Dive Brief:
- Crossover Health, which provides health services to self-insured employers and runs Apple’s onsite clinic, has acquired Sherpaa Health, a virtual primary care provider with employer and retail members across the U.S.
- Scott Shreeve, CEO and founder of Crossover Health, said the deal furthers the company’s goal to “design and deliver technology-enabled primary care throughout the country.”
- The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, allows Crossover Health’s care teams to provide services via a range of delivery options including onsite, near-site and virtual care integrated with other employer benefits and digital health programs.
Dive Insight:
The move comes as consumer demand for convenient, lower-cost medical care and efforts to expand access to care to remote and underserved areas are driving growth in virtual care services. A recent study in JAMA found annual telehealth visits among commercially insured consumers rose 52% year over year from 2005 to 2014 and 261% from 2015 to 2017.
The momentum is not just among independent vendors. The American Hospital Association recently released a roadmap to save rural hospitals that calls for wider access to telehealth coupled with strategies to ease the cost and compliance burdens associated with health IT.
Meanwhile, providers and other healthcare players are seeking to reverse a steady decline in primary care by offering longer office hours, on-demand scheduling, retail and virtual care options. On Monday, telehealth provider Doctor On Demand launched Synapse, a virtual care platform that provides primary care that provides primary care to individuals through their health plan or employer.
And there is also the Amazon-J.P. Morgan-Berkshire Hathaway venture, which is looking to disrupt the way their employees access healthcare.
Founded in 2010, Crossover Health runs 20 onsite and near-site employee health clinics in six states, serving close to 200,000 people. The company raised a total of $ 113.5 million in three funding rounds, the latest in December 2016. Its clients include Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Visa.
New York-based Sherpaa Health was founded in 2012 by Jay Parkinson, a pediatrician and preventive care physician known for promoting asynchronous care via text or apps over video visits for most care needs. In a 2018 interview with Healthcare Dive, Parkinson said the random relationships between patients and telehealth providers undermines care continuity and follow-up — a situation remedied by virtual primary care.
The company raised $ 8 million in two funding rounds. Besides virtual care, Sherpaa’s platform comprises care navigation and case management capabilities, including a network of specialists in remote regions and structured care plans available by prescription.