Babylon Expanding in California With FirstChoice Medical Deal
London-based Babylon, a technology company with a focus on value-based healthcare, has made a multimillion-dollar investment to assume the operations of FirstChoice Medical Group, based in Fresno, Calif., which serves nearly 50,000 Medicare Advantage and Medi-Cal enrollees across Fresno and Madera counties.
Babylon said the deal would bring its technology-driven approach to value-based care to 180 primary care providers and 1,000 specialty providers, complementing Babylon’s digital-first offering and its other healthcare services that are currently available to more than 2 million lives in California today.
Over the coming months, Babylon will roll out access to its app-based healthcare services – including virtual consultations, symptom information checker, and live chat support – to members under the FirstChoice Medical Group umbrella. Members will also have support in the form of Babylon Care Advisors to increase member engagement and coordinate preventative care.
The company said its Babylon 360 solution turns the traditional approach of only caring for people when they’re sick on its head. “Integrating the transformational power of our AI and technology stack with the highest quality virtual clinical services, Babylon’s whole-person care model serves as the digital front door to highly accessible care that makes healthcare more accessible by ensuring it is available through the devices people already own, and more affordable by leveraging technology to free up medical professionals so they can focus on proactively predicting and managing patient care,” Babylon said.
The company recently announced similar services being being rolled out across 10 counties in southeast Missouri, where Home State Health members will be supported by a 20-person interdisciplinary Babylon care team including nurses and community health workers.
The Babylon app can be accessed 24/7 and includes a symptom information checker, a Healthcheck information tool, live chat with real Babylon team members, and virtual doctor consultations. The company had already been providing access to its app-based services to members of certain health plans in New York, California, Missouri, Nevada and Iowa, building toward a 50-state network.
“The current model of healthcare was designed to be reactive and intervene in emergencies and crises. It is primarily about sick-care,” said Babylon CEO Ali Parsa, in a statement. “With today's data and technology capabilities, we should be able to do much better to avoid surprises by monitoring people’s vital signs continuously and alerting any abnormalities early to intervene before a small issue is blown into a crisis.”
The company recently hired Paul-Henri Ferrand of Brex as chief business officer, Stacy Saal of Amazon as chief operating officer, and Steve Davis from Expedia Group as chief technology officer.
