One of the nation's biggest players in the telehealth field just got bigger.
Teladoc, a Dallas-based provider of telehealth services for large employers and health plans, has acquired Consult A Doctor, a Miami-based provider of the same type of services with a niche in the small and mid-sized employer and health plan market.
"Scale really does matter in telehealth," Teladoc CEO Jason Gorevic said during an interview last week, adding that the integration of the two companies is "a step in the evolutionary curve rather than a direction change" for Teladoc. He noted the company has seen growth of 75 percent to 80 percent since 2011.
Teladoc's platform enables members to contact a physician by phone or secure online video for treatment of non-emergency issues, such as common colds, allergies, sinus flare-ups or bronchitis. Company officials say the service, whose physicians are credentialed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, logs some 120,000 consults each year.
Consult A Doctor, launched in 2007 with the mantra of "telemedicine for the common man," offers a cloud-based platform that includes the consumer-focused ConsultADoctor 24/7, payer-focused MyHealthPlan 24/7, hospital-focused MyHospital 24/7 and physician-focused MyPractice 24/7 offerings.
In an interview in 2012, Wolf Shlagman, Consult A Doctor’s founder and CEO, said the service cuts down on unnecessary visits to the doctor’s office or clinic, or the hospital, and reduces work time lost to illness. More importantly, it enables employers and health plans to cut down on wasted medical expenses.
“Until now, concierge medicine has been something few people could obtain. When we are sick, we typically have to get in our cars and drive ourselves to our primary physician’s office – if we have one. If not, our options are quite limited and usually entail spending most of a day at the local ER, wasting time and spending hundreds of dollars,” he said. “With telemedicine services, this entire process changes. Patients can obtain affordable, quality medical care without ever leaving their home.
Gorevic said Consult A Doctor has been "very successful in its markets," which placed it on Teladoc's radar (he estimated Consult A Doctor is about one-quarter of the size of Teladoc). He expects the integration of the two companies will take a few months, and is looking forward to molding Consult A Doctor's immediate access and advice-only features to the Teladoc platform.
The acquisition caps a busy year for Teladoc, which launched a mobile platform during the summer and forged a partnership with Health Spot, placing the company's telehealth services inside Health Spot's kiosks. On the planning board now, Gorevic said, are behavioral health and modules.
"I believe that primary care is at the core of our offering," he said, "and there are some massive opportunities for growth" in related markets, such as hospital- and consumer-facing products. For example, the company is currently co-branding a direct-to-consumer product in the New York City area through Continuum Health Partners.
“With this acquisition, Teladoc will expand the reach of its services to more companies, health plans, organizations and individuals looking for quality healthcare solutions at an affordable cost," Gorevic said in the September 4 press release announcing the Consult A Doctor deal. "We’re proud to be the leader in telehealth and the acquisition will significantly increase our existing scale advantage over the rest of the market.”
“In a short time, telehealth has emerged as an important tool to enable 24/7 access to quality health care for broader patient populations," added Dana Mead, a Teladoc board member and partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, in the release. “This acquisition extends Teladoc's market leadership, offering a wide range of telehealth solutions. We recognized early on the central role telehealth would play in the evolving healthcare landscape and remain confident that Teladoc will lead this transformation."
