Solving Problems in Healthcare IT for Two Decades: Serial Entrepreneur and American Well CEO Ido Schoenberg (Part 6)

Sramana: Among the benefits you are bringing to the space is the ability to become a bridge to the EMR systems.

Ido Schoenberg: EMR is very important, and that is an example of one area where we do highly integrated with a backbone facility. If you are a WellPoint member, you want to make sure that when you get teleservices, you don’t have to pay a full payment. That sounds like an easy thing, but it is very complicated.

Sramana: I don’t doubt it. It seems there are two bridges that you are providing, and both of them are complicated and incredibly important. One is the bridge into the EMR systems of the medical institution, and the other is the bridge to the payment systems of the insurance companies.

Ido Schoenberg: What we need to do is make an encounter as informed, specific and personal as possible. You could argue that it would be possible to Skype with your doctor or have a telephone conversation with your doctor. If you did that, however, the physician would be divorced from all of the background data to truly help that patient.

Sramana: The two main things missing from that scenario are the EMR integration for reference and documentation, which lead naturally to the payment system. That is what stops doctors from using Skype.

Ido Schoenberg: Those are very important aspects to be considered. There are also issues around data transfer and documentation. Things like HIPAA and security are also very important.

Sramana: So you are also addressing regulatory concerns such as a secure communication channel that is HIPAA compliant?

Ido Schoenberg: Exactly. We are addressing those kinds of concerns to give physicians the tools they need to properly provide a telehealth experience. We have the documentation that supports audits, we have the security that addresses HIPAA requirements, and we have ERM integration that provides context of the patient consult.

Sramana: American Well is bridging gaps and creating a system to provide healthcare more efficiently. You are leveraging electronic communications prevalent in society today and configuring them so that they can be used in the healthcare space.

Ido Schoenberg: We provide safe, secure connections for patients and their healthcare providers in a very affordable way.

Sramana: What kind of market penetration have you been able to achieve to date? What are your deal sizes?

Ido Schoenberg: We don’t complain about the revenue stream. We have an enterprise software sales channel, and we provide our software to large organizations. Most important are the payers that we provide software to. Some of our partners are United Health Group and WellPoint. We also have a lot of Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Solving Problems in Healthcare IT for Two Decades: Serial Entrepreneur and American Well CEO Ido Schoenberg
1 2 3 4 5 6 7