Do Virtual Care Platforms Compete With Local Care Providers?

"Some restaurants hate delivery apps like Grubhub and Uber Eats. So they're seeking out alternatives" CNN

"To own or not own delivery? Grocers reassess the Instacart dilemma" GroceryDive.com

These headlines are examples of how the COVID-19 induced surge in online infrastructure platforms has been a mixed blessing for incumbents in many industry sectors. Most restaurants have outsourced meal delivery capabilities rather than creating their own; many grocers have chosen not to create their own home delivery systems.

BUT...there’s a big downside to infrastructure platforms like Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Instacart. They are often seen as seizing control over the relationship with end customers, promoting their own brand, usurping the data in the transaction, and capturing disproportionate value. In short, these infrastructure platforms are viewed as competing with their own customers.

There's a comparable dynamic at play in healthcare that hasn't gotten much attention — virtual care platforms (VCPs) and their relationships with local healthcare providers. Examples of VCP companies include Amwell, Teladoc, and MDLive.

In this article we'll provide some background and then consider eight ways that VCPs potentially compete with customers. As we suggest in the title, understanding the potential for competition can be “complicated”, and we hope to shed light on a complex and increasingly important issue.

Here are a few notes on the scope of our discussion. First, we use "virtual care" as a term that is broader than, but encompasses "telehealth". Second, we emphasize potential competition from virtual care platforms, but the analysis also can and should be applied to a broader range of virtual care companies. Finally, in referring to "local care providers", we emphasize hospitals/delivery systems and physicians, but our analysis is extendable to other local clinicians.