St. Louis-based telehealth startup Rezilient Health has inked a deal to expand access to its primary care services, a key step as it prepares to later this year open its first remote health care clinic locally.
Rezilient said Tuesday it has formed a partnership with St. Louis-based employee benefits broker SimparaHR. As part of the deal, SimparaHR’s employer customers will have access to Rezilient’s concierge primary care service to offer it as a benefit for their workforce.
Founded in 2016, Rezilient has developed robotic telehealth technology and a cloud platform that allows doctors to perform medical services remotely at health care clinics it's currently establishing. CEO Danish Nagda and Chief Technology Officer Jeff Gamble co-founded Rezilient.
While Rezilient has focused on direct partnerships with large employers, it said its pact with SimparaHR gives small and medium-sized businesses the opportunity to utilize its primary care model. The partnership announced Tuesday comes as Rezilient works toward opening its first “CloudClinics,” which will offer concierge primary care for its members. The startup says the clinics will be designed to bring a hybrid approach to telehealth by providing a physical location for patients to visit and technology that lets doctors provide care remotely. Doctors will use the startup’s cloud health technology to provide care, and each clinic will be staffed by a nurse who can take a patient’s vitals and labs.
“Rezilient’s primary-care first model allows our members to see their doctor wherever they are, whenever they need, with a significantly lower financial barrier to care and the results are incredible: Employers routinely see anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500 saved per employee just in the first year of implementing better health benefits – with sustained savings year over year,” said Adam Berkowitz, founder and president of SimparaHR.
Nagda said Rezilient expects its partnership with SimparaHR to serve as a model for similar deals with other benefits brokers and consultants nationwide. He said Rezilient believes its primary care offering can help small and medium-sized employers not only reduce health care costs, but also provide them an edge in hiring and retaining talent amid a tight labor market.
“Benefits are becoming a core part of their recruitment strategy,” Nagda said.
In the St. Louis region, Rezilient currently is building out a CloudClinic in downtown Clayton that will be its first CloudClinic in the U.S. and its flagship location locally. Nagda said construction is expected to wrap up on the clinic, one of several the startup plans to open in the region, in mid-March. In addition to employer partners, Rezilient also is allowing individuals to sign up as members for its primary care services. Rezilient said it plans to hold an open house next month at its Clayton clinic, located at 7923 Forsyth Blvd., for SimparaHR customers and members of the general public.
In addition to St. Louis, Rezilient also plans to open CloudClinics in Miami. It has teamed up with Miami-based startup Reef Technology to build those clinics. Rezilient, which has seven full-time employees, in August 2021 raised $2.5 million in seed funding to launch its CloudClinics.
