Issue 037

Welcome back to E&O Wednesdays, the enrollment-focused digital health newsletter from Exits & Outcomes — for paying subscribers only. This every-other-Wednesday issue digs into digital health companies that sell to self-insured employers as well as others that rely on enrollment-based distribution for their digital health programs.

 E&O Wednesdays: Employers

Here’s what’s going on in employer-distributed digital health…

• I made a note about Omada’s return to clinical trials in recent issues. Well, this week Teladoc posted a new trial in the clinical trials database for the first time in a long time. Read all about its new study on myStrength here, but the somewhat brief summary is: “This is a study to validate myStrength’s macropersonalization algorithm. Specifically, the study seeks to answer: Does myStrength’s macropersonalization algorithm match what a clinician would offer as a diagnosis following an expert assessment? Participants will be treatment-seeking adults, ages 18 to 65, recruited from an evidence-based group psychotherapy practice. Participants will be asked to complete myStrength onboarding and a clinician-conducted initial assessment. Inter-rater reliability will be assessed to determine the consistency between myStrength and clinician in primary focus area of digital program.”
• Sword Health has a new observational study up in the clinical trials database this week that aims to include as many as 300,000 participants: “In any case, this registry will include a complete characterization of the clinical condition, as well as the periodic assessment of: a) joints’ range of motion (collect by the medical device); b) performance indicators (through condition-specific tests); c) patient-reported outcomes (obtained using internationally validated pathology-specific questionnaires); d) pain and fatigue levels (reported by patients by the end of each therapeutic exercise session); e) compliance; f) patient satisfaction.”
• Folx Health announced a new offering for employers that enables them to provide their “LGBTQIA+ workforce end-to-end primary care, gender-affirming care, care advocacy, and community.”
• One more thing… This week I happened upon a trademark filed by UnitedHealth Group (at the end of March) for a new brand named “Sygnal Health”. The filing describes the brand’s services like so: “downloadable mobile applications for collecting patient health information and generating a personal health profile in connection with a disease management program.” Is this the new umbrella brand for diabetes-focused efforts like Level2? The name of the joint venture Optum’s Rally Health is forming with Red Ventures? Something else?

Was this forwarded to you? Increasingly, E&O is a covered benefit from many forward-looking digital health-focused employers. Why not yours? Consider a Business or Enterprise subscription today. Click this link to become a paying subscriber (there are personal plans available too).

Big employer digital benefits stacks: Fidelity and AbbVie

Digital health companies love to boast how many Fortune 500 customers they have. This recurring feature of E&O Wednesdays digs into a different Fortune 500’s (or similarly-sized employer’s) digital health stack. So far, in past Wednesdays issues, I’ve written about the digital health benefits stacks of 32 big companies — click any of their names below to read that previously published Wednesdays newsletter over at the E&O site:

• Walmart,
• Activision Blizzard,
• JP Morgan Chase,
• The Home Depot,
• Boeing,
• 3M,
• Chevron,
• BorgWarner,
• Bank of America,
• UnitedHealth Group,
• Costco,
• eBay,
• McKesson,
• Ford,
• Dell,
• AT&T,
• Disney,
• Novartis,
• Red Bull,
• VMware,
• T-Mobile/Sprint,
• Adobe,
• Phillips 66,
• Cox Enterprises,
• Wells Fargo,
• PayPal,
• Facebook,
• Sony Pictures,
• General Mills,
• General Electric,
• Comcast
• News Corp
• Vanguard
• Nokia
• and HII.

This week I dug into two big companies’ digital health benefits: Fidelity and AbbVie. First up: Here’s a rundown of AbbVie’s digital health benefits:

“Virtual Visits provided by Amwell and Doctor on Demand”

Curiously, AbbVie doesn’t mention Teladoc in its marketing materials related to virtual visits. It only lists out American Well and Doctor on Demand as services available via UnitedHealthcare’s app even though all three of them power UHC’s virtual visits the last time I checked.

Behavioral Health: Sanvello and Talkspace.

“Optum digital programs: Sanvello: App offering techniques to manage stress, anxiety and depression. Talkspace: Online therapy connecting users to licensed therapists (confidential text, voice, video)”

EAP: Optum’s Live and Work Well

“Free, confidential, available 24/7 Work-Life Services (web-based) • Resources for personal concerns: child/elder care, relationships, work/career, schooling, etc. EAP counseling support • 8 face-to-face or virtual counseling sessions for each issue • Support for: Stress, parenting, relationships, grief, eating disorders, leader/manager support, etc.”

AbbVie’s homegrown workplace wellness program named Vitality

Even though it shares a name with another global workplace wellbeing vendor, AbbVie’s Vitality appears to be a distinct and homegrown program. It includes healthy food programs in the company’s cafeterias, health-focused webinar series, global fitness challenges, and more. The company sums up its efforts with Vitality like so: “AbbVie Vitality is your partner in your well-being journey, connecting you to tools, resources and support to help you be your best self – at work and at home… Our mission: Improving employee resiliency and well-being that brings together our current programs with new initiatives that provide managers and their employees resources as they work together for personal and business success”

Care navigation from Health Advocate

“Our experts use compassion and hands-on support to help people navigate the complicated healthcare maze and guide them to the care they need, when they need it.” OK, moving on to Fidelity.

Accolade Health Assistants help Fidelity employees navigate benefits

It’s unclear if Accolade is still available to Fidelity’s employees because some of the copy promises to help them understand their 2020 benefits, however, it appears to still be in place: “You and your covered family member(s) have a dedicated Health Assistant provided through Accolade — your single point of contact for all health and benefits questions. One person, who takes the time to get to know you and your family, understand your unique needs and empower you to make the best healthcare decisions.”

Emotional well-being support from Lyra

“Self-care apps: Tap into self-guided care anytime, any place, even on-the-go. Mental Health coaching: Connect with a mental health coach via video to overcome obstacles. In-person and video therapy: Meet with a high-quality therapist in-person, via video, or even on-site.”

Virtual visits from Intermountain or Teladoc

Fidelity highlights two options for virtual visits among its list of apps that employees should consider downloading: “The Intermountain Connect Care Mobile App provides another option for accessing convenient, high-quality urgent care from Intermountain whenever and wherever you need it.” “Teladoc connects UMR members with a board-certified doctor 24/7/365 through the convenience of phone or video visits. Within minutes, a doctor will contact you ready to listen, and resolve your issue. Register for Teladoc and avoid the waiting room.”

Expert Medical Opinions from Teladoc Medical Experts

Fidelity is one customer that Teladoc landed via its 2018 acquisition of Advance Medical. Teladoc Medical Experts offers Fidelity employees confirmation on a diagnosis, help deciding on treatment options, mental health navigation, help finding a doctor who specializes in their medical condition, acute care case help and more.

Optum’s Quit for Life for tobacco cessation

Optum’s smoking cessation program includes a text-based version named Text2Quit, phones calls with coaches, and online tools. OK — that’s a wrap on Fidelity’s and AbbVie’s very different benefits stacks. Which big employers should I dig into next?

Links to E&O’s reports, databases, newsletters

Click below for dedicated pages for each of those categories:

• Read through the long-form E&O research reports here.
• Search and sort the E&O databases here.
• Skim more than 200 past issues of E&O newsletters here.