Today’s Virtual Chronic Care Market: Omada’s CEO on Teladoc/Livongo Fallout, Primary Care Future

I haven’t talked to Sean Duffy, CEO of digital health chronic condition management company Omada Health, since August 2020, when Teladoc acquired Omada’s biggest competitor, Livongo, for $18.5 billion. I asked Sean then what the deal meant for digital health start-ups and the burgeoning virtual chronic care space, and decided we should pick the conversation up right where we left off - especially in light of how exuberance for that deal has changed since Teladoc has had to twice write-down the value of the Livongo asset, rendering it now worth less than half of what they paid for it.
Sean takes the question in stride and gives us his take on the current state-of-play for the digital health chronic care space as a result of the fallout from that deal as well as other current macro-economic factors and market conditions.
At Omada, one of the more interesting moves they’ve recently made is into the doctor’s office, integrating their virtual solution into the physical point-of-care at Intermountain Medical Group’s primary care clinics. This is interesting strategy for a couple reasons, mostly because, as Sean tells it, Omada is approaching health systems as a “peer” and establishing “care partnerships.” Even though Omada has always contracted as a provider and bears marks like NCQA accreditation that add to that position, this is a real paradigm shift: Are health systems REALLY ready to view digital health providers as peers and not point solutions? And what does that mean about who owns the relationship with the patient?
We talk through how alignment with primary care can add to Omada’s future, whether or not this indicates waning interest from the traditional employer and health plan client base, and what Sean has to say about his decision(s) to NOT pursue an IPO at several different opportunity points over the past three years.
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[@nurses2tech]

Great interview! I will admit that I'm bias and feel Sean Duffy and Omada Health have much more refinement to their integration of digital health solutions. Part of that is because I worked for CIGNA as a Case Manager, so I have been "boots on the ground" and have seen how detailed CIGNA operationalizes the administration on Health Plan benefits. This is exciting that they take a look at the long term solution and I know my friends still at CIGNA are happy with Omada Health's REAL Solutions in Patient Management. #casemanagement #carecoordination #rpm #ccm