Optum, Walmart and Amazon have torpedoed into telehealth as virtual visits were made popular during the pandemic.
Ten things to know about their telehealth offerings:
- UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Optum has deployed telehealth offerings across all 50 states, dubbed Optum Virtual Care.
- Optum provides on-demand telehealth visits for both physical and mental health needs, where patients can join a virtual waiting room and will be greeted within 15 minutes.
- Optum offers audio-only telehealth visits for patients whose phones do not have a camera.
- Amazon Care, which offers telemedicine and in-person primary care services, initially offered services to the company's Seattle employees and their dependents.
- Amazon later expanded it to all its employees in Washington state and said in March it would expand the service nationwide and to other employers.
- Amazon Care signed its first enterprise client, Precor, a fitness company recently acquired by Peloton, according to a May 5 Insider report.
- Walmart has a partnership with Doctor on Demand to offer services to its 1.3 million workers nationwide. In February 2019, Walmart dropped the price of virtual visits for employees from $40 to $4 per visit, and during the pandemic, the company has offered telehealth for free to employees covered by Walmart's health insurance plan.
- In April, Walmart inked a partnership with direct-to-consumer telehealth app Ro, launching the company's health and wellness products and digital services in more than 4,600 Walmart stores across the country.
- Walmart Health has entered an agreement to acquire on-demand, multispecialty telehealth provider MeMD, the retailer said May 6. By acquiring MeMD, Walmart will begin providing virtual care services for urgent, behavioral and primary care to complement its in-person Walmart Health Centers.
- MeMD provides 24/7 virtual care offerings to its 5 million clients nationwide.