Issue 006
Welcome back to E&O: National Virtual Clinics, a digital health newsletter from Exits & Outcomes — for paying subscribers only. This issue digs into digital health companies that operate virtual-first medical practices with direct patient acquisition and in-network provider agreements with payers. Most haven’t scaled nationwide yet. I track state-by-state rollouts in each issue. Hit reply if you know of a virtual clinic that should have gotten a mention below but didn’t. There are many — please help: I want to track them all.
E&O: National Virtual Clinics
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Scoops: One virtual clinic’s as yet unannounced funding round. Plus: Another quietly shuts down
Here’s a funding scoop: New York-based Berry Street Health, which helps dietitians set up their own insurance-covered virtual nutrition-based therapy clinics, quietly raised a little more than $9 million in funding. (This is based on an SEC filing, so it is likely that when the company does announce this raise the total amount is higher than what they disclosed in their Form D. It often is.)
Here’s how Berry Street pitches dietitians:
“Berry Street takes away the administrative burden of working with insurance. From credentialing to claim submission and payment, we make the entire process seamless and stress-free.”
And here’s the big picture overview:
“Berry Street empowers independent dietitians and practice owners to grow thriving in-network practices by enabling them to tap into large-scale credentialing, referrals, administrative and community support enabled by our passionate team/products. When providers no longer have the hassle of mundane admin tasks like billing and insurance claims or the limitations of out-of-pocket-only payment options, they can provide care to the communities who need it most.”
Elemy founder Yury Yakubchyk is an adviser and early backer of Berry Street. (Elemy, which was once known as Sprout Therapy, was initially a virtual-first clinic focused on autism, but it has since pivoted.)
Autoimmune and chronic inflammatory conditions-focused virtual clinic Motto Health seems to have shut down: This Redesign Health-incubated virtual clinic put out a press release in October 2022 that announced its official launch. The virtual clinic’s website was offline about a year later. Also, Redesign Health no longer lists it in its portfolio of incubated companies. The company appointed a new CEO in July.
Motto was available to patients in Texas and California at launch. From what I can tell, it never expanded beyond those initial two states, but it did open up a subsidiary in Washington state, which suggests it eyed that market as a next step. It was in-network with the major health insurance companies in its first two states.
Motto offered care to patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, fibromyalgia, Sjogren’s syndrome, and ankylosing spondylitis. Its offerings went beyond virtual visits and also included lifestyle coaching and a flare-tracking app.
Curiously, Motto Health was named a “Rising Star” as part of an awards ceremony at the HLTH conference in Vegas in October last year. Its website went offline soon afterward.
Which virtual clinics received warning letters from OCR/FTC last summer? Here’s the list.
Last July the feds sent warning letters to 130 organizations — a mix of health systems and telehealth companies — to “draw [their] attention to serious privacy and security risks related to the use of online tracking technologies that may be present on [their] website or mobile application (app) and impermissibly disclosing consumers’ sensitive personal health information to third parties.”
In the form letters, the OCR and FTC did not accuse any of the companies of wrongdoing. Instead, they encouraged the companies “to review the laws cited in this letter and take actions to protect the privacy and security of individuals’ health information.”
At the time this broke the agencies did not disclose the names of the 130 organizations that received this form letter. (I figured it would be a helpful list that included the majority of virtual clinics I should be tracking for this newsletter. I’ve since tracked down the list of recipients who received the letter.) I left out the names of the various health systems and only included the digital health companies below. The list is mostly virtual clinics companies but it also includes a few self-described online pharmacies, online urgent care providers, and others.
By my count, 58 of the 130 letters went to digital health companies, but brands owned by Thirty Madison each received their own warning letters as did various brands owned by Hims. So, they didn’t go to 58 unique digital health companies — closer to 50.
