Austin, Texas-based Chiron Health has raised $2.3 million from Capital Factory, Floodgate, and Martin Ventures for a telemedicine offering that helps providers connect with their existing patients.
“We believe that telemedicine should be used as a tool to strengthen the physician-patient relationship,” Chiron Health CEO and cofounder Andrew O’Hara said in a statement. “While on-demand telemedicine is good for keeping patients out of the emergency department, the real promise of telemedicine will be realized when patients have easy access to their own healthcare providers.”
Chiron Health allows physicians to schedule follow-up visits with their patients via a video visits app. Patients are notified by email about the follow-up to verify insurance, complete a consent form, and pay the copay. From there, patients can join the video visit. After the visit is over, providers can send data they collected from the call to the patient’s EHR.
Patients and physicians can use this offering for a number of cases besides routine follow ups, including prescription refills, medication adjustments, minor urgent care, general health questions, and reviewing lab results. Chiron Health checks the eligibility of every patient using a database of telemedicine-specific insurance rules to help practices get reimbursed.
Two existing Chiron Health customers include Inspire Family Health and The Urology Team.
Earlier this year, another telehealth company focused on connecting providers with their existing patients, MedZed, raised $3.2 million. The company has created a doctor house call service that allows providers to remotely connect with their patients with the help of a caregiver. At a physician’s request, MedZed will send these caregivers to a patient’s house. From there, the physician will watch the caregiver give the patient an exam via video conferencing software.
Later that month, American Well, which offers mobile tools that connect patients with physicians outside their local healthcare system, announced a partnership with Intermountain Healthcare to launch a video visits app for patients in 2016. The offering, called Intermountain Connect Care, will allow patients to communicate with Intermountain clinicians via video chat and receive medical advice as well as treatment for certain conditions.
