Blue Cross NC Widens Teladoc Collab, Bolstering Telehealth Services

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is expanding its collaboration with Teladoc Health to offer wider access to the company's virtual care platform and telehealth services.

Starting in 2022, self-funded Blue Cross NC employers will gain access to Teladoc's full suite of chronic care management solutions, which are focused on helping patients manage diabetes, hypertension, and mental health. Specifically, employers will be able to offer their employees digital health solutions designed by myStrength and Livongo Health, which merged with Teladoc in a massive $18.5 billion deal last year.

"Through our collaboration with Teladoc Health, we can continue to offer more equitable access to chronic disease digital solutions regardless of physical location and work to make healthcare better for all North Carolinians," said Dr. Roberta Capp, chief medical officer at Blue Cross NC, in the news release.

Blue Cross NC, like many insurers, expanded its telehealth policy when the pandemic hit, reimbursing video and telephone-based clinical visits at the same rate as in-person visits. This expanded policy will remain in place through March 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic drove telehealth usage to new heights, with providers and payers rapidly pivoting to virtual offerings as demand for in-patient care shrank. In fact, Blue Cross NC saw telehealth usage increase by 7,500 percent in 2020, the company reported in its year-end financial results.

Telehealth use has remained high this year, with one McKinsey report showing usage stabilized at levels 38 times higher than prior to the pandemic.

Telehealth companies, like Teladoc, have reaped the benefits of this rise and expanded into new models of care. The company's revenue for the third quarter of fiscal year 2021 jumped to about $521 million, an 81 percent increase compared with the approximately $288 million in revenue it reported in Q3 2020. This spike was largely attributable to the launch of Primary360, its own virtual primary care model, in October.

But as telehealth maintains its popularity amid a return to in-person care, the service is not without its pain points.

User satisfaction with both direct-to-consumer and payer-provided telehealth took a hit in 2021, according to the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Telehealth Satisfaction Study released last month. The survey, which polled about 4,700 consumers, shows that there are several barriers to virtual care, including limited services (cited by 24 percent of respondents) and confusing technology requirements (cited by 15 percent).

Fixing these issues will require widespread collaboration on the part of payers, providers and companies. In particular, telehealth companies may want to consider going the Teladoc route and establishing and expanding partnerships with providers and payers as research shows patients much prefer using telehealth services provided by these organizations.

About 72 percent of telehealth users said that they accessed virtual care through their doctor or health plan, while only 17 percent said they used on-demand services, according to recent data from Morning Consult.