Zipnosis, a Minneapolis, MN-based virtual care platform has raised a $17 million in Series A funding led by Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. The round also included participation from Ascension Ventures, a subsidiary of Ascension, the nation’s largest non-profit and Catholic health system; along with existing investors Fairview Health Services, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Arthur Ventures, Waterline Ventures and Omphalos Ventures.

Zipnosis offers virtual care for more than 90 conditions and is expanding into chronic care conditions. The telemedicine company plans to use the capital to expand Zipnosis’ sales and marketing efforts and to accelerate product development. The company currently works with approximately 17 health system customers including Fairview Health Services, University of Alabama-Birmingham, Group Health, and John Muir Health.

Evidence-based Quality Care Regardless of Access Point

By using Zipnosis’s virtual care solution, health systems can launch their own white-labeled branded virtual care service line staffed with their own clinicians — maximizing the clinician’s time and ensuring clinically appropriate patient outcomes. Zipnosis guides health systems through clinical, marketing, compliance and operations workflows, and guarantees launch of their virtual care programs in just 60 days. Zipnosis’ white-labeled software integrates with a health system’s EMR and patient portal, and allows health systems to serve both existing and new patients.

How It Works

Zipnosis’ asynchronous platform mimics an in-person interaction between clinician and patient, gathering the necessary information for diagnosis and providing clinicians with appropriate treatment options. For patients, the user experience is seamless. The patient simply logs into the health system’s branded virtual care site and completes a short, dynamic online interview that gathers information about the patient’s condition. Then, behind the scenes, Zipnosis’ algorithm of triage tools sends the interview to the appropriate clinician within the health system for diagnosis and treatment.

The clinician is presented with structured information that facilitates a diagnosis and treatment decision in about two minutes, delivering the most efficient virtual care encounter on the market. The clinician can triage the patient with a phone or video visit for more information, if necessary. When appropriate, the clinician can e-prescribe medication to be sent to the patient’s pharmacy of choice. The patient is guaranteed a response in under an hour.

“Our platform is designed to enable health systems to expand access to immediate care using their own clinicians,” said Jon Pearce, co-founder and CEO of Zipnosis. “With Zipnosis, health systems have a unique opportunity to care for more patients under their own brand name and without adding staff.  Patients are happier to be ‘seen’ sooner without having to step foot outside their home or go to a waiting room. We are grateful to Safeguard Scientifics, Ascension Ventures and our existing seed investors for their confidence in our team and technology, and for their support that will enable us to expand the innovative access we provide to mainstream medicine through our partnerships with health systems around the U.S.”

Zipnosis, which provides health systems with a white-labeled, fully integrated and comprehensive virtual care platform that utilizes an adaptive online interview, as well as phone and video when appropriate, is expanding its offering with ZipTicket™ – a healthcare “boarding pass” that gives patients front-of-the-line access to routine lab tests such as a rapid strep test.

Evidence-based Quality Care Regardless of Access Point

By using Zipnosis’s virtual care solution, health systems can launch their own white-labeled branded virtual care service line staffed with their own clinicians — maximizing the clinician’s time and ensuring clinically appropriate patient outcomes. Zipnosis guides health systems through clinical, marketing, compliance and operations workflows, and guarantees launch of their virtual care programs in just 60 days. Zipnosis’ white-labeled software integrates with a health system’s EMR and patient portal, and allows health systems to serve both existing and new patients.

How It Works

Zipnosis’ asynchronous platform mimics an in-person interaction between clinician and patient, gathering the necessary information for diagnosis and providing clinicians with appropriate treatment options. For patients, the user experience is seamless. The patient simply logs into the health system’s branded virtual care site and completes a short, dynamic online interview that gathers information about the patient’s condition. Then, behind the scenes, Zipnosis’ algorithm of triage tools sends the interview to the appropriate clinician within the health system for diagnosis and treatment.

The clinician is presented with structured information that facilitates a diagnosis and treatment decision in about two minutes, delivering the most efficient virtual care encounter on the market. The clinician can triage the patient with a phone or video visit for more information, if necessary. When appropriate, the clinician can e-prescribe medication to be sent to the patient’s pharmacy of choice. The patient is guaranteed a response in under an hour.

The company recently raised $17M in Series A funding led by Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. 

