Teladoc rolling out new integrated health app this year

Dive Brief:

• Teladoc Health announced on Thursday it’s launching a new app allowing users to access its full range of services in one place and under one account.
• The app, which includes primary care, mental health and chronic condition management, is meant to integrate all of Teladoc’s assets in one personalized platform, making care navigation and selection easier for consumers, Teladoc Chief Medical Officer Vidya Raman-Tangella told Healthcare Dive.
• The app is available to a select number of Teladoc’s existing clients this month. Teladoc plans to make the app available to the full market later this year.

Dive Insight:

Teladoc already has an app allowing consumers to conduct virtual visits with physicians. The new app will allow users to view services they’re eligible for under their health plan, review physician-based integrated care plans and access care coordination capabilities with in-person doctors, according to Teladoc’s release.

It will include all of Teladoc’s services that can be covered under employers and health plans — the app for Teladoc’s direct-to-consumer mental health app BetterHelp, for example, will remain separate.

Addressing care coordination and navigation is an area of white space for virtual care, amid worries that with more consumers triaging their health needs through third-party virtual visits, their own physicians may be getting left out of the loop. It’s something being targeted by a number of telemedicine companies, such as Included Health, which was formed from the merger of virtual care vendor Doctor on Demand and clinical navigator Grand Rounds in 2021.

According to Teladoc, its new app allows people to be at the center of their care by integrating “all the healthcare services necessary” to meet their health needs, and real-time data from patient encounters will be used to make better medical decisions down the line. Services in the app will be available in English and Spanish.

Raman-Tangella said she doesn’t have numbers for how much developing and launching the app cost Teladoc, but that the company plans to spend up to $400 million in overall research and development this year, including the rollout of the app to the broader market.

Teladoc declined to share a specific timeline for the rollout.