TytoCare, at at-home virtual care company, has joined forces with St. Luke’s Health System to give its employees and members of St. Luke’s Health Plan access to its Home Smart Clinic.
The Idaho-based health system will offer TytoHome kits to its employees and its plan will offer them to members starting in 2024. The primary care offering enables the whole family to conduct remote physical exams with a doctor, replicating in-clinic exams. It is FDA-cleared to perform heart, lung, throat, ear and body temperature exams.
"The Home Smart Clinic was designed to bring the clinical quality of the doctor’s office to families, whenever and wherever they need it. This is especially important in rural areas and underserved communities to ensure that travel to a distant clinic or a shortage of local providers is not a barrier to care," Dedi Gilad, cofounder and CEO of TytoCare, said in a press release. "We are proud to work with St. Luke’s to bring virtual care to Idaho.”
TytoCare’s Home Smart Clinic claims to be the only virtual care platform that can replicate the doctor’s office in the home. The service includes an FDA-cleared hand-held solution for remote physical exams and diagnoses as well as AI-enabled diagnostic support and a suite of user engagement services like consulting services.
“St. Luke’s Health Plan was established on the foundation of removing barriers to care and this new partnership with TytoCare is a major step forward in realizing that goal,” Matt Wolff, president of St. Luke’s Health Plan, said in the announcement. “Not only will members be able to receive excellent care from the comfort of home, with St. Luke’s Health Plan, the On-Demand Virtual Visit is covered with a $0 copay.”
In the past, TytoCare has argued the drawback of traditional telehealth is its inability to support accurate remote diagnosis and a lack of user engagement. While virtual care solutions proliferated during COVID-19, home care is still lagging in quality behind in-person visits, it argued.
Upon launch in 2022, the company said it expects its smart clinic offering to reduce the total cost of care for payers by an average of 10% to deliver 59% more accurate diagnoses than traditional telehealth solutions. It also said the smart clinic can resolve 98% of visits without the need for an in-person appointment.
TytoCare serves more than 220 major health systems and plans globally, including the U.S.