Doctor On Demand raises $74 million for its telemedicine platform

The company now has two million patients using its platform nationwide

The way we access healthcare is changing rapidly thanks to laws like the Affordable Care Act, as well as new technologies that not only allow us to have doctors find out about us before we ever seem them, reducing the time spent per patient, but for patients not even need to leave the house at all to see their doctor.

On the forefront of the telemedicine space is Doctor On Demand, a healthcare service that provides video visits with board-certified physicians on a patient's smartphone.

The company, which is already one of the best well known startups providing these services, is getting ready to expand and to make that happen it announced on Wednesday that it raised a $74 million in Series C funding.

The round was led by Princeville Global and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners with participation from existing investors including Venrock, Shasta Ventures, Tenaya Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Sir Richard Branson, Sherpa Ventures, and World Innovation Lab, along with new investors Blue Cloud Ventures and Ridgeview Asset Management.

With this latest round, Doctor On Demand has now raised over $160 million in total funding.

Founded in 2012, Doctor on Demand allows patients to have virtual visits with their doctor. All they have to do is download the app, provide a list of their symptoms and they will be instantly connected to a board-certified doctor in their state or they can schedule an appointment for later.

Patients connect to physicians using video visits, with each one costing $40 for a 15-minute appointment. If the call goes over the allotted time, patients have the ability to pay another $40 for the same amount of time. Patients can pay for the visit with their Health Care Spending Account (HSA), Flexible Spending Account (FSA), or credit card. Doctors can also write prescriptions for patients when appropriate, which will be covered by the patient's insurance plan.

Doctor On Demand works as both a direct-to-consumer platform, as well as enterprise distribution channel, in which it signs up enterprise clients who then offer the service, for free, to their employees.

Last year, Doctor On Demand also began providing patients with fully integrated laboratory services as well. That means that when a doctor orders a lab test, patients can choose the lab experience that best fits their needs according to price, location, and insurance rather than having a provider or institution dictate the experience. Patients then receive results and next steps through the app.

"With labs, we took a major leap forward in removing clinical barriers to treating patients over telemedicine," Hill Ferguson, CEO of  Doctor On Demand, told VatorNews in an interview.

"Doctor On Demand became the first full-service telemedicine provider to offer fully integrated laboratory services through partnerships with the two top national laboratories LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics."

The company now has two million patients nationwide, hundreds of enterprise customers including four of the Fortune 10 companies, and over two dozen health plan partners.

In terms of revenue, Ferguson told me, Doctor On Demand has experienced triple digit year-over-year growth and has increased year-over-year growth in its mental health visits by 240 percent.

The telemedicine space

The telemedicine industry is expected to reach over $100 billion globally by 2025, and it has grown rapidly since Ferguson took over the CEO position at Doctor On Demand just two years ago.

"This year alone was a very good year for the telemedicine industry as a whole," he said.

"More states, including Texas and Arkansas, removed longstanding restrictions on the practice of telemedicine which made it possible for Doctor On Demand to play an important role in helping people affected by the hurricanes in Florida, Louisiana and Texas get access to needed medical care during and immediately after the storms."

In addition, he said, there is a new generation of digital health services that are reaching consumers in a faster and more personalized way, relying on telehealth and patient engagement technologies.

"We’re seeing telemedicine continue to gain momentum with health plans, with millions of Americans covered, because it costs less than healthcare provided in doctor’s offices, urgent care centers and hospitals and is much more accessible and I don’t expect that to slow down anytime soon," Ferguson told me.

"The healthcare space has historically prioritized cost, however the recent mergers and vertical collaborations are transforming the industry and are finally starting to change that status quo."

The future of Doctor On Demand

With telemedicine on the rise, this new funding will help support the continued expansion of Doctor On Demand’s platform and to help the company "continue to deliver access to quality care at scale as we continue rapid growth."

"For Doctor On Demand, providing patient-centric, quality care means creating a digital medical home, where individuals can establish deep and lasting relationships with physicians and health professionals and receive a level of care, both in terms of quality and scope, previously unseen within telemedicine," said Ferguson.

"Looking forward, we want to continue to create new technologies that expand the reach and quality of core video telemedicine application and focus on the quality of the doctor-patient experience to provide a first full-service telemedicine offering that provides preventative and chronic care services."

Ultimately, the mission for Doctor On Demand is to "incentivize preventative care."

"As a company we are focused on supporting the rapid expansion of our platform and continue our commitment to delivering access to patient-centric, quality care at scale. We’re excited about the maturation of telehealth as a category, and we’ll have some exciting clinical offerings to share in the near future," he said.

"The future of healthcare is virtual, and while competitors and the industry as a whole are focused on controlling cost, we’re focused on delivering a delightful consumer experience."

(Image source: doctorondemand.com)