Dive Brief:
- Teladoc reported $128 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2019, a 43% increase over the previous year, but the virtual care provider's net loss also grew to $30.2 million, up from $23.9 million in the same period last year.
- The Purchase, New York-based company's visits jumped 75% year over year to 1.06 million. The company gained 3.9 million new paid U.S. members, bringing that cohort to 26.7 million, according to financial results released Tuesday.
- Behavioral health remains a strong growth driver, both in direct-to-consumer and business-to-business channels, with visit volume up more than 100% since last year and total revenue growth expected to top 50% for the full year, executives told investors.
Dive Insight:
Teladoc exceeded 1 million visits for the first time during the quarter, CEO Jason Gorevic said on the Tuesday earnings call. He attributed the strong performance to diversification, "the impact of our surround sound campaigns and the tailwinds from mainstream adoption trends, all of which offset a weaker flu season," compared with 2018. Despite 32% fewer flu visits, Teladoc still saw 29% organic visit growth, he said.
Looking at the company’s business pipeline, Gorevic said volume was similar to last year, but with a much greater concentration of comprehensive and integrated solutions that include a broader array of clinical capabilities.
The quarter also saw Teladoc expand its global footprint with the purchase of Paris-based telehealth vendor MédicinDirect. The deal follows last summer's acquisition of Spanish telehealth provider Advance Medical for $352 million, giving Teladoc access to markets in the U.K., Canada, France, Spain, Portugal, Chile, Brazil, China and Australia.
During the first quarter, the company also launched Teladoc Telemedicine Services, a 24/7 virtual care service for Canadians regardless of their location across Canada or the U.S. "Market reception has been very positive, and our first client is scheduled to go live in the third quarter of 2019," Gorevic said.
Going forward, Gorevic said the company expects to benefit from CMS' new rule expanding telehealth coverage in Medicare Advantage plans, and said Teladoc works with MA clients. "We're probably going to see the concentration of [decisions] in the third quarter," he told investors, hinting that adoption may not happen overnight.
"I'm probably more realistic about the pace of adoption of the health plans with respect to anything, much less virtual care for an MA population," Gorevic said. "I do think that we’ve sort of primed the pump with all of our work with the commercial plans, and obviously a lot of those commercial plans also have MA plans. But I would expect it to be a gradual rollout over the course of a couple, maybe three years."
Also driving momentum is increased interest in virtual-centric health plans that see telehealth as a first stop for patients. The majority of health plans Teladoc works with are looking at "virtual-first" plan designs to reduce premiums by resolving nonacute issues in a cost-effective setting and triaging patients into disease management programs and other robust forms of care.
EBITDA jumped to $13.3 million from $10.8 million in the first quarter of 2018. The company stands by its full-year guidance of total revenues in the $535 million to $545 million range, with net loss per share of $1.52 to $1.56 and EBITDA loss of $40 million to $50 million.