not technically practicing medicine, according to Shapland and Phillips, in that they don’t write drug prescriptions or order procedures over a Skype call. And the service can’t be of help in cases where a doctor would need to perform an in-person examination. What 2nd.MD can do, they say, is offer users another informed set of opinions that they could then use to further the conversation with their own physicians.
2nd.MD says its doctors—who represent a range of 250 subspecialities—come from prestigious organizations such as Methodist Hospital in Houston or the Cleveland Clinic. “These doctors are extensively published and are referenced by other doctors,” Shapland says. “They are either the first or second name on those publications.”
2nd.MD started out marketing its service to individuals but, about 18 months ago, its executives decided to focus on convincing companies to make the service part of benefits packages. Since 2nd.MD consultations are not covered by insurance, it was difficult to bring the business to scale one cash-paying patient at a time, Shapland says. But companies, which can make the service part of its benefit packages, help 2nd.MD bring in larger numbers of users more quickly.
The firm’s current roster of 21 companies, which pay between $5 and $10 an employee per month, include a regional restaurant management group, financial institutions, and real estate companies. Shapland says companies like the service because it helps employees make better medical decisions.
“Thirty percent of medical costs are unnecessary or duplicative,” she says. By creating more transparency and making patients aware of alternative diagnoses and, potentially, lower-cost treatment options, she says, 2nd.MD “lowers medical costs and helps to make employees more productive.”
2nd.MD, which now has 16 employees and a network of 350 doctors, joins a growing number of firms that aim to make healthcare more efficient by improving transparency and easing patients’ access to information.
Other companies like American Well and Teledoc
