Teladoc Pays $65 Million to Acquire Catapult Health

Virtual care company Teladoc Health is bolstering its at-home diagnostics capabilities by acquiring Catapult Health.

The $65 million deal is designed to support Teladoc’s efforts to improve early detection of health conditions, according to a Wednesday (Feb. 5) press release.

“Catapult Health’s capabilities will help advance our strategy in meaningful ways — from giving more members access to convenient and impactful wellness and preventative care, to unlocking greater value for our customers,” Teladoc CEO Chuck Divita said in the release. “Catapult Health brings an experienced team and a strong culture of innovation, and we are thrilled to welcome them to Teladoc Health.”

The purchase is more than three times the amount Teladoc paid for online mental wellness platform BetterHelp in 2015.

Catapult offers an at-home wellness exam known as VirtualCheckup, which gives members a kit that lets them collect blood samples, check their blood pressure and provide other screening info. From there, they get a virtual visit from a licensed nurse practitioner to discuss their test results, go over key health risks, and develop a personalized health action plan, according to the release.

If a screening turns up conditions or serious risk factors that require a health action plan, Catapult Health’s clinicians can now directly enroll eligible members into Teladoc’s diabetes, hypertension, pre-diabetes and weight management programs, and refer them to Teladoc’s virtual mental health therapists and primary care providers, the release said.

It was reported last week that Teladoc is at the center of Amazon’s efforts to expand its healthcare offerings, letting Amazon customers access chronic condition programs like those for diabetes, hypertension and weight management.

Meanwhile, the telehealth space is changing amid the rise of technology like artificial intelligence and a resurgence of in-person visits to the doctor.

“I think the simplest way to say what we’re seeing right now is we’re observing the shriveling of telehealth 1.0,” Robin Glass, president of virtual care and health navigation company Included Health, told Fierce Healthcare last year. “This original model that I think came out that was really premised on this highly transactional interaction between a patient and the clinician that didn’t have any elements of longitudinal care or treating that individual as a holistic person, I think we’re starting to see the end of the road for that model. It has not served the patient as well as it needs to.”