The COVID-19 pandemic has jumpstarted connected medicine, offered by video, telephone or chat service. HealthTech companies have multiplied, as have their partnerships with insurers.
In fact, the industry was eying HealthTech even before the health crisis. In 2019, SSQ Insurance put out a call to technology companies specializing in health and wellness, and subsequently signed with MindBeacon, which has also partnered with Medavie Blue Cross.
Diverse specialties
In this booming market, specialties abound. The best known players, such as Maple and Dialogue, cover general medicine combined with specialized care such as dermatology, physiotherapy, endocrinology and mental health treatments.
Other HealthTech players are even more niche: Haleo, for example, specializes in sleep management.
The partnership between insurers and vendors is not always visible. Insurers sometimes use suppliers’ technology through their own platforms. Some insurers even enlist multiple partners. Medavie Blue Cross told Insurance Portal that it offers “six digital services.”
Marthe Cloutier, a group insurance plan advisor at Medavie Blue Cross, says that “people are taking charge of their own health. We show them the different options and they look at them on their own.”
A dynamic market
A sure sign of insurers’ interest in these technology companies is the investments and acquisitions made in HealthTech.
As one example, Sun Life has a participation in Dialogue. The company announced in December 2021 that it had acquired 6,036,144 common shares of the online medicine provider. Green Shield Canada acquired Inkblot, a mental health and personal coaching platform.
Equitable Life has partnered with Cloud DX to deliver remote patient monitoring to critical illness insurance claimants. In February 2022, Ivari hired Maple to serve the same customer segment.
Insurers are not the only ones investing in this market. Industry titans are also expanding through acquisitions. Maple, for example, acquired Wello in early 2022. Similarly, Vector Health Labs announced that it purchased telemedicine platform Tulip Health. Dialogue acquired Tictrac, which it plans to integrate into its integrated health platform in April. Telus Health added EQ Care in 2020.
Digital consultations and connected medicine platforms are gradually becoming part of Canadians' daily lives. This trend will likely persist, auguring well for industry earnings. According to a recent forecast by Grand View Research, Inc. the global telehealth market size is expected to reach US$787.4 billion by 2028.
This article is a Magazine Supplement for the June issue of the Insurance Journal.