Zipnosis, the first virtual care telehealth solution that empowers health systems to launch their own branded virtual care platform, has appointed medtech industry veteran John Jordan to Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Under his leadership, Jordan will focus his time on enhancing Zipnosis’ current efforts to stimulate additional growth for the company. He has more than 25 years of experience working with rapid growth healthcare information technology companies and most recently, nine years helping several healthcare startups create their go-to-market strategy.

Specifically, Jordan started his career with IDX Systems building out their radiology IT business, and then for GE Healthcare after their acquisition of IDX. Jordan has also led the sales and marketing efforts at InSiteOne – a cloud-based medical archive solution that was purchased by Dell in 2010; dbMotion, where he established its North American sales organization and partnership with Allscripts, which eventually purchased the company in 2013; and OpenTempo where he established the company as a market leader in practice based workforce automation solutions.

“I have been privileged to be involved in rapid growth markets throughout my career,” Jordan said. “Patient engagement and the consumerism of healthcare have huge potential as patients get more proactive and connected in their healthcare choices. Zipnosis has a unique approach that provides the highest level of quality in comparison to other options currently available in the market.”

Zipnosis partners with healthcare systems to provide a white-labeled software platform that offers patients ultra convenient access to care while dramatically improving clinician efficiency. The company recently raised $17 million in Series A financing led by Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. with participation from Ascension Ventures, a subsidiary of Ascension, the nation’s largest non-profit and Catholic health system; along with existing investors Fairview Health Services, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Arthur Ventures, Waterline Ventures and Omphalos Ventures.

St. Vincent’s Medical Center has launched its own virtual care platform making MYvirtualcare.com – an online diagnosis and treatment service making it easier for patients to receive care for common health conditions.

Powered by by Zipnosis that connects patients with St. Vincent’s clinicians, MYvirtualcare.com patients can now receive prompt care for conditions such as sinus infections, female bladder infections, pink eye, or colds, coughs, and the flu – for a set fee of $35, less than the cost of many insurance co-pays. The virtual care platform was developed by Zipnosis – a Minnesota-based company that partners with health care systems to provide the technology and methodology to launch a service, meeting the needs of patients while also enhancing their internal processes.

How It Works

Patients can start a virtual visit using MYvirtualcare.com by completing an online adaptive interview that adheres to the latest evidence-based medical guidelines and is similar to what they would experience in a face-to-face visit. The patient’s medical history and symptoms are then forwarded to a St. Vincent’s provider for review and diagnosis.

When the diagnosis and treatment plan are complete, typically within one hour, the patient receives a text or email alert. If a prescription is appropriate, MYvirtualcare.com allows the provider to send the prescription electronically to the pharmacy of the patient’s choice. If the clinician determines that the patient’s symptoms require a face-to-face visit, St. Vincent’s staff will help the patient to book that appointment, as well.

St. Vincent’s clinicians are available for virtual diagnosis seven days a week from 8:30 am to 10:00 pm. Patients may access MYvirtualcare.com 24/7 via computer, smartphone or other Web-enabled device, and off-hour visits will be reviewed and followed up on within one hour of opening the next day.

“At St. Vincent’s, we are keenly aware of the fact that healthcare delivery must address multi-generational needs. MYvirtualcare.com has proven to be a welcome alternative for patients,” explained Frank Scifo, MD, medical director, St. Vincent’sMultiSpecialty Group. “Not only have patients found it convenient and easy to navigate, they appreciate the relatively low cost for this care. It has enhanced both the patient and provider experience because care is available when physician offices or convenient care sites are closed or may not be easily accessible.”

Inspira Health Network, one of southern New Jersey’s leading healthcare providers offering primary, acute and advanced care services is launching its own virtual care platform, Inspira eCare. The platform virtually connects patients with Inspira clinicians making it convenient and cost-effective for patients to receive care for common health conditions.

Powered by virtual care company Zipnosis, Inspira eCare’s virtual care platform allows patients to use their smartphones, tablets or computers to complete a short online interview that adapts intuitively based on how patients answer the questions. A physician employed by Inspira Health Network then reviews the interview results and provides the diagnosis and treatment plan. If needed, the evidence-based online adaptive interview can be supplemented with a video visit (for example, if the patient might have pink eye and the provider needs a visual confirmation).  For existing Inspira Urgent Care and Inspira Medical Group patients, the provider can electronically send a prescription to the patient’s pharmacy of choice, if appropriate.

Inspira’s move into virtual healthcare is a natural progression of its focus on innovation, technology and patient experience. The health system selected the Zipnosis virtual care platform after two years of focused research.

