Bipin Mistry, Chief Medical Officer at Transcarent, on VatorNews podcast

Transcarent offers a consumer-directed health and care experience for employees

Steven Loeb and Bambi Francisco interview Bipin Mistry, Chief Medical Officer at Transcarent, a company that offers a consumer-directed health and care experience for employees of self-insured employers and their families.

The company, which is led by Glen Tullman, the founder and former CEO of Livongo, has raised $98 million, including a $40 million Series A round in June. Despite having only launched in March, it already has over 1 million members.  

Our overall goal with these podcasts is to understand how technology is radically changing healthcare: the way we screen, treat and measure progress and outcomes. How we’re empowering the consumer. Whether we’re creating productivity that drives economic costs down? And how tech advancements change the role of the doctor.

Highlights from the interview:

• Transcarent is trying to improve the health and care experience of members by providing the with unbiased information, trusted guidance, and easy access to high value care. Healthcare is a quagmire for anyone, even in the healthcare industry, to participate in and understand, so the company looks to remove some of the complexities that exist for employees and patients.
• Transcarent’s customers are large, self funded employers, and it’s helping them manage Healthcare spend by offering services through a digital and human front door. In part, that means navigating employees to an integrated system of services within the Transcarent ecosystem. If a member needs a service, Transcarent will get them to what it believes are the high value services that it has vetted. There’s no copay or deductible for members to use the services through Transcarent. 
• A lot of navigation services point members to a solution and that's the end of it. What Transcarent wants to do differently is actually make sure that the member has received the care and to see if there any other outcomes that they need to help with. For example, if they go to a telehealth provider, often that experience is just kept within that telehealth provider but patients don't get any follow up and the subsequent help they may need. Transcarent's health guides can help member to navigate the next step, which is to try and find a high value provider. 
• Part of what the company is trying to do  is drive transparency and give relevant information. It's often hard to find a doctor and members turn to anywhere from their neighbors or their friends, to Google and Yelp, for guidance. What Transcarent is able to deliver through its partnerships is to get some medical decision support for that member so that they start to understand what their options are for their healthcare needs. 
• Transcarent acquired BridgeHealth, a provider of surgical advocacy and centers of excellence, last year. Part of the solution is making sure patients aren't getting unnecessary surgeries. At least 50% of back surgeries aren't necessary. Transcarent offers a second opinion service, as well as offer virtual physical therapy, to determine if the patient really needs to have an operation. If a surgery is needed, then the company want to make sure that the member is getting the best surgical option, making sure that everyone has access to high value care. 
• Transcarent offers a purposeful, value based design that allows everyone to win: employers win, because they get better care for their employees; employees win because it can eliminate the burden of co-pays and deductibles; providers win because high value providers get good outcomes; and clinical partners win because they grow with Transcarent. 
• The company knows it has to show impact, not just on a 365 day basis, but also longitudinal savings. So, it might will see immediate savings through a surgery solution but, longitudinally, it also needs to show results.
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