Dive Brief:

• Livongo Health, a digital chronic disease management company, is adding access to telehealth services for its members through partnerships with both MDLive and Doctor on Demand, Livongo announced Monday at the HLTH 2019 conference.
• Beginning in January 2020, Livongo will offer telehealth services to its behavioral health members and to users of its diabetes and hypertension platforms and services soon thereafter.​​
• Members will have access to virtual visits with licensed clinical professionals after first using Livongo’s digital behavior modification platform, which delivers AI-derived health "nudges" and personalized coaching through connected mobile devices. All three steps will be available to members through Livongo's existing platform. 

Dive Insight:

Livongo — one of only a few digital health companies to recently go public — sells its behavior modification platform and services to employers, insurers, and pharmacy benefit managers with the aim of cutting costs of chronic disease management. The company has 720 clients, mostly from Fortune 500 companies and more than 192,000 members, according to its website.

Earlier this month, it scored a two-year contract with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program. Beginning in January, those beneficiaries will have access to Livongo’s diabetes-management platform and services. Livongo predicts the agreement will be worth up to $25 million next year and as much as $35 million in 2021.

In June, Livongo said it was integrating its platform with smartwatches, including models from Apple, Fitbit, and Samsung. Members will be able to view notifications from Livongo on their watches and send data on their steps to the company. Livongo already captures data from other connected devices such as blood glucose monitoring systems. 

And, in May, Livongo said CMS had approved the company to become a provider for Medicare Advantage members, giving it access to a large and growing pool of potential members.

SVB Leerink, which has been consistently bullish on Livongo, hailed the partnerships with Doctor on Demand and MDLive.

"We see this as particularly impactful for behavioral health where LVGO can navigate members through a tiered network starting with a digital first approach (e.g., recorded meditations), working up to coaches, and then, if necessary, escalating members to telehealth clinicians," SVB Leerink Analyst Daniel Grosslight wrote in a research note.

Providing digitally enabled services to help people manage their chronic medical conditions could become a thriving business as 6 in 10 Americans live with at least one chronic disease. Chronic diseases are leading drivers of healthcare costs and death and disability, according to the CDC.

Livongo’s rivals haven’t been idle either. Fitbit is launching a paid service, called Fitbit Premium, which includes personalized wellness reports based on activity, heart rate, sleep and weight fluctuations. Later this year, the company also plans to pilot a coaching program for patients with chronic diseases.

Onduo and Omada Health also market similar connected-care platforms for patients with chronic diseases.

Livongo is set to report its next round of earnings Nov. 6.