Teladoc is a 12-year old telemedicine company that has so far focused mainly on non-emergency primary care. But that will soon change, CEO Jason Gorevic told MedCity News in a phone interview. It is expanding into specialty areas, with a priority on telepsychiatry and teledermatology and expects to offer these services by the second quarter of next year.
Gorevic expanded on some of the company’s plans beyond Teladoc’s statement released earlier today. The $50.2 million Series F fundraise will be used toward adding these new products and expanding into new markets and adding distribution channels.
Among its priorities is increasing its customer base of small and medium-sized employers. One key to accomplishing that is working with the health insurance brokers that identify suitable plans for these employers. The two acquisitions it made in September 2013 and earlier this year were designed to improve its broker distribution channels.
Referencing its deal with Castlight Health inked earlier this year, Gorevic remarked on the synergy between Castlight’s service providing consumers with information to make informed decisions on care based on price and value and its own telemedicine service. He added that it’s had a lot of success in inking agreements with health plans, particularly Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans and Aetna, among others. He noted that working with plans has led to the development of real-time claims adjudication — a valuable service.
Gorevic identified telepsychiatry as a top priority and teledermatology second. It plans to roll these out in three stages and so far has completed stage one. He said it wasn’t necessarily looking for outright acquisitions but collaboration opportunities.
The fresh capital will also go toward expanding its telemedicine platform into mobile health technologies consumers are embracing, Gorevic said.
“There is no question that telemedicine as a service has arrived. We grew by 75 percent in 2012, we grew by more than 100 percent last year and expect to duplicate that in 2014,” he said.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Gorevic noted that the Series F round will help it extend its lead over the market. “Teladoc has a substantial lead over the rest of the market. We are three times larger than our nearest competitor and larger than the next five competitors combined.”
Gorevic thinks the direct-to-consumer telemedicine model is in the early stages and will be several years before it takes off. “One of the most important parts of delivering a telemedicine program is integration with a benefit plan and delivery system. As far as hospitals offering telemedicine, “they are still trying to figure out how they play in the telemedicine space and in many cases they are coming to Teladoc.”
It attracted several new investors, some of them marking their first investment in telemedicine. Among the new investors in the oversubscribed round, including Jafco Ventures, FLAG Capital Management, Greenspring Associates, Mellon and QuestMark Partners. Current investors also participated in the new funding including Cardinal Partners, HLM Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, New Capital Partners and Trident Capital.
Asked if the company had any plans to go public, Gorevic said it would keep its options open. “We will look at different opportunities and keep our options open to accelerate growth.”
