Virtual care company Teladoc Health launched a new app Thursday that allows users to access its full suite of services in one place. The app is also available in Spanish.
Purchase, New York-based Teladoc is a virtual “whole-person” care company, providing services including primary care, mental health, complex care, condition care and chronic condition management. It works with employers like SAP, American Heart Association and AAA Northeast, and health plans like UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Centene and Blue Cross Blue Shield.
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Through the new app — which is available to just select clients this month — users can navigate between all of Teladoc’s services, see all their physicians’ care plans and can seek care coordination services to be connected with in-person providers. Offering a range of services together can have major benefits on consumers’ health, said Kelly Bliss, president of U.S. Group Health at Teladoc. For example, people who are enrolled in the company’s chronic care program as well as its mental health program have proven to reduce A1C levels, improve their blood pressure and achieve weight loss, she said.
“[The app is] a front door, but I also think it helps that member navigate,” Bliss said in an interview. “A lot of times people talk about that front door and the front door only leads to one bedroom. So what I think is important and different for this integrated app is that it’s a front door and it’s really allowing you to navigate in a way that is personalized into services that matter most to your health.”
All of the services are available in Spanish. After determining that there was a gap among the company’s Hispanic users, Teladoc hired more than 100 new Spanish-speaking providers in the last year. It also added new components to its programs, like expanding its nutrition plan to include foods from users’ cultures, Bliss said.
“I would argue that it’s not just language in an app,” Bliss said. “That’s relatively easy to do, especially for a tech company. We weren’t just trying to add Spanish, we were looking to improve health outcomes for Spanish-speaking members.”
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The Spanish language feature is partially what sets the revamped app apart from what the company previously offered, as well as its additional care coordination services and allowing patients to review their care plans in one spot. By offering this new app, Teladoc hopes to make it easier for patients to receive care, Bliss said.
“Our mission has been to improve the healthcare experience so that it’s more personalized, it’s more convenient, it’s more targeted at what the members’ needs are to drive better health outcomes … People are sick and tired of five apps that all manage different components of their health,” she said.
Other virtual health companies include chronic disease care companies like Omada Health or Virta or telemedicine companies like MDLive.
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