Teladoc announces ‘fully integrated health care experience’ with app redesign

Online telehealth provider Teladoc Health Inc. hopes to deliver “a fully integrated health care experience” with its newly redesigned digital app.

This month Teladoc announced technology for patients “to seamlessly access Teladoc Health’s full range of services, including primary care, mental health, and chronic condition management from one place,” with a single account.

The company continues aiming squarely at primary care.

“Our goal is to provide options for those individuals who don’t have primary care or good chronic condition management or mental health support,” said Teladoc Chief Medical Officer Vidya Raman-Tangella, said in a news release. “This fully integrated experience not only helps individuals navigate between physical and mental health, but it also takes into consideration social determinants of health that play an integral part in their wellbeing.”

Spanish language services will be available through the updated app and the company said its efforts to add more than 100 Spanish-speaking physicians and other providers “made an immediate and measurable impact” last year. For example, Teladoc said in late 2022, Spanish-speaking patients using the services gave higher satisfaction ratings than non-Spanish-speaking patients.

“Consumers are tired of connecting the dots between different clinicians, both in-person and virtually. They require their experience to be as seamless as possible,” Teladoc CEO Jason Gorevic, said in the news release. “We are proud to deliver on this expectation, uniquely meeting individual health needs with a tailored solution to care for the whole person and deliver better outcomes for all.”

The app design is built around the company’s “Connector” logo that Teladoc said “represents the ongoing connection between customers and the care they need to achieve new levels of health.”

Based on its own study, Teladoc said 60% of consumers preferred virtual access to health care due to frustrations around care coordination. In mid-November last year, Teladoc announced it had reached 50 million visits in its 20-year history, with growth in primary care last year at four times the rate of 2021.

As of Jan. 9, the company announced it expected its 2022 total revenue to range from $2.403 billion to $2.410 billion, with about $1 billion coming from its BetterHelp mental health app, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Fourth-quarter revenue was expected to be $633 million to $640 million, with 2022 results posting up to 18.6 million annual visits from up to 58 million total U.S. paid members. For the third quarter of 2022, Teladoc posted a net loss of $73.5 million, or 45 cents a share, according to SEC filings.

As of Jan. 6, stock analyst The Motley Fool and other business websites noted Teladoc stock slumped on a day on a relatively good day for the S&P 500 index. As of Jan. 9, MarketWatch reported Teladoc’s stock price was increasing based on the company announcing its 2022 earnings expectations.

In recent years, Teladoc posted growth in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the company’s merger with Livongo in 2020.