“We liked the idea of using our own providers in an innovative way that delivers both continuity of care and a competitive advantage,” said Evelyn Balogun, MD, MPH, FACOEM, Medical Director of Urgent Care at Inspira Health Network. “Inspira has been implementing a number of new digital technologies for our patients, including a completely responsive website and a suite of mobile apps. Virtual healthcare is yet another way we can enhance patients’ digital experience and give them another access point to our health system.”

Inspira comprises three hospitals, several multi-specialty health centers, a cancer center and urgent care services, totaling more than 100 access points staffed by 1,100 physicians and other healthcare providers. Recently, the health network opened its sixth urgent care center, with plans to open four more by next year.

“Our urgent care centers offer expanded hours and convenient service, which has been a major focus for us when it comes to patient access,” Balogun said. “The Zipnosis virtual health platform is an extension of that, enabling us to provide patients with the care they need, when they need it—in their own homes.”

Inspira’s virtual care services are supported by clinicians within the network who deliver primary care and urgent care services. The Zipnosis virtual care platform allows Inspira to leverage excess clinical capacity in between in-person appointments. Diagnoses are guaranteed within an hour.

“All of our practices are connected with the same EHR platform so that patient information is well integrated and can easily be shared across the system,” Balogun said. “Our continuity of care in the digital space mirrors that. The quality and continuity of care delivered by the Zipnosis platform is the same as that provided by a patient’s primary care physician in a brick-and-mortar location.”

Zipnosis CEO Jon Pearce explains how companies like his are helping health providers tap into virtual healthcare—behind the screens.

Consumer interest in virtual health services is growing, but are health providers ready to deliver them? A recent Accenture study revealed that more than three-quarters of its 1,501 respondents would use virtual services—however, only 21 percent of those same respondents noted receiving virtual services.

Physicians could save big by providing virtual services in combination with office visits; Accenture research estimates approximately $7 billion worth annually for primary-care physicians who offer electronic/telemedicine tools for after-care, follow-ups and services supporting chronic disease management. While it’s evident providers are lagging when it comes to adopting virtual care, tech companies like Zipnosis are helping them get up to speed.

“Once we began working with our first health system, we came up with the idea of integrating lab and virtual care into brick-and-mortar health organizations,” said Jon Pearce, CEO of the virtual care vendor based in Minneapolis, MN. “The core concept is that patients can quickly and easily access a virtual care platform through a smartphone, tablet or PC to receive high-quality care and be triaged directly via a phone or video encounter when needed or directed to visit an in-person lab clinic.”

Zipnosis primarily helps providers treat minor or acute conditions through its platform via a variety of services including lab diagnostics. The company originally focused on the consumer market but quickly shifted to helping health systems by providing a white-label platform for virtual care services. Pearce says Zipnosis recognized the value of health systems’ pre-established relationships with their patients. In turn, partnering with a virtual care partner helps health systems bring in new patients by serving the growing desire among them for virtual care.   

As an extension of telemedicine, virtual care has its fair share of scrutiny when it comes to effectiveness. However, Pearce says that’s why working with virtual care partners with expanded services that include lab diagnostics, for example, is so important. One of the major criticisms of virtual/telemedicine services has been the overprescribing of medications to please the consumer. To help health systems combat the issue, Zipnosis integrated lab diagnostics into its platform when it developed ZipTicket in February 2016: since then, companies like Teladoc have followed suit.

Using the virtual care platform, patients conduct online interviews that determine if they need brick-and-mortar lab services. The user then obtains a ZipTicket, which acts as a fast pass for a lab test at a nearby clinic within his/her health system. Results are sent through the virtual care platform to the medical provider, who then creates the treatment plan, prescribing antibiotics, if needed. It’s yet another added virtual convenience for the patient and a potential time and money saver for the provider.

Get a Game Plan

So, if there are so many benefits to offering virtual care services, why aren’t more providers doing it? Pearce said there are challenges, and that good tech is only part of the solution; health systems need a high degree of collaboration with staff. When offering virtual lab services, there are lab locations and other logistics to consider. Additionally, it’s important to train nurses and front office staff properly, so the processes run smoothly.

For successful implementations of virtual services, you need three areas need to be addressed, according to Pearce: operational workflows, change management, and communications (both internally and externally among the staff and patients). All three aspects must be solid for optimal patient experience—and that takes having a game plan.

