EP329: Virtual-First Health Care Solutions—Their Promise and a Few Outstanding Questions, With Joe Connolly From Visana Health

In Episode 329, Stacey Richter talks with Joe Connolly, founder and CEO of Visana Health, about the promise and open questions surrounding virtual-first health care solutions — and why "virtual first" doesn't mean "virtual only."

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ What it actually means to be "virtual first" — and why it's not the same as virtual only

✅ How payers and purchasers can help employees discover that a virtual-first program is even available to them

✅ Whether virtual care will replace in-person care, and what empathetic virtual care delivery requires

✅ How virtual-first point solutions affect a patient's relationship with their PCP, and what "physician abrasion" means

✅ What virtual-first providers need to guard against to avoid perverse incentives

WHY THIS MATTERS

Virtual-first health care companies pulled in $6.7 billion in investment in a single quarter of 2021, chasing the same better-selection, better-convenience, better-price playbook that made Amazon dominant. But much of that promise has yet to be realized, and questions about care fragmentation, PCP relationships, and misaligned incentives remain very much open.

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

🔗 Healthcare Industry Acronyms and Terms

✉️ Enjoy this podcast? Subscribe to the free weekly newsletter

🫙 Support the podcast with a small donation to the Tip Jar

📺 Subscribe to our YouTube channel

🎤 Listen on Apple Podcasts

🎤 Listen on Spotify

=== CONNECT WITH THE RHV TEAM ===

✭ LinkedIn ✭ Threads ✭ Bluesky ✭ X

00:00 Introduction.

05:01 What does it mean to be virtual first?

05:50 "It's meeting people where they are and where they want care to be delivered. It does not mean virtual only."

07:01 How do payers and purchasers know that a virtual-first program is available to them?

07:34 "We need to come up with new ways to increase engagement with these services."

10:59 Will virtual care replace in-person care?

15:01 What needs to happen in order to have an empathetic care delivery?

18:06 How should employers try to wade through the virtual health space?

19:41 What's the value in administration within virtual care?

20:27 How does virtual care affect the relationship of the patient with their PCP?

22:05 What does physician abrasion mean?

25:31 What do virtual-first providers need to make sure they're doing?

27:16 "There is the possibility for perverse incentives, and it's up to the virtual-first space to make sure that we don't give in to those perverse incentives."

28:28 Who is Visana and what do they do?