At long last? Neil Versel at Mobihealthnews sees a trend in M&A and VC dollars now directing into telehealth devices and systems. His examples: Alere and MedApps, Alere’s partnership with WellDoc and AT&T ForHealth, Telcare’s $25.5 million raise from Sequoia Capital backed by Qualcomm (on top of an earlier $7 million funding) and WellDoc’s planning of a $10 million next round of funding. But one citation–that of the Intel-GE Care Innovations redirection/consolidation into senior living/care–doesn’t exactly prove the case. It’s already a JV, and the extent of its investment in products and operations is unknown except by company insiders. Momentum for home monitoring of costly chronic diseases
Could it be that answering the first two FBQ’s* of ‘who pays’ and ‘how much’ can be highly attractive to new company funding? It should be noted that WellDoc’s CEO stated to the New York Times that two unnamed insurance companies have already agreed to pay the bill for patients whose doctors prescribe it when it is available early next year, at a cost of around $100/month. That is a huge hurdle and an impressive move if it is not a short-term deal.
* The Five Big Questions (FBQs)–who pays, how much, who’s looking at the data, who’s actioning it, how data is integrated into patient records.