Livongo Health announced that it has teamed with MDLIVE and Doctor On Demand to enable access to virtual acute and primary care services for people living with chronic conditions.
The service will be available to for Livongo Members, beginning with Livongo for Behavioral Health — effective January 2020 — and soon expanding to Livongo’s diabetes and hypertension offerings. Behavioral Health needs are common for people living with chronic conditions, yet access to psychologists and psychiatrists is often limited and cost prohibitive. When delivered appropriately, telehealth can provide higher quality care at lower costs to Members, payors, and employers than traditional care delivery methods. Through these relationships, Livongo will deliver a stepped care model that begins with a strong consumer-first digital approach, including personalized insights and Health Nudges from its AI+AI engine. The digital model is supplemented by expert coaching, followed by escalation to a licensed telehealth professional when clinical intervention is appropriate. All three steps, including access to telehealth services, will be available on the existing Livongo platform.
By offering access to telehealth services, Livongo expands its Whole Person Platform by providing the full spectrum of consumer-first digital and human support needed for successful chronic condition management. Today, more than 720 organizations, including more than 20 percent of the Fortune 500 self-insured employers, health systems, health plans, and the two leading pharmacy benefit managers, have implemented Livongo solutions for hundreds of thousands of their Members.
“We are excited to team with MDLIVE and Doctor On Demand to begin bringing telehealth capabilities into Livongo’s platform, and more easily offer our Members access to the next-level of clinical care in the context of their daily lives,” Livongo CEO Zane Burke said in a statement. “This is another great example of how Livongo’s continued focus on making it easier for our Members to stay healthy leads to unique and meaningful innovations that improve their overall experience.”
Along with its new telehealth capabilities, this year Livongo also announced new bi-directional integrations with the top smartwatches in the market — including leading models from Apple, Fitbit, and Samsung. These new integrations allow Livongo to offer Members behavioral Health Nudges and health information directly to their smartwatch and this data enables Livongo’s AI+AI engine to provide more personalized activity-related insights. Livongo was also the first consumer digital health company to collaborate with Amazon Alexa on their HIPAA-compliant healthcare skills.
Currently, more than 147 million adults in the United States have a chronic condition and the prevalence of chronic conditions is expected to continue growing at a rapid pace. As of 2014, approximately 60 percent of all Americans lived with one or more chronic conditions, and more than 40 percent had two or more chronic conditions. In 2020, additional telehealth use cases will become available within the Livongo platform including medication management for diabetes, hypertension, and other opportunities to effectively close gaps in care.