A hundred years ago, it was commonplace for a physician to come to a patient's home. It probably made the most sense -- shouldn't the sick person be the one to remain in the comfort of their own home, after all?
But the health care industry slowly evolved into a centralized model where, with few exceptions, sick patients and doctors meet at clinics for diagnosis and treatment. While that may have cut costs for clinics and doctors, it doesn't bring many advantages to patients who have relatively simple ailments.
That's where Remedy comes in. The Austin startup has brought back the idea of physician house calls through app-based technologies that make house visits more efficient and telemedicine that bring physician and patient together through streaming calls.
Now the company, founded in 2016 by CEO Jeremy Gabrysch and his wife and director of business operations Christina Gabrysch, has raised $10 million in new investment to expand its services.
The round was led by Austin-based Santé Ventures. And, as part of the deal, Santé Ventures managing directors Joe Cunningham and Doug French will join Remedy's board of directors. Both have backgrounds in healthcare -- Cunningham is a doctor and former healthcare venture partner with Austin Ventures, and French is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Remedy is part of a large and emerging field of health care startups using phone-based apps to provide patients with more affordable access to nurses and doctors. And investors seem sold on the potential for serious growth in the telemedicine sector.
Doctor on Demand, for example, is a San Francisco-based telemedicine startup that uses a smart phone app and video connection to bring patients and physicians together. It has raised north of $160 million. Austin-based Medici, meanwhile, has raised $46 million-plus for its telemedicine product and it acquired two fellow telemedicine companies along the way.
"After reviewing numerous telemedicine companies in recent years, we feel confident Remedy can scale beyond traditional primary care delivery and is well-positioned to dramatically lower costs and improve outcomes for high-cost procedures and chronic disease management," said Cunningham. "The market potential for coordinated care delivery and chronic disease management from a telemedicine platform is the next evolution of this technology."
Since we first wrote about Remedy in 2016, a lot of things have changed or evolved. The startup has expanded its service to 24 hours a day and seven day a week access to nurses, lab tests and telemedicine across Texas. It also contracts with in-network providers including, UnitedHealthcare, BlueCross BlueShield and Aetna.
Remedy's same-day house calls, which general brings a nurse to your home or workplace within a couple hours, has a $49 dispatch fee, and it bills medical services to insurers. If you don't have insurance, Remedy currently charges $179.
Or you can meet over a secure video connection to avoid the dispatch fee and they'll bill your insurer. For those without insurance, the video connection is $49.
Remedy treats most common ailments, from cold and flu to minor injuries. It also can send prescription orders direct to your pharmacy -- and it provides consultations with patients who need re-fills for a variety of medications used to treat more serious problems like depression, diabetes and asthma. Its lab tests also cover many common issues, from urinary tract infections to sinus infections to sexually transmitted diseases.
Remedy does not, however, provide prescriptions for scheduled or controlled substances, including many pain killers.