“Similar to a football team on game day, we have an implementation playbook that we use when launching new services,” said Pearce. “For example, our ‘playbook’ includes recommendations to health systems about how to best introduce our new virtual care service to patients. This combination of expertise, collaboration and experience ensures a successful virtual care launch for our health system partners.”

As for tackling interoperability issues, Pearce said that it’s important to work with a virtual care partner that understands the provider’s vision to support continuity of care, including delivering visit summaries directly into an existing EHRs. Companies like Zipnosis achieve integration by using open APIs and HL7 in their software architecture, which allows them to embed solutions into health systems’ patient portals as well as enable smart-triage into scheduling systems, incorporate eligibility and claims services, and integrate ZipTicket on the laboratory side.

Despite all the technical details, Pearce suggests a key piece of wisdom to keeping in mind when it comes to implementing virtual care—it’s still very much about people behind the screens. Health systems and vendors should be cognizant that patients may prefer different modes of care based on their age or condition(s). These preferences can be assessed through user testing, and virtual care services can be adapted accordingly. “You have to keep sight of the end-user. What are their real-world issues? How do we understand these matters and address them with empathy? Access, cost and healthcare requirements all have to be considered,” he said.

Despite the political uncertainties that currently loom around U.S healthcare, Pearce said the shift toward value-based care isn’t going anywhere and hasn’t caused hesitation among the health systems it works with when it comes to adopting virtual care services. While the utilization of virtual care and telemedicine services has been relatively low historically, it seems to be growing as consumers get more comfortable with technology and more conscious about the cost and quality of their care.

As a result, provider organizations should also have a virtual care/telemedicine strategy in place. If they haven’t yet developed a strategy, the right virtual care partner can help them by examining which problems they are trying to solve, where the value lies, and how to demonstrate strong ROI.

“Think about virtual care as a clinical and business strategy. From a clinical perspective, virtual care expands a patient’s choice and access to care. From a business perspective, virtual care offers the provider organization greater capacity and productivity since an online adaptive interview takes only two to three minutes of a clinician’s time to treat a patient,” Pearce concluded.

Zipnosis, a virtual care-focused company has announced the formation of the Clinical Quality Advisory Council, a group of healthcare leaders across the U.S. that are committed to providing clinical and strategic guidance to the virtual care industry.

The Council will perform reviews of Zipnosis’ current evidence-based clinical guidelines,support ongoing quality assurance efforts, and help to establish best practices for clinical quality for outpatient virtual care. During the inaugural meeting in March, members set forth a series of goals for the Council and defined several clinical quality metrics for the Zipnosis platform, intended to guide the virtual care industry as a whole. These metrics focus on antibiotic stewardship, including targets for first-line antibiotic prescribing (when clinically appropriate), monitoring of appropriate prescribing for viral upper respiratory infections, and clinical guideline adherence monitoring and management strategies. Identified targets include:

– First-line antibiotic prescribing – 95%

– Guideline adherence for managing sinusitis – 95%

– Guideline adherence for managing urinary tract infection – 98%

– Guideline adherence for managing conjunctivitis – 98%

“Ensuring clinical quality and patient safety is essential – whether care is delivered online or in-person – and we believe that Zipnosis has a responsibility in helping to set quality standards for the virtual care industry,” said Zipnosis Chief Clinical Officer, Kevin Smith in a statement. “I’m excited and honored to be working with healthcare leaders whose enthusiasm, engagement, and expertise is invaluable in guiding what these standards should be.”

The healthcare leaders involved in the Clinical Quality Advisory Council are:

– Evelyn Balogun, MD, MPH, MBA, FACOEM – Medical Director Urgent Care and Occ/Employee Health Services, Inspira Health Network

– Brian Bossard, MD – President, Bryan Telemedicine, Bryan Health

– Stephanie Cowan, DNP, FNP-C – Clinical Coordinator, Seattle, MultiCare Health System

– Deborah Greer, MD – Executive Medical Director, John Muir Health

– Steve North, MD, MPH – Clinical Director, Mission Virtual Care, Mission Health

– Dang Tran, MD – Vice President, Medical Practice, Fairview Health Services

– Darin Willardsen, MD, MBA, SFHM – Vice President, Chief Medical Information Officer, CentraCare

Methodist Family Health Centers, a part of Methodist Medical Group and affiliate of Methodist Health System, today announced the launch of Methodist NOW – an online diagnosis and treatment service that enables patients to receive convenient access to care by connecting them virtually with trusted Methodist Family Health Center providers.

