Forum 2025 Insights: access more keynotes, articles, and expert discussions from our annual event.
Preventive care shouldn’t be a once-a-year event. With virtual care, it’s just the beginning of a connected care experience.
The way preventive care is often delivered contributes to an inefficient and less than optimized way of delivering care. A visit that should be valuable for the long-term health of a patient is often a one-time event that’s inconvenient and can fail to deliver meaningful early intervention.
First, most people skip their annual wellness visit and don’t receive recommended services. They miss out on the benefits of preventive care because there are too many obstacles: appointments in the middle of the day, long drives to providers and more. The result is people with conditions that go undiagnosed or poorly managed.
At Catapult Health, we’re the leading provider of virtual preventive care services. For more than a decade, we’ve been innovating to solve the problems in preventive care. Yes, this starts with making it more accessible and convenient, but it should also be the front door to quality, high-value and ongoing care.
Earlier this year, Catapult Health became part of Teladoc Health, which has afforded me the opportunity to participate in many important discussions about leveraging virtual care to improve and advance our healthcare system. At every session of this year’s Teladoc Health Forum, unlocking the potential of virtual care was front and center. With Catapult Health joining forces with Teladoc Health, we’re excited to maximize the potential of virtual preventive care—advancing early detection, creating a connected experience and delivering better outcomes.
At Forum, I was part of a session that talked about the evolution of preventive care and how leading organizations are rethinking prevention, and I wanted to share some insights from the conversation.
About four years ago, La-Z-Boy data showed that just 4% of their population incurred nearly half of the company’s healthcare costs. “We were under a lot of pressure to reduce costs, and the best way to bend that trend was to look at preventive health,” Sarah Platz, senior benefits manager at La-Z-Boy said.
They started transforming their approach by implementing VirtualCheckup®, which makes it easier for patients to access preventive tests through home kits or worksite health events. When results are in, patients consult with a board-certified nurse practitioner (NP) to develop a personal action plan that includes referrals to plan-sponsored programs.
Platz said the multiple ways their employees could access VirtualCheckup generated successful early results. Fast forward to 2023 when La-Z-Boy also began working with Teladoc Health and results got even better. She said the connectivity of services with their health plan increased VirtualCheckup participation by 50%.
Robert Fouhy, a senior principal at Mercer, said for many patients an annual biometric screening is something to get and not think about until the following year. “It’s a box to check to earn a premium discount,” he said.
What Mercer is seeing with employers is the desire for more out of preventive care. “The goal is to close the loop,” he said. “It’s about helping each person know what to do with the information from their report and getting them to what’s next.”
There’s tremendous value in getting patients to the appropriate next step. Catapult Health data shows that 30% of patients are assessed with high blood pressure for the first time, 28% with prediabetes and 11% are identified as having depression and/or anxiety. In the past, our NPs informed patients in these situations of programs, such as Teladoc Health chronic condition management programs, available to them. Still, it was up to the patient to enroll.
Generating awareness for Teladoc Health has had a positive impact on mutual clients, such as La-Z-Boy. Their employees enrolled at higher rates and saw meaningful health improvements: 78% of members improved their blood pressure and 20% of members who would meet the criteria for obesity when they started moved into a healthier weight category. Most notably, only one member took a GLP-1 for weight loss.
What makes me so excited about being a part of Teladoc Health is our ability to do more than raise awareness—we make connections. After educating patients about their condition and supporting programs, NPs will be able to directly and immediately enroll them, have the connected device sent to their house, and share their information with a Teladoc Health coach.
We know the value of preventive care. It leads to better health outcomes that can make a big impact in the lives of patients. Platz said Catapult Health has supported increased productivity and employee satisfaction. “We can bring this back to our leaders and show that this has really paid off,” she said.
As part of Teladoc Health, we’ll build on this to further demonstrate the value of preventive care and connected care experiences. “If a preventive screening informs someone of a high A1c, and they do something to lower it, we don’t know what was avoided,” Fouhy said.
“If you get that person to a program that mitigates some of those needs, you can see those reported outcomes. We can be crisper on the ROI.”
