Dr. John Scott from UW Medicine says there’s been an unlikely silver lining from the coronavirus – the rise of telemedicine. “It's like 20 years worth of work in two months,” he said. Scott says the pandemic caused normally strict state laws to be relaxed, making access to care easier. “Just to give you some numbers, so we got a pretty well-established telemedicine program and we did 20,000 visits in 2019,” he said. “In February, we did around 250 visits. By April we were over 30,000”.
Lyra Health, which provides mental health benefits for large employers, became the latest healthcare technology startup to hit unicorn status on Tuesday, following a $110 million Series D round.
Google Cloud is investing $100 million into telehealth provider Amwell as part of a new partnership to equip providers, insurers and patients with technology required for high quality and more affordable virtual care.
Teladoc and Livongo are true innovators in healthcare, and the merger is a win-win for all parties. From a customer's point of view, the combination of the two businesses makes complete sense, bringing healthcare to one place and cutting costs and time for millions of patients. For employers, health plans, and insurers, it gives them a fantastic return on investment, as they can track employees' health, lower healthcare costs, and improve work performance.
Covid-19 has seen a massive increase in the use of telemedicine. While it may seem novel, it’s actually been around for decades and research shows it’s frequently just as effective as face-to-face interventions, if not better. But how well it works for you mostly depends on your healthcare system.