Today, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and Zipnosis announced a strategic partnership to provide a virtual care platform to the AAFP’s 129,000 members and their patients. With the virtual care platform’s online diagnosis and treatment solution with the option of video, AAFP members now can offer their patients convenient access to care by connecting them virtually with their family physician anywhere at any time.

AAFP plans to offer the virtual care platform to a select group of innovators as part of a pilot designed to help further tailor it to the specific needs of family physicians. The service will be available to all AAFP members later in 2018.

AAFP members can use this platform to deliver care from any internet-connected device in a way that meets their schedule and the needs of their patients. The service offers AAFP members in small to medium independent practices a simple, streamlined approach to virtual care that pairs a self-service focus with expert back-end support.

The partnership between the AAFP and Zipnosis will give family physicians across the country access to a virtual care platform designed to meet their unique needs and those of their patients. The virtual care platform will offer online adaptive interview technology that allows the patient to provide symptom and health history information for diagnosis and treatment by their physician and real-time video consultations that enable the patient to remotely connect with their physician.

“Forward-thinking organizations such as the AAFP understand the importance of leveraging innovative technology to tackle the current challenges that family physicians and their patients face,” said Jon Pearce, CEO of Zipnosis. “By partnering with Zipnosis, they have the technology and resources to allow them to offer their members a virtual care solution that unlocks clinical capacity and improves patients’ access to care across the U.S.”

Virtual care company Zipnosis, today announced the launch of Surgical Care, the latest platform expansion that allows patients to receive post-operative care from the comfort of their homes. This module represents a new direction for the overall platform, which still maintains a focus on episodic, urgent care conditions, and is the next step toward growing the solution to meet a wider variety of clinical needs while continuing to improve access to care.

Zipnosis Surgical Care Overview

Surgical Care offers hospitals and surgical centers the ability to shift routine in-person post-operative visits to an online access point, saving time for both the surgical team and patients. Surgical teams also have the option to add online visits between in-person visits as a means of ensuring post-operative care compliance to help improve patient recovery. Since most surgeries are reimbursed as a bundled payment, virtual visits are a cost-effective option for post-operative care.

As part of the post-operative care plan, the hospital or surgical center identifies at what points the patient should complete a virtual check-in. On the day of the virtual appointment, the patient receives an email reminder, logs into the online platform and completes a brief interview that includes uploading a photo of the incision site. Members of the surgical team can then review the response and provide updates to the post-operative care plan or request the patient come in to the clinic for a more in-depth evaluation.

The Surgical Care module currently offers support for post-operative care and is initially focused on supporting orthopedic surgery. Other surgical care options are coming soon.

“At Zipnosis, we are focused on addressing health systems’ pain points, and through these conversations, we continue to hear that they need more complete virtual care solutions,” said Jon Pearce, CEO of Zipnosis. “By expanding the Zipnosis platform to support time-efficient post-surgical visits, we are answering this need and equipping health systems with technology to aid their success in a value-based reimbursement environment. As the market matures, we will continue to explore other areas of the care continuum, where a virtual solution can bring value to healthcare organizations, providers and patients.”

Virtual care software company, Zipnosis has announced the launch of ZipPlus – a customized virtual care platform offering designed to give health systems the tools and support they need to deliver truly personalized care. 

Today’s Health Systems Not Realizing Benefits of Virtual Care

Health systems are not fully realizing the benefits of virtual care as they struggle to overcome disparate technologies that are designed without the patient at the center, and implemented without provider workflow and integration considerations, according to research from Zipnosis’s recent benchmark report. Specifically, 54 percent of health systems say they expect integrating virtual care with existing technology solutions to be a challenge and 61 percent expect roadblocks when it comes to gaining provider acceptance. That’s in addition to the 64 percent who report that patient utilization has been a challenge since deploying their virtual care solution.

ZipPlus Personalized Virtual Care Platform

Delivering personalized care is twofold – once access to care is established, a vital step in the patient journey is finding the right kind of care in the most seamless and convenient way. ZipPlus aims to provide an improved patient experience while addressing major pain points of health systems such as provider workflow and integration to existing technology solutions. The platform combines Zipnosis’ existing technology to pair patients with providers virtually via chat, video, asynchronous interview, and phone – giving patients a personalized, unique experience – specific to the care they need.

