American Well Facilitating Redistribution of Online Services to New Users Using the Exchange

By CIOReview | Friday, May 20, 2016

BOSTON, MA: Announcing its newest enterprise telehealth service ‘the Exchange’, American Well also released first list of partners to enter it. The Exchange service will permit healthcare partners—Cleveland Clinic, Nemours Children's Health System and Live-Health® Online—to redistribute their services online to new patient.

"The Exchange breaks down silos of healthcare delivery connecting every stakeholder in the industry–those who seek care, deliver care, and pay for it—to make great, trusted healthcare more accessible," said Dr. Roy Schoenberg, CEO, co-founder of American Well.

American Well's partners have built best-in-class telehealth programs for many years and typically falls into one of two categories—supply generators (organizations supplying healthcare services) and demand generators (organizations generating consumer demand). The Exchange program lifts the virtual barriers between the supply and demand generators, and allows organizations to connect and exchange their services with one another, instantly, online.

With technology advancements and more consumers seeking virtual doctor visits, healthcare organizations are adopting new telehealth services and making for a rich online ecosystem for co-action. There are more than 40 health systems in American Well's network alone, more than 40 independent health plans; and thousands of employers—all of which are eligible to now enter the Exchange program.

Now-a-days, the regulatory climate is also favoring to cross-pollination of healthcare services, across state lines. The Federation of State Medical Boards, in 2015, had introduced an expedited pathway to licensure for qualified physicians who wished to practice in multiple states, called the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact. Expedited licensing can be obtained in coming summer 2016 and after this multistate telemedicine licenses can be issued to any doctor who opts for it. So, the provider organizations enrolling into the Exchange and want to redistribute their services in other geographies can expect multistate licensure for their physicians soon.

"We want to do for healthcare what Amazon did for book stores initially, and online retail, ultimately, which is to demonstrate a national platform on which online healthcare runs. Importantly, the Exchange is not just about connecting consumers to more doctors. Rather, we can also connect consumers with the best service provider brands across the U.S as part of a national, virtual healthcare system,” added Dr. Schoenberg.