Telemedicine, Health Tech

Report: Amwell confidentially files for IPO

After raising $194 million in funding, Amwell confidentially filed to go public, according to a report by CNBC. The telehealth company has seen a surge in patients since the Covid-19 pandemic started.

Months after closing a $194 million funding round, telehealth company Amwell confidentially filed for an IPO. Citing people familiar with the matter, CNBC reported that the IPO could take place in September.

Like its peers, Amwell has seen a surge in telehealth visits since the Covid-19 pandemic started. Some of those visits were patients who were worried that they might have gotten the virus itself, but many of them were also scheduled appointments for patients that might not be able see their doctor in-person.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, Amwell has been seeing up to 45,000 telehealth visits per day. For some parts of its business, visits were up by more than 1000% year-over-year.

Amwell declined to comment on its plans.

The company’s main clients are health systems and health plans. It currently has more than 240 health system partners, including the Cleveland Clinic and Intermountain Healthcare, and more than 55 insurance partners, including UnitedHealthcare and several Blues plans.

Part of that growth has also been fueled by regulatory change. Several commercial insurers have expanded their telehealth coverage to more specialties. A handful have announced that they will keep these changes, including BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, which said it will continue to reimburse for telehealth visits for behavioral health, occupational therapy and a list of other specialties.

Government agencies have also widened their reimbursement for telehealth visits. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services quickly cut away several restrictions to reimbursement, allowing in-home telehealth visits and covering more specialties.

Photo credit: jxfzsy, Getty Images

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