Alright, here’s who received the letter. Skim the list below and let me know if any major virtual clinic companies are missing…
ADHD Online CEO Zachariah Booker
Alfie CEO Alexander Singh
Hello Alpha CEO Gloria Lau
Apostrophe (owned by Hims) Chief Legal Officer Soleil Boughton
Array Behavioral Care CEO Geoffrey Boyce
Bicycle Health CEO Ankit Gupta
Boulder Care General Counsel Ben Maclean
Brightline General Counsel Sarah Weatherhead
Brightside CEO Brad Kittredge
Calibrate CEO Isabelle Kenyon
CallonDoc CEO TJ Oshun MD
Cove c/o ThirtyMadison Demetri Karagas (Co-founder)
Curology CEO Heather Wallace
DearBrightly CEO Amy Chiu
Done CEO Ruthia He
Dorsal CEO Andrew Jin
Eleanor Health (now former) CEO Corbin Petro
Elektra Health CEO Alessandra Henderson
Everlywell CEO Julia Cheek
Facet c/o Thirty Madison CEO Steven Gutentag
Favor (formerly and once again known as The Pill Club) CEO Liz Meyerdirk
Folx CEO Liana Douillet Guzmán
Found CEO Sarah Jones Simmer
Gennev CEO Jill Angelo
Hers (part of Hims) Chief Legal Officer Soleil Boughton
Hims Chief Legal Officer Soleil Boughton
Hone Health CEO Saad Alam
Invigor Medical CEO Michael Hillman
K Health General Counsel Chen Yehudai
Keeps c/o Thirty Madison CEO Steven Gutentag
Kick Health CEO Justin Ip
KwikMed CEO Peter Ax
Lemonaid CEO Paul Johnson (this is owned by 23andMe now)
Mantra Health CEO Matt Kennedy
Mindbloom CEO Dylan Beynon
Minded (since acquired by UpLift) CEO David Ronick
MISTR CEO and President Tristan Schukraft
Musely CEO Jack Jia
My Ketamine Home Medical Director and CEO Kazi Hassan MD
Nue Life CEO Juan Pablo Cappello
Nurx (acquired by Thirty Madison) Medical Director Emily Rymland
Oar CEO Jonathan Hunt-Glassman
Ophelia CEO Zack Gray
Picnic c/o Thirty Madison CEO Steven Gutentag
Plume CEO Matthew Wetschler
PRJKT Ruby CEO Peter Ax
Push Health Co-founder Chirag Shah MD
QCare Plus CEO Quinton Raspberry
QuickMD Regulatory and Compliance Officer Drew Young
Relief Labs dba Clearing CEO Avi Dorfman
Remedy Psychiatry CEO Kirsten Thompson
Roman CEO Zachariah Reitano
Strut Health CEO Simal Patel MD
Talkiatry CEO Robert Krayn
Talkspace CEO Jon Cohen
Wisp (now former) CEO Ahmad Bani
Wondermed CEO Ryan Magnussen
WorkIt Health former CEO and current Chairperson Robin Ann McIntosh
Deals and other news: Folx in CA; 98point6 financial detail; Eleanor’s 17 VBCs; and more
Here’s a quick round-up of other deals, announcements, and news from national virtual clinic companies:
Folx Health now offers therapy in California: Folx offers various services so its state-by-state launches and availability are specific to the service. Last week the virtual clinic company announced that its therapy services were now available in California. As part of its announcement, the company noted that it accepts Blue Shield of California, Evernorth, Cigna and Optum insurance for California patients.
98point6-BrightMD financial detail: News broke this week that 98point6 acquired the remaining assets of BrightMD, which recently sold the bulk of its technology assets to Evernorth. As part of its deal with BrightMD, 98point6 will continue to service long-time BrightMD customers Baptist Health, UAB Medicine and 14 others. I haven’t seen any financial details of this deal reported yet.
Here’s one: 98point6 raised $1.4 million in a mix of debt and other securities on January 5th. The raise was in connection to an acquisition.
New CEO at Eleanor Health and progress update: “Eleanor is in seven markets today and currently has 17 value-based contracts, including with three national payers.” Interesting business update nestled in a recent announcement about Eleanor’s new CEO William McKinney. Those seven markets: TX, MA, WA, LA, OH, NC, and NJ.
News you know: Vita Health raises $22.5M. Remember, E&O first dug into the existence of suicide ideation-focused virtual clinic Vita Health back in February 2023. Vita was originally a spin-out of digital therapeutics startup Oui Therapeutics. Well, Vita just announced its Series A round and its backers: LFE Capital, Athyrium Capital Management, Flare Capital Partners, CVS Health Ventures and CU Healthcare Innovation Fund participated in the round, along with Connecticut Innovations and HopeLab.
Midi Health launched Midi Custom Rx. Midi now offers its own branded line of prescription products focused on skin, hair, and other menopause symptoms.
Yashi Care is now Rheumission: While Motto Health has shuttered, a new autoimmune-focused virtual clinic has emerged. As part of its initial launch, Yashi Care recently rebranded and is now called Rheumission. “Rheumission is a virtual-first integrative rheumatology and lifestyle medicine practice that provides people with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and/or ankylosing spondylitis with fast access to personalized care.”
Upswing Health revamps its care platform: Starting at the beginning of 2024, Upswing reconfigured its MSK-focused care offering. Read this flyer for details.
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