Walgreens expands telehealth in big way

Telehealth is coming to more users of Walgreens’s mobile app. The company has announced that it has expanded MDLive’s telehealth services through its app to users in 20 additional states — bringing the total states eligible to 25. The company also launched an updated telehealth experience within the app.

“Walgreens provides convenient and connected services for our customers, and we are thrilled to be advancing our digital experience to provide patients with more choices when it comes to accessing care,” Adam Pellegrini, Walgreens divisional VP digital health, said. “We have seen that telehealth solutions play an important role in helping to improve patient outcomes, and we will continue to work to evolve our offerings to ensure our patients can choose what’s most convenient for them whether that’s live doctor consultations, digitally chatting with a pharmacist or visiting a Healthcare Clinic.”



As part of today’s expansion, patients in the following states will now have access to MDLive telehealth services through the Walgreens mobile app: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michicgan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Orego, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.



Walgreens launched the MD Live platform in California and Michigan through its mobile app in December 2014. In June, the company announced expansion to Colorado, Illinois and Washington. Walgreens’ app provides 24/7 access to MDLIVE’s network of U.S. board-certified doctors, without requiring users to download a separate app.



Alongside its MDLive expansion, the company announced the launch of the Walgreens Connect app, which allows Balance Rewards members who own a Well at Walgreens connected premium brand blood glucose meter or blood pressure wrist monitor to earn points for taking daily measurements. Data from connected devices is transmitted to the cloud via Qualcomm Life’s 2net Platform and 2net Mobile solutions. Users can earn 20 points per day for taking a blood pressure measurement and 20 points per day for blood glucose measurements.



The Walgreens Balance Rewards program now has over 500,000 active connected devices, many of which are connected through the Qualcomm Life’s 2net solution. Currently, more than 90% of the program’s active members are using a connected device rather than manually entering their results.