When Teladoc closed its $18.5B acquisition of Livongo, it set the stage for extra mergers to come back. Now, two extra established digital well being corporations are pairing up.
On Tuesday, Grand Rounds introduced plans to merge with Physician on Demand, creating an organization that may construct on Grand Rounds’ care navigation providers with the latter’s telehealth platform.
“Nobody has executed this earlier than, combining navigation and digital care supply. We predict it’s the long run,” Grand Rounds Co-Founder and CEO Owen Tripp mentioned in a information launch. He’ll grow to be the CEO of the mixed firm.
The 2 digital well being startups determined to merge as they anticipated sufferers to fulfill extra with their medical groups on-line — a change that was additional accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, in keeping with Grand Rounds Company Advertising Director Jenn Davis.
“Each of our corporations had been shifting rapidly to fulfill this demand, and as we had been evaluating a possible merger, we realized sturdy synergies throughout our platforms and groups,” she wrote in an emailed assertion.
The businesses didn’t disclose the phrases of the all-stock deal, however they anticipate that the mixed entity could have about 2,000 workers.
For now, each startups will hold their present names, and Hill Ferguson will stay CEO of Physician on Demand. After the deal closes, he’ll have a seat on the mixed firm’s board.
San Francisco-based Grand Rounds, which was based in 2011, began off as a second-opinion service by providing digital consultations with specialists. Since then, it has constructed out applications to assist workers navigate their well being advantages and discover in-network suppliers, bringing on large purchasers together with Walmart and Residence Depot.
Final fall, it raised $175 million, which it deliberate to make use of to construct out digital main care providers. However with an upcoming merger, the mixed firm ought to have that coated.
Physician on Demand, which was based in 2012, is competing with publicly traded corporations Teladoc and Amwell for a slice of the telehealth market. Earlier this yr, it launched a digital main care plan with Texas-based managed care group Neighborhood Well being Alternative.
The concept behind the deal is to mix Grand Rounds’ affected person navigation and advocacy providers with digital main care, constructing an end-to-end resolution — and making a extra complete telehealth service than the digital pressing care visits of the previous.
“I’m extremely enthusiastic about what the merger of our two corporations means for the supply of healthcare on this nation,” Physician on Demand President Robin Glass wrote in an emailed assertion. “We are going to construct the primary actually built-in digital care and care navigation mannequin to deal with the large downside of uncoordinated care, which means decreased prices, improved well being outcomes and a dramatically higher affected person expertise.”
The deal is predicted to shut within the first half of 2021, topic to regulatory approval and shutting circumstances.
Photograph credit score: IvelinRadkov, Getty Photos