Telehealth companies struggling to stand out in a crowded virtual care market are increasingly leaning on chatbots, online questionnaires, and automated follow-ups to triage patients and trim costs, letting them care for more patients for less money.
Patients seeking on-demand doctors’ visits and quick prescriptions have a growing number of choices, ranging from private companies like Nurx and Ro mainly offering non-emergency care like birth control consultations to behemoths like Amwell tackling primary and urgent care. Despite a surge of patients seen during the pandemic, many of these virtual care companies still haven’t turned a profit. And in a sea of competitors offering similar services, the money they save through automation could make a difference in their financial success.
These companies are scrambling to find ways to save money outside the one-on-one video calls with doctors, said Peter Yellowlees, a psychiatrist at UC Davis Health and former president of the American Telemedicine Association, a lobbying group. To make money, he said, “companies either have to sort of pay smaller amounts to doctors to make sure they have a fair account, or they’ve got to make the doctors more efficient, or they’ve got to just make the experience better [for patients.]”
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