Chronic care management company Livongo has inked a deal with the U.S. government, giving federal employees insured by the government with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes access to the digital program. 

The Livongo for Diabetes tool will be open to those insured under the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee program, which covers roughly 5.3 million people. Users will be able to access the management tool, which gives users personalized insights into their condition and access to diabetes support coaches. The company expects this deal to increase its membership by 45,000 in 2021. 

The federal insurer also announced that it will be expanding its telehealth services in 2020 to include nutritional health counseling. Currently, the telehealth services, which are provided through Teladoc, give users access to behavioral health, dermatology care, minor acute care and counseling for substance abuse disorders.  

WHY IT MATTERS 

Livongo has been in the spotlight since this summer when it hit the public market with mixed results. After initial success, the company's first earnings report also failed to meet analysts' expectations, according to a Rock Health report.

This deal marks a big win for the company and demonstrates its efforts in the large insurer market. The company also noted that this deal will bring in more revenue than previously expected.

This announcement has made waves in the company’s stock price. As of 2:00 p.m. ET today, Livongo’s stock price was up by 16.34% over yesterday's closing. 

“This is Livongo’s largest agreement to provide diabetes services in our history and is another great example of the market’s excitement about our Applied Health Signals platform and how our business is expanding from working primarily with self-insured employers, to broader and larger markets including government employees, labor unions, and the fully-insured populations of our health plan partners,” Livongo CEO Zane Burke said in a statement. “As we continue to show that Livongo creates a better member experience that leads to improved clinical outcomes and lower costs, we are excited to work with more organizations that are bringing Livongo’s services into the fabric of the health benefits design for hundreds of thousands of people.”

THE LARGER TREND 

While this may be the largest deal in Livongo’s history, it has closed a number of other agreements in the past. Last spring the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recognized Livongo as an enrolled provider for Medicare Advantage members. Another big deal came in 2018 when it signed a deal with nonprofit health insurance company Cambia Health Solutions.

ON THE RECORD

“This win highlights two of our competitive advantages,” Dr. Jennifer Schneider, president of Livongo, said in a statement. “First, government entities and large plans want to see multi-year, clinically validated results at scale, and only Livongo has that independently validated data. Second, our AI+AI engine, which aggregates information from our own devices, electronic health records, pharmacy records, smart watches and continuous glucose monitors, interprets that information, applies it back to our members to learn what works and then iterates using Health Nudges, is making us smarter and more member focused every day.”