Why It Matters

“We continue to hear from our health system customers that virtual care deployment is narrow and integration is a challenge, and in many cases prohibiting widespread adoption,” said Jon Pearce, CEO, Zipnosis. “ZipPlus breaks down these barriers in two ways. The first barrier is technology. Within the ZipPlus program, we can fully integrate the patient and provider experience via FHIR or API’s into Epic, Cerner and Athena. The second barrier is an aligned strategy for virtualizing care. With ZipPlus, Zipnosis and our partners sit down to create a multi-year roadmap for clinical business lines, such as behavioral health, post-surgical follow-up, travel medicine, hypertension – or any service using our powerful virtual care technology platform as the foundation. These unique roadmap partnerships are truly a first for the industry and position us well as the undisputed standard in virtual care.”

– Zipnosis and GYANT join forces to offer a more intuitive and accessible digital patient experience with a digital front door for healthcare organizations.

– The new joint solution combines GYANT’s chat-based AI patient engagement and evaluation capabilities with Zipnosis’ virtual and asynchronous care capabilities to improve the digital patient experience throughout the entire care journey, while simultaneously efficiently utilizing staff resources and improving care.

 Zipnosis, a San Francisco, CA-based multi-modal virtual care provider built to improve the patient and provider experience, and GYANT, an artificial intelligence (AI) enabled platform for improving care utilization and pathways, announced today they are partnering to offer a larger, more holistic Digital Front Door for healthcare The Zipnosis + GYANT Digital Front Door is available now for healthcare organizations committed to a seamless patient experience. organizations.

Today’s Disjointed Patient Experience

The challenges facing healthcare today have been codified over decades. As a result, patient engagement and communication is disjointed across the different stages of the healthcare journey, leaving patients confused and putting a strain on health system resources. Zipnosis and GYANT are committed to helping the industry better serve patients across the continuum of care, seamlessly integrating technology into workflows across service lines and use cases.

The Zipnosis + GYANT Digital Front Door Overview

The combined solution empowers healthcare organizations, through one software integration, to improve their digital patient experience, more efficiently use staff resources, and accelerate their virtual care strategy. The solution leverages artificial intelligence to offer patients support and personalization throughout their entire care journey, bringing together GYANT’s chat-based solution for initial patient engagement and evaluation, and the Zipnosis virtual care platform with industry-leading asynchronous technology, a large breadth of protocols, and diagnosis and triage capabilities. Together, Zipnosis and GYANT support over 47 health systems nationwide.

Why It Matters

“It’s time for digital tools in healthcare that actually improve the human experience. Zipnosis has been committed to creating a Digital Front Door in healthcare for years, in fact we were so committed to the idea we trademarked the term in 2016. However, our partnership with GYANT marks a new era in that commitment. Together we have created an even broader funnel for patients that want to understand how to start accessing healthcare services, regardless of the service. Our partnership ensures customers are able to install a single Digital Front Door. This means one contract, one implementation process, and one EMR integration.” 

Jon Pearce, Zipnosis Co-Founder & CEO

What You Should Know:

– New KLAS telehealth reports aims to aims to provide high-level COVID-19 guidance helpful to healthcare organizations on the virtual care and remote care platform vendor landscape.

– Includes high-level overviews of validated vendors’ current customer satisfaction, key questions to consider in building a strategy, and a consolidated view of KLAS’ previously published telehealth reports.

Telehealth adoption in healthcare until recently had been increasing at a slow, gradual pace; however, adoption has skyrocketed in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. Lawmakers have been forced to respond quickly with relaxed privacy and reimbursements regulations in an attempt to remove some of the standard barriers’ healthcare organizations would face in adopting telehealth solutions.

In a new KLAS report, the first of two COVID-19 focused telehealth reports aims to aims to provide high-level guidance helpful to organizations as they make immediate decisions and also solidify long-term telehealth strategies. It includes high-level overviews of validated vendors’ current customer satisfaction, key questions to consider in building a strategy, and a consolidated view of KLAS’ previously published telehealth reports.

Telehealth Vendor Landscape Performance Data

Provider organizations are now turning to a wide variety of solutions during the COVID-19 crisis, including many vendors that KLAS hasn’t validated yet.  KLAS outlined a high-level overview of customer satisfaction data for the virtual care and remote patient monitoring vendors:

Virtual Care Platform: Software/hardware solutions that facilitate diagnosis, consultation, treatment, monitoring, education, and care management via tele/video-communication technologies.

