Teladoc Expands Microsoft AI Pact and Moves Into Weight-Loss Treatments

Teladoc Health announced stronger-than-expected results for the second quarter of 2023 reporting revenue and cash flow gains, while the telehealth brand continues to push for the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) integration in platforms as a vital post-pandemic diagnostic tool for physicians.

On a Q2 earnings call Tuesday (July 25), Teladoc CEO Jason Gorevic told analysts that “A recent market survey commissioned by Teladoc Health tells us three out of every four employers expect to spend more on virtual care over the next three years,” adding that “Over half of the employers we surveyed said they plan to implement a whole-person virtual care strategy over the next three years as they move toward consolidating vendors.”

As part of its whole-person virtual healthcare approach, Teladoc’s BetterHelp mental health virtual treatment unit is seeing increased uptake as more Americans experience difficulties after years of pandemic living exacerbated by 20 months of intense inflationary worries.

“Employers and health plans want to meet rising consumer demand but in a way that doesn’t break the bank,” Gorevic said on the call. “Right now, roughly four out of every five of our clients believe that virtual care programs can help them manage access to these high-cost medications. As a result, we’re seeing growing interest in our provider-based care programs, especially our recently announced weight management program scheduled to launch later this year.” Teladoc is focusing more on GLP-1 drug treatments for weight loss, he said.

Teladoc Chief Financial Officer Mala Murthy attributes the revenue growth to “therapist productivity improvements,” according to published reports. “We’ve actually taken a number of initiatives to improve therapist productivity, ranging from group therapy sessions to more digital interactions. All of that is resulting, certainly, in the trends that we’re seeing in our growth margin improvement for BetterHelp,” Murthy said.

Teladoc deploys AI to optimize member-therapist matching based on over 100 different criteria. “On average, we’re matching a patient with a provider every 30 seconds, something no one else in the industry can say. Besides making life better for patients and providers, it’s also helping to drive our strong gross margin performance and competitive advantage,” Gorevic said.

AI Ambitions and New Telehealth Legislation

To that end, Teladoc is expanding its pact with Microsoft to bring more generative AI services and stack capabilities to its platform.

Referring to its July 18 announcement, Gorevic told analysts that “Last week, we announced that we’re expanding our partnership with Microsoft to bring Microsoft’s OpenAI services and Nuance DAX capabilities onto the Teladoc platform. Our goal is to automate more of the clinical documentation during virtual exams, making visits more efficient, improving the quality of medical data, and letting providers focus on what they do best, caring for patients.”

The future of telemedicine and AI remains a hot topic. The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) and its ATA Action advocacy nonprofit are backing a bill called Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies, or the CONNECT for Health Act of 2023. Versions of the bill are pending in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

In an interview with Medical Economics, Kyle Zebley, senior vice president for public policy at ATA and executive director of ATA Action, said, “One of the best attributes of this great piece of legislation is it would make permanent the flexibilities that came about for the pandemic. CONNECT for Health Act would permanently remove those geographical originating site barriers.”

Zebley also discussed the potential of AI to drive telemedicine value. “We have, for instance, reams of data that’s being collected through the deployment of telehealth or virtual care technologies such as remote monitoring devices, connected health devices, other digital biomarkers, reams of data that we can use AI to really make sense of and create bespoke, individualized care plans for Americans across the country,” said Zebley.