Doctor on Demand and Grand Rounds want to solve telehealth inefficiencies

Telemedicine company Doctor on Demand has merged with healthcare company Grand Rounds to create an integrated virtual care company.

The use of telemedicine has surged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the last week of March 2020 alone, there was a 154% increase in telehealth visits, compared with the same period in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Seventy-two percent of employers offer a telemedicine benefit, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

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Together, Doctor on Demand and Grand Rounds will serve 243 employer clients and their employees, offering services that include primary care, specialty care, management of chronic conditions and behavioral health programs. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2021. Financial terms of the transaction were not yet disclosed.

“Telehealth and virtual care are married with outcome driven analytics,” says Mike Matteo, president of Grand Rounds. “The essence of why we came together is because the market needs a platform like this to address the big problem of uncoordinated care.”

With so many healthcare options, services and providers on the market, care has become complicated and uncoordinated. The merger aims to simplify care, leaving individuals with one portal for their healthcare.

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Another factor that weighed heavily on the companies’ decision to merge was the pandemic, says Robin Glass, president of Doctor on Demand. As employers and employees embrace virtual care for a wide variety of healthcare experiences, the partnership is even more necessary.

“We can see a future where over the next 10 years, most healthcare interactions will be online,” Glass says. “[We help patients] understand where they're supposed to access the healthcare system and how much it's going to cost them and make important decisions about which specialists to go to. Our combined offerings really help that patient with that entire journey.”