American Well – 78.0/100

Early market entrant with large presence. Generally used by larger health systems and some payers. Broad capabilities typically meet customer expectations. Some declining satisfaction as customers struggle to achieve desired outcomes and receive needed support as Amwell grows. Some EMR integration challenges reported.

InTouch Health Virtual Care Platform – 86.7/100

Best in KLAS winner recently acquired by Teladoc. Customers highlight strong, easy-to-use product and vendor focus on helping customers achieve desired outcomes. Validated for all visit types but stands out for telespecialty visits. Generally strong support strained at times by rapid growth. Lower value for some due to cost of product and perceptions of nickel-and-diming.

*MDLIVE Virtual Medical Office – 81.4/100

Stands out for consumer on-demand visits backed by physician network; also facilitates virtual clinic visits and telespecialty consultations. Limited customer feedback shows strong satisfaction with general support and physician support line. Some struggle with integration, resulting in duplicate schedules and workflow issues.

*swyMed Telemedicine – 94.4

Primarily used for mobile connections for on-the-go telespecialty consults. Customer feedback very limited, but customers report high value and high satisfaction. Support seen as a strength as company size allows for quick turnarounds and staff is proactive in resolving issues.

*Zipnosis – 88.6/100

Drives value through cost-friendly, consumer-centric automated patient intake capabilities. Feedback limited; suggests customers see them as a partner and appreciate the asynchronous patient communication and ability to triage symptoms and quickly diagnose. Sets proper expectations about company vision and limited product capabilities, though technology gaps, such as video visits, cause some customers to question long-term viability.

Epic Telehealth – 88.4/100

Strong base-level telehealth capabilities built directly into MyChart. Clinicians highly satisfied with ability to conduct virtual visits (most common use case) from within existing workflow. Training is inconsistent; some customers want more optimization guidance. Customers have reported that Epic Telehealth must be paired with video service layer vendor like Zoom or Vidyo, resulting in some patient churn. Epic reports that recently they have introduced their own web-hosted video service layer as an additional option.

Remote Patient Platforms: Solutions that acquire, store, transmit, and display electronic health information from patients outside of conventional care settings— most often their homes. May include readings from biometric devices as well as patient-reported data, such as mood, comfort level, and medication adherence.

Health Recovery Solutions Remote Patient Monitoring Platform – 94.3/100

KLAS Category Leader. Customers report high satisfaction across all metrics KLAS tracks, highlighting the easy-to-use, patient-centric product (including its chat and video visit capabilities). Product backed by high-quality support for providers and patients, causing customers to refer to HRS as a partner that drives value and desired outcomes.

Vivify Health Pathways – 89.7/100

Recently acquired by Optum. Nearly all customers satisfied or very satisfied, with few misses, and are very likely to recommend the product, describing it as customizable, easy to use, and helping them achieve value and outcomes they desire. Support is generally strong; with rapid growth, some customers report longer turnaround than desired. Integration is seen as Vivify’s weakness and can cause reporting issues.

COVID-19 Breaking Down Telehealth Adoption Barriers

In the report, KLAS outlines five barriers and how the response to the COVID-19 outbreak has helped, if only temporarily, to remote them:

1. Regulation

As of March 2020, OCR has relaxed regulations regarding provider/patient communication via private, non-HIPAA compliant communication methods, such as Apple, FaceTime, Skype, etc.

2. Reimbursement

As of March 2020, CMS has broadened access to reimbursements for common office visits, mental health counseling, and preventive screenings. Several private insurers have followed suit.

3. Physician Adoption

Primary care physicians and specialists who were previously hesitant to adopt telehealth have been forced to adopt virtual visits to maintain high patient volumes.

4. Cost

As part of the CARES act, $185 million was allocated to support telehealth programs for rural healthcare facilities. Additionally, $200 million was earmarked for the FCC to support healthcare providers via telecommunication services, information services, and devices necessary to enable telehealth services.

5. Patient Awareness

Many organizations have released free or discounted telehealth services to encourage social distancing measures. Patient uptake has resulted in some organizations experiencing daily telehealth volumes that surpass previous annual volumes.

