Wheel, a virtual care platform, has added three companies to its integrated virtual care ecosystem: prescription drug company Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (Cost Plus Drugs), mental health company Talkspace and data sharing platform Health Gorilla, it announced Thursday.
Austin, Texas-based Wheel works with payers, retail companies like Amazon, pharmaceutical companies and other various healthcare companies. It offers the underlying infrastructure that enables virtual care for its customers, along with a nationwide network of clinicians to provide the care. The company can also offer tailored care programs, such as for women’s health, men’s health or condition management.
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With its new partnerships, Wheel is able to connect its customers’ patients with mental health services through Talkspace, home delivery pharmacy services through Cost Plus Drugs and lab and diagnostic services through Health Gorilla. Talkspace offers therapy and psychiatry services for a range of mental health conditions. Cost Plus Drugs carries more than 2,300 prescription drugs that can be delivered to people’s homes. Health Gorilla, meanwhile, is an interoperability platform granting authorized access to actionable patient data to improve outcomes and simplify processes.
Working with these companies “add extended capabilities to our partners, as well as our clinicians, to deliver that seamless care and access for patients in one platform versus having to go out and kind of source each one,” said Michelle Davey, CEO of Wheel.
“Say we were having a new client coming on board, they could build their own care program for a unique population and utilize the Wheel infrastructure as well as our care program and our clinician network,” Davey explained in an interview. “But also say they wanted to provide low cost, affordable delivery for prescriptions, they could then tap into Cost Plus Drugs.”
Davey added that integrating these partners into Wheel’s platform was a “no-brainer” to improve access to healthcare.
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“If you look at these partners — whether it’s Cost Plus Drugs or Talkspace or Health Gorilla — they are strong partners on their own. They’re compliant. They have large populations that they’re working with. They’ve done it at scale. … We all have a shared ethos of making healthcare better and an underlying mission to really make sure that patients are truly at the center of care,” she said.
Davey declined to share the financial model of the partnerships with Cost Plus Drugs, Talkspace or Health Gorilla.
Existing partners in Wheel’s integrated virtual care ecosystem include Candid Health, a revenue cycle automation platform. The company will continue adding more partners to its ecosystem, Davey said.
Other telehealth companies include Teladoc and Amwell, but Davey said Wheel differs by being a “B2B business powering other enterprises.”
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