Heal launches MD house call app in SF, with backing from Lionel Richie, Paul Jacobs

By Aditi Pai
11:27 am
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HealLos Angeles-based Heal, which has developed an app that helps people send a doctor to their house, has launched its service in San Francisco. Until a week ago, the company only operated in Los Angeles.

Users pay $99 to have a doctor come to their house in under an hour. Similarly to Uber, after requesting a doctor, the user can see the doctor's location in the app when they are en route to the user's house. All doctors are provided through a medical practice established by Heal, called Heal At-Home Medical. The doctors on Heal are available 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week.

The app, available on iOS, first launched in January. The company also has $3.7 million in seed money from Lionel Richie, Qualcomm Executive Chairman Paul Jacobs, and Dodgers co-owner Jamie McCourt, according to TechCrunch.

Two other companies with services similar to Heal made news last month.

In early March Pager raised $10.4 million. Pager's doctors do an initial consult over the phone to determine what sorts of diagnostic and treatment tools they might need to bring, then show up at the patient’s house for the visit. The service currently costs $49 for the first visit and $199 for each visit after that. If the condition turns out to be treatable over the phone, customers are only charged $25. Otherwise, the price is fixed, no matter what treatment the patient ends up needing. Users can get reimbursed for Pager as an out-of-network provider, and the company is working on becoming an in-network provider under some plans.

And a week after Pager announced the funding, San Francisco-based FirstLine Medical launched its doctor consultation service, called FirstLine. The offering allows patients to call, text, or video chat with a doctor, but if users choose, they can also request a doctor to make an in-person visit to their home or office.

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