Telehealth Firm Amwell Goes Public; Shares Spike 28 Pct

With telehealth exploding in popularity, Amwell went public Thursday (Sept. 17) and saw shares up 28 percent at closing, according to CNBC.

Despite the rapid-fire adoption of telehealth as a preferred method of doctor’s visits as of late, co-CEO Ido Schoenberg said he doesn’t think the tech is perfected yet.

Schoenberg, speaking with CNBC’s “The Exchange,” said the process of digitally transforming healthcare would be “enormous” and take years.

“This giant surge in visits may not be continuing into the same pace, and we fairly expect it to go down for a little bit,” he said, according to CNBC. “Our goal is not to count visits. … Our main performance indicator is the number of active providers on our platform.”

Schoenberg said his belief is that, in the future, online connections with doctors will be as common as in-person ones, CNBC reported. But the long implementation time will come from the sheer difficulty of bringing as many doctors as they can onto the Amwell platform. He said there would be “many barriers and complexities” to the process, despite the ease of explaining how it works.

The pandemic has dramatically expanded telehealth. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have increased telehealth capacities for those on Medicare, for example. That kind of innovation, according to Schoenberg, per CNBC, is “strong tail winds” for digital connectivity in healthcare.

Amwell had revenue of $122.3 million in the first six months of the year, an increase of 77 percent from the same period a year ago, when the company saw $69.1 million in revenue, CNBC reported.

The company’s shares were up 28 percent on Thursday (Sept. 17), closing at $23.07 a piece.

Telehealth could address long-standing issues with American healthcare, too, including high costs for doctor’s visits. Conversa Health CEO Murray Brozinsky, speaking with PYMNTS, said the average telehealth visit usually saves 10 percent to 20 percent of an office visit’s cost.