Health benefits platform company Accolade is expanding its offerings to add two personalized services with an emphasis on mental health, the company announced Tuesday.
The offers will be provided as options to the company’s employer customer base, which includes Comcast Cable, American Airlines, Lowe’s and State Farm.
“We are building on the existing relationship we have with our clients who are very familiar with our history of delivering value,” Accolade senior vice president of investor relations Todd Friedman said in a phone call with reporters Tuesday.
The Seattle and Philadelphia-based company offers services that help employees and their families navigate health and healthcare benefits. Accolade tracks health data such as results from medical providers with the goal of reducing costs and increasing the quality of care, for example by matching users to healthcare providers.
The company, which went public in July last year, serves more than nine million members and 400 clients.
This year, Accolade expanded its services with two major acquisitions. In April, it acquired PlushCare, a startup that offers virtual primary care. And in January, Accolade paid $ 460 million for the 2nd. MD, expanding its ability to provide specialist medical opinions, local medical support and services for members to help navigate the medical system.
The new offerings incorporate and build on some of Accolade’s existing services.
Accolade One provides members access to virtual mental health and primary care teams and additional services, such as clinical programs that can help manage chronic conditions.
Accolade Care provides mental and physical health services in a more comprehensive set of advocacy and clinical capabilities. Accolade’s multidisciplinary care teams include nurses, primary care physicians, health coaches, pharmacists, and mental health professionals.
Both offerings provide access to a doctor who “stays with you forever throughout your healthcare journey” and is available by video or messaging, CEO Raj Singh said in an online presentation for clients Tuesday.
The pandemic has exacerbated mental health conditions in the United States, noted medical director Shantanu Nundy. He added that by putting primary care providers and therapists on the same platform with access to the same data, “we can guarantee better outcomes for both physical and mental health conditions.”
The offerings are also based on Accolade’s partnership with the Ginger mental health service, which includes outreach to participating Accolade members considered at risk for mental health issues, according to data analysis.
The new options offer services as part of a “value-based healthcare” model that downplays fee-for-service pricing, said Singh, who previously led software giant Concur, which was sold to SAP for $ 8.3. billion. Accolade’s analytical capabilities to assess patient needs and outcomes help support that model, which also provides higher-quality care, he said.
“Value-based care should replace fee-for-service healthcare in the United States. And we are here to enable that for the clients we serve,” said Singh, who runs the company with Mike Hilton, another co-founder of Concur who is now Director of Innovation at Accolade.
