Accolade acquiring virtual primary care platform PlushCare

The personalized health and benefit solution company Accolade plans to acquire virtual primary care and mental health platform Plushcare.

According to a news release, this will add clinical depth to the services provide by Accolade by allowing the company to offer virtual primary care and mental health consultations directly to its members for acute, chronic and preventative health needs.

“Healthcare is personal, and the connection between physician and patient is the single most important factor in improving outcomes,” Rajeev Singh, CEO of Accolade, says in the release. “PlushCare has successfully built a market-changing, direct-to-consumer model with virtual capabilities that extend Accolade’s member engagement deeper into the healthcare experience. Our mission is to reinvent healthcare, and this acquisition represents another important step towards realizing that goal. By expanding our clinical team of physician medical directors, nurses, specialists, and benefits experts to include primary care doctors and mental health experts, we are responding to customers who are asking Accolade to expand our capacity to serve their employees at every step of their care journey. Equally important, we extend our capacity to deliver measurable value for employers seeking coordinated, longitudinal care at scale for their workforce.”

Plushcare’s revolutionary primary care network provides patients with access to highly skilled physicians through their smartphone. The physicians consult with patients by video call, orders and arranges prescriptions, orders lab works, and fulfill other regular duties of an in-person visit. Combining this with Accolade’s navigation and advocacy services will elevate Plushcare’s business to a new level for both companies’ clients, the release says.

“Primary care doctors play a critical role in delivering preventive care and chronic disease management, areas of the healthcare system ripe for reinvention, reducing waste and significantly lowering the overall cost of healthcare for everyone,” Ryan McQuaid, CEO of PlushCare, says in the release. “Our member NPS is more than 90, reflecting the incredible relationships that we have created between patients and their PlushCare physicians. We are excited to join forces with Accolade to extend our services into their member base, while leveraging Accolade’s unique engagement model and vast data set to continually improve the way we service our customers. Together we will continue to reinvent healthcare for the 21st century in new and exciting ways.”