K Health CEO and co-founder Allon Bloch on VatorNews podcast

The holy grail of primary care may be in a $9 per month subscription model

Editor's note: Allon Bloch will join us on July 14 as we continue our Future of Mental and Behavioral Health 2021 virtual series. Use "inventhealth" for a complimentary ticket! This year's event hosted top-level VCs and C-level executives from the leading mental and behavioral companies, such as Teladoc's BetterHelp, K Health, BetterUp, Ginger, Amwell, Doctor on Demand, Neuroflow, Octave Health, Just Answer, Kaiser Permanente, Bessemer Ventures and more. 

Allon Bloch, co-founder and CEO of K Health, joins Bambi Francisco Roizen on the VatorNews podcast series. Prior to founding K Health in 2016, Bloch founded Wix, a platform for SMBs to create websites and is a $16 billion publicly-traded company under the ticker symbol WIX, and Vroom, an online car retailer, a $5 billion publicly-traded company under the ticker symbol VRM. K Health has raised $273 million in financing. Most recently, K Health raised $132 million this past January from GGV Capital and Valor Equity Partners with participation from Kaiser Permanente pension fund, LTS Investments, 14W, Max Ventures, Pico Partners, Marcy Venture Partners, Primary Venture Partners and BoxGroup.

Some takeaways:

-- Allon's focus has always been on using data to solve big societal problems, with a focus on industries that are calcified.

-- K Health is a free app to have chatbot conversations about your health; People can also us it to speak to a physician for $19 (for as long as a physician is available - so not just 15 minutes!) for a one-time session, or $9 a month for a three-month period for unlimited access 24/7 to a board certified clinician. You can also get drug refills. Most people use the app for acute conditions. The app compares your symptoms with millions of medical records to suggest what's wrong.  

-- K Health currently has 5 million users (the company does not disclose free vs paying members). K Health aggregates data from its users but initially started with an Israeli-based HMO with two million members. 

-- For now, K Health is a supplement to insurance because insurance can handle significant medical outlays whereas K Health can be used for out-of-pocket expenses. According to a 2020 study, the average annual deductible for employer-based coverage for a family is around $4000 but outside an employer, the average deductible for family coverage is $8,439 on the individual exchange plans.

-- K Health is mainly direct-to-consumer but it does have a partnership with Anthem. 

-- The challenge with the current archaic healthcare system: 1) Majority of payment structure is still fee-for-service which incentivizes unnecessary tests, procedures, and treatments. 2) A lot of people have a PCP in theory but not in reality because doctors aren't available on demand. 3) There's additional layers of care like urgent care which are expensive. 4) A lot of conditions or concerns can be solved remotely vs in a clinic, let alone the ER.  

-- Allon's approach to primary care reinvention was to focus on the biggest problem with healthcare. For him, it was the 24/7 problem. "We have to think about the inefficiency and I'm going to start with 24/7 and the ability to follow up." 

--- K Health has hundreds of doctors on staff who get paid a salary. Doctors are paid equivalent to traditional doctors, but see fewer patients. Doctors can stay with a patient as long as they'd like and aren't incentivized to see 20 a day, as is common with most practices. K Health also works with doctors who want to work 25-30 hours. Moreover doctors don't have to spend time on non-medical stuff, like administration.  

Listen to the podcast to hear more about how K Health ensures quality and what kind of outcomes Anthem is looking for and K Health's pricing model rationale. 

This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and VatorNews listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com/Vator. This podcast is also brought by Octave, your partner for mental health and emotional well-being. Learn more at FindOctave.com. Also thanks to NeuroFlow which is working with hundreds of healthcare organizations to provide best-in-class technology and services for the effective integration of behavioral health. Learn more at neuroflow.com)