Medicare is getting another chance at expanding its telehealth coverage. Representative Mike Thompson from California has written a new Medicare Telehealth Parity Act of 2014 which would dramatically expand Medicare reimbursement for many more kinds of telemedicine. Most states tend follow Medicare’s lead when setting their Medicaid policies and determining what private insurers must cover.…
VC Opinion
Telemedicine Tipping Point Telemedicine has clearly already passed the tipping point. Consider: The Affordable Care Act has created millions of new health care consumers, stretching doctors even further, leading them to seek new ways to serve more people. The recent scandals with the Veterans Affairs Medical Centers have proven the…
Vidyo, VSee competitor, just raised another $20M to bring their total funding to $139M — well ahead of the typical $40M needed to reach IPO stage. With 300 employees and a monthly burn rate of probably ~$4M, Vidyo’s $20M fundraising at this stage of the game is rather unconventional – companies positioning for IPO normally…
The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) is drafting an interstate physician licensing compact that would make it easier for doctors to practice medicine in multiple states. If the plan goes into effect, it would be a huge breakthrough for VSee, MDLIVE, Teladoc, American Well, Doctor On Demand – indeed, the entire…
Video chat visits with your doctor are no longer a thing of the future. A growing number of telehealth platforms like MDLIVE, American Well, Teladoc, and Doctor on Demand are offering online video consultations with a doctor anytime. As a health provider wanting to get a start on telehealth in…
I was talking with a dean at Middle Georgia State College, and he mentioned that two rural hospitals in their vicinity were closing down because they just weren’t getting enough patients (revenue) to keep the hospital running. The hospitals have probably been running at a deficit for years if they…
The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) recently caused a stir with its new telemedicine policy guidelines. Modern Healthcare reports that the update of its over-a-decade-old model telehealth policy on the use of telemedicine technologies gives preference to the use of video over voice-only (phone) technologies. This has caused a small…
AddLive, a small WebRTC voice and video chat company early this week announced its secret acquisition by popular private photo messaging app, SnapChat. Its blog post notes that while there are “no immediate plans to add new customers to the platform, we intend to continue providing our ongoing video chat services.” This includes telehealth…
WebRTC and the promise of video calls right from your web browser has captivated the media and businesses over the past few years. So it’s not unusual for us to get questions about how VSee compares with WebRTC video. Recently, we got this interesting question from a customer: From your expertise,…
Ringadoc, a hot startup funded by the prestigious Founders Fund, began as a virtual doctor consultation platform and was actually selling video calling when it launched around September of 2011. In mid-May of 2013, Ringadoc injected another $700K to its coffers for a total of $1.9M in seed funding. It…
More released documents from Edward Snowden show that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has done the unimaginable – cracked encryption codes that secure most of our data. It’s an impressive feat even for the NSA which was created just for code-breaking and now sets the standard for encryption technology. Encryption is important…
Google, the creator of WebRTC, has recently asked Vidyo to help develop a browser-native video chat solution for WebRTC, Venturebeats reports. Vidyo, which has raised $120M in venture funding, has been disrupting the enterprise videoconference market and stealing thunder from traditional videoconferencing giants Polycom and Cisco with its software-only endpoints.…
Pexip, a new video conferencing venture is joining market disruptors like Vidyo, Blue Jeans, and VSee 🙂 with its software-based (cloud) Infinity video conference offering. Led by former top Cisco Tandberg execs and developers, Pexip promises to make it possible to connect to any video conference system on any device…
Skype telemedicine users, here’s more bad news for you when it comes to Skype privacy. The H Security team recently found evidence that Microsoft does make use of their Skype security policies to read users’ text chats. As they put it “Anyone who uses Skype has consented to the company…
MDLIVE a leading telehealth innovator has been tapped by Cigna, global health insurer with 78 million customer relationships, to provide round the clock healthcare access to its customers. Employers with Cigna’s self-insured health plans will have 24/7 online access to MDLIVE’s network of 2,300 board-certified internal medicine, family practice and…
According to Mercom Capital Group, the number of health IT-related venture capital funding deals from Q1 2012 to Q1 2013 is up 350%, from 30 health IT-related venture capital funding deals to 104 deals. In fact, most of that growth happened only this year with Q4 2012 reporting 51 health IT-related…
Vidyo video conference topped VentureWire’s startup announcements with the $17.1 million it just secured in a fifth round of funding. That brings Vidyo’s total funding up to a whopping $116 million. Leading the pack this time is Triangle Peak Partners. In the previous round Vidyo raised $22 millon lead by…
Following in the footsteps of Apple retail stores, Polycom will be opening its own retail outlets in high-end malls, as well as some Costco Superstores, says Wainhouse Research. In a marketing scheme designed to cook up some chutzpah for a waning video conferencing product, Polycom will be teaming up with…
Blue Jeans Network, with approximately $50M in venture capital funding, announced their new mobile integration with iPhone and iPad last week. They also expanded their enterprise offerings through a new partnership with video conference vendor TelyLabs which sells bargain room video conference setups using HD flat panel screens and Skype…
