Since the world continues to shift to a more remote and digital new normal, the continual rise of services transitioning online continues. This expands into the medical industry as well and Teladoc is one of the biggest players around.
About Teladoc
Teladoc was founded in 2002 in Dallas with the purpose of offering digital healthcare services. It steadily grew its network and partnerships through acquisitions of competitors. Eventually, in 2015 it became a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange and has continued to offer numerous telehealth services.
What it offers
Teladoc helps facilitate numerous types of medical examinations. It covers primary health care and maintenance through a dedicated team. There’s also the ability to run annual checkups and maintain a personalized medical team if needed for ongoing medical treatments. The system enables connections between patients and doctors directly within minutes and is available 24/7 for most medical needs and requirements.
Doctors are able to diagnose and prescribe treatments remotely through the system. They are able to also process and transmit requests for prescriptions to be dispatched.
It covers general medical issues, neck and back pain, nutrition, and dermatology. The software enables uploads of images directly to the doctor who can perform the examination remotely. There’s also the option to receive complex care support to help make those critical medical decisions based on a diagnosis.
It also offers a mental health support system to connect patients with therapists to help with support for a number of disorders and trauma management.
Pricing
Teladoc itself has a confusing pricing model as a patient will not know their cost upfront without checking with their health insurance plan through their employer. There are some discussions where the pricing can be $0 with certain insurance levels, to $75 without insurance. That also seems just for a general medical checkup and it isn’t completely clear if that covers the cost of the medical treatment itself.
Continuing along with the confusing pricing, there are also some subscription offers for treatment types, such as neck and back pain management, and they seem fixed, but again it’s hard to tell if that’s the cost of the intermediary through Teladoc or if there’s any additional cost or request.
The pricing can be a bit unclear and seems to appear as an additional cost to medical treatment. It doesn’t seem to discount medical treatment either such as prescriptions or advanced medical treatments, or surgeries. There are some indicators that any fees in the U.S. can be applied towards a deductible if there is one.
Keep in mind there is a global presence with Teladoc as the parent company, and countries have vastly different medical insurance schemes, so it’s always best to check on a local setting exactly how much Teladoc will cost in a specific area outside of the United States.
Where are the services available?
Teladoc initially began in the United States and slowly expanded to Canada. It then made acquisitions and rapidly expanded, growing to serve nearly 130 countries by 2019. The level of services that are offered are country-specific and are likely to be partnered with local entities due to medical privacy reasons.
An intermediary corporation
Teladoc is a for-profit service that is completely focused on maximizing its user base and increasing profits. There are some statistics that are showing services such as Teladoc help bring expanded access to medicine around the globe. But it is still up for discussion if there’s an added benefit to these services over medical teleservices that are directly serviced by insurers, or better yet hospitals.
With the unclear pricing and the contrary company goals, the level of technology and service may not be enough.
