Former CMS administrator and FDA head joins American Well board
BOSTON - American Well, a national telehealth technology and services company, and creator of Amwell, the most-downloaded app for video doctor visits, on Tuesday announced that Mark McClellan, director of the Health Policy Center at Duke University, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has joined its advisory board.
McClellan will serve as vice chairman of the board, the company noted.
"American Well has a unique footprint and capabilities in one of the fastest-growing segments of healthcare – using telehealth to improve access to care, chronic disease management and care coordination," McClellan said. "I'm pleased to be able to bring my experience working in government, health policy and economics to online care as it becomes integral to bringing high-quality, convenient and efficient care to people."
"We could not be more thrilled to have Mark join our advisory board and bring his unmatched experience in health care economics and health policy to American Well," said Ido Schoenberg, CEO and chairman, American Well. "Our mission as a company is to radically improve how great care is accessed, reduce costs to both the consumer and the industry, and work alongside regulatory officials to make telehealth as safe, legal and financially viable as possible. Mark's experience in the White House, as well as at CMS and the FDA, will no doubt be immensely helpful as we continue to bring telehealth to everyone in the U.S."
McClellan joins American Well as it becomes one of the largest telehealth providers and most sought after partner to health systems looking to leverage telehealth for chronic condition management and provider-to-provider consulting. Today the company serves more than 40 health systems, more than 40 independent health plans, thousands of employers and is being used by more than 3,000 independent providers. In addition to creating distinct telehealth offerings for its healthcare partners, American Well's consumer app Amwell surpassed 2 million downloads in March 2016, signifying significant interest from patients and providers in leveraging online and mobile technologies to access and deliver care.
Separate from its board of directors, American Well's advisory board is focused on guiding the company on key corporate development initiatives, such as: telehealth permissibility and payment; emerging use cases for telehealth (e.g. chronic condition programs, medication adherence, use by medical support staff); and new market opportunities.
McClellan also serves on the board of Johnson & Johnson, and three years ago delvered a keynote address at the annual Cardinal Health RBC meeting, where he talked about how new horizons in patient care will emerge and how community pharmacy is positioned to take advantage of those changes.
“The future is going to depend a lot on how quickly we can move to these better ways of delivering care and matching them up with financing,” he told RBC attendees. “It’s a critical time in healthcare reform, but I can’t think of anyone who’s better positioned to lead the way, despite all these challenges, than the nation’s community pharmacists.”