Health IT, Patient Engagement, Startups

Castlight Health expands digital health toolbox so employees understand healthcare costs, options

It was always going to be hard for Castlight Health to sustain the $41-per-share price […]

It was always going to be hard for Castlight Health to sustain the $41-per-share price that marked its public debut in April. Since then, its share price has slipped back into the high teens. But it has overhauled the structure of its platform and added solutions to supplement its price transparency tools to help employers and their staff make more informed medical decisions to lower healthcare costs.

Its collaboration with Grand Rounds is the latest addition to the third-party solutions it’s providing for employees. Castlight Connect helps employees access services, such as telehealth providers and heath savings account resources, and tap other expert opinion services. In a phone interview, Castlight Health Vice President Naomi Allen, who manages product strategy, said the goal of Castlight Connect is to make employees aware of services from which they can benefit. The services are designed to provide for the needs of the diverse demographic its clients’ staff members represent.

It is one part of a four-pronged solutions platform that expands on some of the services Castlight already offered. The platform includes a couple of tools for employees and a couple of employer-facing solutions.

Here’s how it will integrate the Grand Rounds specialist finder tool. An employee searching for an orthopedics specialist would use Castlight to find specialists in her insurance network. If the specialist had a serious diagnosis, the patient could select Grand Rounds and have her case reviewed by an orthopedic expert in the country. Grand Rounds would digitize the patient’s records and upload them to its “virtual clinic” to enable the physician to review the case and provide an expert opinion.

A dashboard for patients helps them evaluate medical costs. Although it already had components to help users figure out prices for different procedures at healthcare facilities in their region, it’s added onto that service with a pharmacy channel to help guide employee decisions on drug prices. A dentistry channel and mobile Spanish component are also coming later this year.

On the employer side, Castlight Controls is a benefits-management tool that lets employers design, optimize and scale benefits to make these programs more effective. Castlight Insights helps employers track employees’ activity and the healthcare costs they incur.

Earlier this year, some expressed concern that so much of the company’s revenues came from a relatively small portion of its customers, particularly Wal-Mart. Allen understands where the concern comes from but pointed out that it wasn’t about to walk away from the chance to work with a company of that scale. “Anytime you are fortunate enough to have a company like Wal-Mart, you jump at that opportunity.”

To give a sense of its diversity, Allen said it currently works with 110 companies across 25 industries. Although she declined to be specific, Allen said millions of employees use its platform. It activated 29 clients in the first quarter of 2014. It also signed on new customers, such as Comcast, Freescale Semiconductor and the state of Kansas.

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