For more information about the KLAS report, visit https://klasresearch.com/report/covid-19-telehealth-guide/1744

*Limited data

Over the past year, the shortcomings and gaps in healthcare have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The patient and provider experience (and their respective preferences) in care delivery have been no exception to the industry’s shortcomings. 

Providers and patients are looking for more convenient, efficient solutions to simplify the giving and receiving of care. Providers want more time back for face-to-face care with their patients, and patients want more affordable, convenient ways to receive care—whether that be in-person, or virtually. 

This year established for the mainstream that virtual care will play a central role in healthcare as we move out of the dire straits of 2020 and early 2021. Over the last year, we’ve noticed some trends related to revenue and patient acquisition that virtual care has impacted. 

Now more than ever, patients are taking the driver’s seat when it comes to their care. They are raising their expectations in terms of what they consider a good experience, including starting to compare their healthcare experience to other industries like banking, travel, and online shopping.   Health systems that choose to forego patient-centric virtual care solutions will lose patients (and significant revenue) to direct-to-consumer platforms and other systems that have invested in virtual care.  To that end, here are some key drivers health systems should be considering when it comes to implementing or refining an existing, long-term virtual care strategy. 

Virtual care drives new patient acquisition 

76 percent of consumers are interested in using virtual care going forward, compared to just 11 percent in 2019. 

Furthermore, in reviewing the virtual visits of one health system partner, 40 percent were found to be net-new patients—proving that virtual care has the power to connect patients (who may otherwise avoid care) with health systems in their area. 

Like any other consumer, a positive experience can lead to a repeat visit in the future and this is especially true in healthcare. Health systems that offer virtual visits are now 276 percent more likely to convert new patients than systems that don’t offer virtual care at all. Health systems with an established Digital Front Door solution capture more patients and retain those newly acquired patients at a significantly higher rate than health systems without virtual care. 

Virtual care isn’t here to replace the in-person experience. Instead, it’s giving all patients, existing or new, a more convenient (and oftentimes more appropriate) option for accessing care within your system.

Efficiency doesn’t just benefit patients and providers—it improves load management

Load management is crucial to a health system’s clinical efficiency because while an educated estimate can be made, an exact prediction for demand is impossible. 

When load management is done right, it allows health systems to balance the work between providers that might have extra capacity in one facility, with patients that are overwhelming another facility. This is where virtual care can really be a powerful tool to help balance patient demand and load across a health system. 

What we have experienced with COVID-19 is a classic case of load management in action. Providers weren’t able to come into their traditional in-clinic care setting, and patients weren’t comfortable going into the clinic to receive care.  Further, for safety reasons, Health systems did not want patients coming into clinics unless they absolutely needed in person care.  This created the perfect storm of supply at one specific site, not meeting the demand.  

In these cases, our health system partners saw firsthand how virtual care could help meet patient demand.  With virtual care and load management, health systems are able to provide care to patients in-person or virtually—while also guaranteeing provider efficiency isn’t limited to their physical location.

Virtual care is more than urgent care

2020 virtual care visits rose by more than 780 percent over 2019—but it wasn’t just for visits related to COVID-19. Excluding COVID-19 visits, we still saw virtual care utilization increase up to 415 percent.

COVID-19 has proven the value of multi-modal virtual care and its ability to simply, safely, and efficiently treat patients. This same model of care can, and had been throughout the pandemic, applied to numerous clinical specialties. 

One area that we’ve seen significant traction in virtual care is behavioral health. Experts have been referring to the behavioral health crisis as the “silent pandemic”. The demand for behavioral health resources is soaring and will continue to be a critical need. Virtual care has the power to make these resources affordable, efficient, and accessible to patients. 

As health systems plan for a post-pandemic world, virtual care will continue to remain an essential tool in their toolbox. Virtual visits and expanding virtual services has been proven to make healthcare more affordable, accessible, and efficient. Current times and into the next few years will prove to be some of the most innovative in healthcare history. 

About Catherine Murphy

Catherine Murphy has been with Zipnosis since 2017. As Chief Operating Officer, Catherine has responsibility for Customer Success, Professional Services, Product, and Engineering. She believes strongly in improving the access and affordability of healthcare, so she gets great energy from helping Zipnosis customers launch and realize their virtual care strategies. Prior to joining Zipnosis, Catherine was at Surescripts and had responsibility for EMR and health technology customers as well as launching Surescripts Long Term and Post-Acute Care market.  Her background also includes roles at UnitedHealth Group, Lawson Software (now Infor), and techies.com.