The Covid-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated the use and adoption of telemedicine technology.
And while Dallas-based health care startup Catapult Health has been positioned in the industry for years, it is rolling out a new program called VirtualCheckup to fully embrace the trend and change the way patients interact with physicians.
“We have brought standard, state-of-the art business practices and technology into health care, and our entire ecosystem is oriented around what’s best for the patient,” David Michel, CEO of Catapult Health told NTX Inno. “I think the health care system is broken because many providers have it backwards. Everything is built around the convenience of the provider or the doctor’s clinic… in our case, we’re a consumer company. Our customer is the patient and we need to respect that patient’s time, we need to protect their privacy and their dignity, and… we need to deliver a powerful experience.”
The concept was accelerated by the pandemic, with eyes toward the future. Through their employer health care plan, a patient can register for a preventative care check up with Catapult. Prior to any visit with a physician, the patient is sent a home kit that includes a blood pressure monitor, a blood testing collection device and measuring tape, among other equipment one would typically find a health care worker using for an examination. The kits are sent to a lab, tested, then the results are sent to the patient and a Catapult nurse practitioner – who are able to discuss the implications and next steps of the results through a virtual consultation.
Michel said what sets Catapult’s program apart from many other telemedicine services is that it focuses on wellness visits rather than acute episodic care – the kind one would need for a quick prescription refill. And the program is rapidly gaining traction. Michel said this puts Catapult on track for September to be its biggest month in its nearly 10 year history, with October expected to surpass this month.
“You have one chance to make a first impression and every aspect of the virtual checkout experience is made to be completely scalable,” Michel said. “Everything is automated, we’re just going through it very, very efficiently but we want you to feel, in the way that we communicate with you and the way we interact with you, we want you to feel like it’s concierge medicine.”
Catapult Health was founded in January 2011 and has since gone on to raise about $30 million in total funding, with backers including Health Enterprise Partners and UCHealth. Prior to the launch of the new program, Catapult’s focus was on providing mobile on-site clinics at workplaces in all 50 states. With the launch, Catapult is adding the program on top of its services as it looks to move its offerings more virtual. Its team of about 500 includes medical directors, Board-certified nurse practitioners, field teams and corporate staff.
“We’re bringing practices that are common in business but not so common in health care into health care,” Michel said.
Due to the pandemic, Catapult had to cancel all of its onsite events in March, bringing the company’s revenue stream to a halt. Michel said at the time Catapult was probably about 18 months away from going fully virtual – something it had been working on for about the last four years.
Michel said he sees the telemedicine trend continuing long after the current crisis, especially as many people have put off non-emergency checkups and levels of depression have increased amid the pandemic. He added that consumer behavior has been leaning to a more patient-centered focus in health care practices.
As Catapult continues to roll out the VirtualCheckup program, Catapult hopes to grow its number of daily patient visits to the hundreds of thousands, growing its business and patient relationships, while maintaining a focus on quality care.
“If you peer into the DNA of the people [at Catapult], these people care and they care deeply. What we’re doing makes a difference, and it really does improve the life and the health of the people we work with,” Michel said. “We are just hyper-focused on making sure that every patient encounter… is of the highest quality. And I think by focusing on the micro… we’re able to nail the macro.”
