, can
help reduce the strain on other healthcare resources.
PROVIDERS
Indiana-based Deaconess Health System recently partnered with TytoCare to
seamlessly integrate the startup’s connected exam tools with Deaconess Clinic
LIVE, the health system’s proprietary virtual care platform.
Remote Monitoring
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Tyto’s device and its accompanying smartphone app allow quarantined
patients to carry out their own exams — capturing data from the heart, lungs,
throat, ears, skin, and abdomen — and share their results in real-time with
remote physicians.
Since 2012, TytoCare has raised more than $100M in total disclosed funding
and built a robust network of relationships, including partnerships with EHR
giant Epic and retail giant Best Buy.
HEALTHCARE IT
In March, remote monitoring startup BioIntelliSense signed a distribution deal
with healthcare IT company Tabula Rasa HealthCare (TRHC).
Under the agreement, TRHC will distribute BioIntelliSense’s 30-day,
continuous vital sign monitor (“BioSticker”) to its payer, provider, and other
healthcare clients along with TRHC’s medication management software.
According to TRHC, BioSticker data will populate TRHC’s medication safety
platforms, which board-certified pharmacists can use to alert clinicians to
timely medication-related issues, enabling more proactive intervention and
safer medication use.
While the partnership will target a variety of healthcare clients, the companies
expect their integrated solution to be received particularly well by PACE
organizations (i.e. federal programs providing comprehensive medical and
social services to nursing home-eligible 55+ year-olds).
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What Recent Business Relationships
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Another remote monitoring startup, Somatix, recently announced an
integration with PointClickCare’s core EHR platform, which is predominantly
used by skilled nursing facilities and senior living communities.
Somatix’s device uses gesture detection technology and machine learning
analytics to monitor patients’ daily activities (e.g. walking, sleeping, drinking,
falling, and smoking).
By monitoring these activities in real-time, healthcare providers are looking
to detect potentially troublesome changes in behavior and intervene in a
timelier manner.
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What Recent Business Relationships
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DEVICE MANUFACTURERS
Device manufacturers are partnering with remote monitoring startups to
help advance device development, facilitate distribution, and provide more
comprehensive connected health offerings.
In April, OMRON announced a global strategic alliance with device startup
AliveCor to integrate the latter’s ECG technology with OMRON’s blood
pressure devices.
Together, the companies plan to develop a line of first-in-class integrated ECG
and blood pressure devices that may better serve customer needs and make
remote care more accessible.
AliveCor has raised $69.3M in total disclosed funding from investors like
Khosla Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and Mayo Clinic Ventures (in addition
to OMRON).
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Competing startup Coala Life is working with Japan-based device maker
Asahi Kasei to use its smartphone-based ECG to develop and evaluate novel
digital biomarkers of heart failure.
Sweden-based Coala Life has raised $23.1M in total disclosed funding.
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Despite the overwhelming focus on Covid-19, many of the telehealth relationships
formed year-to-date have centered around chronic health conditions.
The reason is likely two-fold.
First is the recognition that those with chronic conditions are at higher risk
of contracting and experiencing complications from Covid-19. By facilitating
24/7 chronic care management in a completely remote environment, providers
can more reliably and continually assess deviations in patient health that may
warrant urgent interventions.
Second, the influx of Covid-19 patients and the associated precautions have made
it more challenging for chronic disease patients to see their physicians in-person —
increasing the impetus to offer remote connection options.
PROVIDERS
California-based El Camino Health recently expanded its partnership with
Conversa Health to extend its chronic obstructive pulmonary disease care
management capabilities virtually.
Chronic Care Management
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What Recent Business Relationships
Tell Us About The Future Of Telehealth
Meanwhile, physical therapy provider Professional Physical Therapy and provider
network Ivy Rehab Network both recently partnered with tele-rehab startup
Physitrack to support quarantined patients and reduce appointment cancellations.
INSURANCE AND BENEFITS
Diabetes-focused Livongo Health solidified major partnerships with the state of
Connecticut and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.
Connecticut’s state health plan expects Livongo’s Diabetes Management Program
to deliver approximately $3M in cost savings per year by providing patients with
comprehensive, 24/7, live health coaching. The health plan said that more than 500
patients signed up for the program within the first 2 weeks of its soft launch.
After raising $232M in private capital, Livongo completed a $355M IPO (at a $2.5B
valuation) in July 2019.
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What Recent Business Relationships
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The company recently reported strong Q1’20 financial results, including a 115%
increase in revenue and a doubling in users year-over-year. Through its agreement
with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Livongo expects to add another
5,000 patients to its diabetes program before the end of the year.
HEALTHCARE IT
Livongo competitor DarioHealth announced a partnership with value-based
telemedicine startup MediOrbis to create what it calls a “social distancing-
compliant, complete care solution” for its 50,000 active users.
The new telemedicine service allows Dario users to access a range of physician-
directed patient care from their homes.
According to the company, the remote care partnership is intended to help reduce
the risk from Covid-19 for people with chronic conditions.
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What Recent Business Relationships
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Mental health and wellness are being emphasized as people transition to remote
lifestyles and rely on virtual methods to socially engage with others.
To address these issues, teletherapy companies are making mental healthcare
more accessible, flexible, and personalized than ever before. Corporate mental
health offerings are also becoming an area of focus as companies look to support
their employees in crisis situations.
INSURANCE AND BENEFITS
Employers like Starbucks are expanding employee benefits to include mental
health care services like those provided by Lyra Health.
Under the company’s amended benefits program, Starbucks employees and eligible
family members now have access to 20 sessions a year with Lyra’s mental health
coaches. The sessions, which can be booked in advance or on the spot, can take
place either in-person or by video.
Mental Health Support
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What Recent Business Relationships
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Other companies like Alignment Healthcare have been exploring ways to tackle to
challenge of social isolation among older adults. As part of that effort, Alignment
partnered with Florida-based startup Papa to provide Medicare Advantage
members with “Grandkids On-Demand.”
Though Papa initially focused only on connecting seniors with in-person care
and companions, it recently launched a “Virtual Companionship” service to
accommodate Covid-19-related social distancing guidelines.