Sunrise, Fla., Aug. 01, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MDLIVE Inc., one of the nation’s largest and leading telehealth platforms which is focused on delivering high-quality, convenient, cost-effective, multi-specialty virtual access to care, today announced the closing of a $50 million growth investment led by experienced telehealth investor, Health Velocity Capital; by existing partners Cigna Corporation and Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC); and with participation from Novo Holdings A/S and Industry Ventures.
With this financing, the new investors join a roster of high-profile existing investors in the health care and technology sectors including Sentara Healthcare, Sutter Health, Heritage Group and Bedford Funding. The virtual health market is one of health care’s most important ways to address our nation’s cost and access challenges and, accordingly, represents one of health care’s most rapidly growing markets. MDLIVE is one of the nation’s highest quality, oldest, largest and fastest growing companies addressing this opportunity.
“Choice, personalization and affordability are critical to improving the U.S. health care system,” said Tom Richards, Global Leader for Strategy & Business Development, Cigna. “Telehealth impacts all three of these factors and we are continuing to invest in MDLIVE as a proven leader in the space. As a result of our partnership with MDLIVE to offer virtual visits with care providers, we have seen improved customer satisfaction, as well as a 17 percent decrease in total medical cost and 36 percent decrease in emergency department utilization for that population.”
MDLIVE provides more than 27 million Americans with convenient access to telehealth services they know and trust utilizing partnerships with some of the nation’s most trusted and recognized health systems, health plans and hospitals. The company provides virtual visits with U.S. board-certified doctors, counselors, psychiatrists and dermatologists. By providing convenient access to health care through the industry’s most modern and scalable HIPAA-compliant cloud-based platform, patients, health care providers and health care systems benefit through improved outcomes and overall cost savings.
“We continuously scan the healthcare market to identify innovative partners. MDLIVE, which powers HCSC’s Virtual Visits product offering, helps our members gain improved access to quality healthcare, provides a superior customer experience, and helps lower the cost of healthcare,” said Tom Meier, Vice President of Market Solutions, HCSC. “We look forward to working with MDLIVE to virtualize, automate and optimize much of the care our members receive via innovative solutions, such as Sophie, MDLIVE’s AI based personal digital health assistant.”
“With considerable previous success in the telehealth market and having helped generate billions of dollars in value creation, we are huge believers in this sector,” according to Health Velocity Capital Managing Partner Marty Felsenthal. “We believe telehealth is a platform play with customers wishing to access virtual primary care, behavioral health care, dermatology, and, in the future, virtual post-discharge services, virtual chronic condition clinics, connected devices, and a myriad of other use cases from a single source. With more than a decade of experience in this sector, we believe there is a real scarcity of credible platforms from which customers can choose and believe MDLIVE to be the nation’s leading next-generation telehealth platforms. We look forward to leveraging our relationships to help MDLIVE continue its very strong growth trajectory.”
“We are proud to be partnering with one of the nation’s most experienced telehealth investors in Health Velocity Capital and with two of the nation’s six largest health plans in Cigna and HCSC. This investment is a testament to the great results our team has delivered for our clients, and these relationships cement our standing as the nation’s go-to telehealth platform.” said Rich Berner, CEO of MDLIVE. “We look forward to using this funding to help further accelerate our industry-leading consumer and clinician experience as well as accelerate the growth of the company.”
Raymond James & Associates, Inc. served as financial advisor, and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP served as legal advisor to MDLIVE. Polsinelli PC served as legal advisor to Health Velocity Capital. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP served as legal advisor to Cigna.
About MDLIVE
Founded in 2009, MDLIVE Inc. is a pioneer in the digital delivery of high-quality, convenient, cost-efficient virtual care for medical, dermatological and behavioral health conditions. The company provides consumers, health plans, health systems and self-insured employers with 24/7/365 access to its network of board-certified doctors and licensed therapists via secure online video, and phone through the MDLIVE service and technology platform. Registered users can receive a virtual consultation through the company’s HIPAA and PHI-compliant secure, cloud-based platform from home or on the go. To learn more about how MDLIVE is using telehealth innovations to improve the delivery of healthcare, visit www.MDLIVE.com.
About Health Velocity Capital
Health Velocity Capital has offices in San Francisco, CA, and Nashville, TN, and invests exclusively in innovative healthcare software and services companies. The firm’s Principals have more than 50 collective years as investors, entrepreneurs and senior executives helping to build innovative companies that created important new healthcare markets and/or that became market leaders, including companies such as Teladoc, Change Healthcare, US Renal Care, OnShift, Vantage Oncology, The Advisory Board Company, Healthways, Tivity Health, D2Hawkeye, Compassus, iTriage, Aspire Healthcare, and many others. In addition to investing on behalf of institutional investors, Health Velocity invests on behalf of a number of the nation’s largest and most influential healthcare organizations and a number of current and former healthcare senior executives and leaders. Collectively, these investors represent organizations that provide health insurance to more than 100 million Americans, operate more than 200 hospitals, provide pharmacy and PBM services to more than 75% of all Americans, and provide software and services to every major hospital in the United States. For more information, please visit www.healthvelocitycapital.com.
About Cigna
Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI) is a global health service company dedicated to helping people improve their health, well-being and sense of security. All products and services are provided exclusively by or through operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation, including Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, Life Insurance Company of North America, Cigna Life Insurance Company of New York, or their affiliates. Such products and services include an integrated suite of health services, such as medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, vision, supplemental benefits, and other related products including group life, accident and disability insurance. Cigna maintains sales capability in over 30 countries and jurisdictions, and has more than 95 million customer relationships throughout the world. To learn more about Cigna®, including links to follow us on Facebook or Twitter, visit www.cigna.com. For more information about Cigna's proposed acquisition of Express Scripts, please visit www.advancinghealthcare.com.
About Health Care Services Corporation
Health Care Service Corporation is the country’s largest customer-owned health insurer and fourth largest health insurer overall, with more than 15 million members in its Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. A Mutual Legal Reserve Company, HCSC is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. HCSC has a rating of A+ (Strong) from Standard and Poor’s, A1 (Good) from Moody’s and A (Excellent) from A.M. Best Company. For more information, please visit HCSC.com, visit their Facebook page or follow them at https://twitter.com/HCSC.
About Novo Holdings
Novo Holdings is a Danish private limited liability company wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. It is the holding company of the Novo Group, comprising Novo Nordisk A/S, Novozymes A/S and NNIT A/S, and manages the Foundation’s assets. In addition to being the major shareholder in the Novo Group companies, Novo Holdings provides venture capital and seed investments to development-stage companies, takes significant ownership positions in well established companies within life science and manages a broad portfolio of financial assets. Novo Holdings provides capital for both private and public companies in North America and Europe and is uniquely structured as an evergreen fund, enabling more flexible, long-term perspectives toward generating sound financial returns, and playing an active role in supporting private companies through crossover and public offerings. For further information visit www.novo.dk.
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