Teladoc Health has launched new pilots of its virtual primary care program and hopes to explore its take on a hospital-at-home offering with large health system partners before the end of the year, CEO Jason Gorevic said this week during a J.P. Morgan virtual presentation.

Shortly after the talk, Teladoc also announced a new pilot with continuous glucose monitor (CGM) company Dexcom for eligible Type 2 diabetes members. The pilot will use CGM data to inform users about the link between their lifestyles and shifts in blood glucose at no additional cost to the member.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

Teladoc has been clear about its push to provide "whole person care" and the new market opportunities that are now in reach thanks to its recent acquisitions. Each of these pilots are concrete examples of the virtual care inching closer to that goal.

At the top of the list is an expansion of the company's Teladoc Primary 360 product, which Gorevic said the virtual care company first piloted in 2019. That program offered more than 70 distinct diagnoses and earned a 90-plus Net Promoter Score (NPS), he said.

On January 1, Teladoc moved forward with new Teladoc Primary 360 pilots with multiple domestic and international large employer health plan clients.

"Our pipeline is incredibly rich with over 100 Primary 360 opportunities in our pipeline and we expect to continue to expand the penetration, the rollout of that product into more commercial populations over the course of 2021 and beyond. And this is what opens up opportunities for new revenue models, where we get to really share in the savings, the better outcomes, and the value that we generate for consumers and for our clients."

Gorevic also touched on the growing hospital at home space, specifically in regard to Teladoc's opportunity to support providers with the technologies and services to extend patient monitoring beyond discharge. The company has seen "incredible interest" from hospitals and health systems about these capabilities following in the wake of the Livongo acquisition, he said.

Along with sending a patient home with monitoring devices or mailing them directly to homes, Gorevic described an implementation where insights, nudges and Livongo coaches could drive stronger engagement among patients. On the financial side, Teladoc could be paid by the hospital for services, for devices or for generating data insights – or potentially take a value-based reimbursement approach by sharing risk and savings with the hospital, he said.

"When you think about combining the capabilities of InTouch Health, the capabilities of Teladoc Health, the capabilities of Livongo, the ability to discharge a consumer from the hospital with devices that are connected to our platform and deliver real insights to the hospital health system and their providers such that they can intervene as necessary – that is really the promise of hospital in the home that will transform how care is delivered and how care is experienced by the consumer."

Gorevic said Teladoc should kick off some hospital-at-home pilots during 2021. These initial programs likely wouldn't make a dent on the company's financials, he said, but they could become a more meaningful component of Teladoc's business sometime in 2022.

Finally, the CGM data pilot with Dexcom will provide eligible members with Livongo's diabetes management program, a Dexcom CGM and health data insights that are integrated with the other offerings. The efforts follows up a January 2020 partnership between Dexcom and pre-merger Livongo, and is expected to see a broad launch throughout the course of 2021.

“Our focus is to offer a consumer experience that makes it easy, safe and affordable for people to manage their health with confidence," Amar Kendale, chief product officer at Teladoc Health, said in a statement. "We are excited about our continued work with Dexcom and new features that enable smarter care, leading to measurable consumer behavior change and better health outcomes.”

THE LARGER TREND

Of course, the J.P. Morgan talk was also a chance for the company to give an updated recount of its financials. The virtual care company has increased its full-year guidance and now expects its full-year revenue to come in at just over $1.09 billion, while full-year visit volume has been bumped to 10.6 million.

It's the capping point to what was undoubtedly the most eventful year for Teladoc since its IPO in 2015. Even putting aside unprecedented demand for telehealth driven by COVID-19, this year saw the company acquire enterprise telehealth provider InTouch Health from $600 million, as well as Livongo for roughly $18.5 billion. Gorevic said during this week's talk that both of these moves are fueling Teladoc's ability to push into new product offerings and markets.