Livongo signs deal with U.S. government, giving federal employees access to its digital program

Chronic care management company Livongo has made a deal with the US government which will grant federal employees with diabetes access to their digital program.

The Livongo for Diabetes tool gives users with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes personalized insights into their condition and access to diabetes support coaches.

Thanks to this deal, the technology will now be available to those insured under the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee program.

The program currently insures 5.3 million people across the US, with around 45,000 of those expected to sign up for the management tool by 2021.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield have also announced that they will be adding nutritional health counseling to the telehealth services available through them in 2020.

Currently, users have access to behavioral health, dermatology care, minor acute care, and counseling for substance abuse disorders.  

After starting off strong through its launch in 2014 with $240 million in funding, Livongo’s first earnings report failed to meet analysts’ expectations.

It filed and IPO in June to cover its losses and keep growing alongside Phreesia, which facilitates patient check-ins, and data warehousing and analytics company Health Catalyst.

This new deal is set to boost profits and show the company’s ability to make a mark in a large insurer market. 

Livongo’s stock price has already shot up, increasing by 16.34% in the 24 hours between October 6 and 7.

CEO Zane Burke said in a statement,“This is Livongo’s largest agreement to provide diabetes services in our history and is another great example of the market’s excitement about our Applied Health Signals platform and how our business is expanding from working primarily with self-insured employers to broader and larger markets including government employees, labor unions, and the fully-insured populations of our health plan partners.

The company unveiled a voice-enabled blood pressure monitoring system at SIGNUM 2019.

Burke added, “As we continue to show that Livongo creates a better member experience that leads to improved clinical outcomes and lowers costs, we are excited to work with more organizations that are bringing Livongo’s services into the fabric of the health benefits design for hundreds of thousands of people.”

This isn’t the only big deal the company has made, either – it inked an agreement with health insurance company Cambia Health Solutions in 2018 and became an enrolled provider for Medicare Advantage members last spring.

President of Livongo Dr. Jennifer Schneider said, “This win highlights two of our competitive advantages.

“First, government entities and large plans want to see multi-year, clinically validated results at scale, and only Livongo has that independently validated data.

“Second, our AI+AI engine, which aggregates information from our own devices, electronic health records, pharmacy records, smartwatches, and continuous glucose monitors, interprets that information, applies it back to our members to learn what works and then iterates using Health Nudges, is making us smarter and more member-focused every day.”