Why B2C2B will be the future go-to-market strategy for virtual care

Propeller vet Chris Hogg writes on the go-to-market strategies for digital health companies.

The pleasure and pain of digital health go-to-market

The Achilles heel of digital health has always been the go-to-market strategy. Early digital health companies, to their credit, focused exclusively on solving problems for patients and providers. Their solutions were often effective, for example Omada, Big Health and Propeller Health [Disclosure: Hogg previously served as COO and CCO at Propeller], but did not look like the tools traditionally used in healthcare.

Digital health companies were not drugs, not DME, not labs, not traditional clinical services. When these companies were "clinical services" they used the "wrong" providers or delivered the care in the "wrong" setting, according to lengthy and complex billing rules and code descriptors. They were products and services without a classification, which is not a great place to be in healthcare.

Without a standard classification, traditional reimbursement was impossible, so two models emerged from entrepreneurs that worked around the classification system. Early on a few companies were able to acquire patients directly and charge cash, or for example Kardia. This segment is now growing quickly, as evidenced in startups like Ro, Cove and Calibrate.