IMT HYDERABAD

BATCH 2019-21

Case Study on:

American Well: The Doctor Will E-See You Now

Team Members:
1. Shivam Khare – 19A1HP049
2. Ayush Bhatia – 19A2HP407
3. Arushi Jain – 19A3HP665
4. Amol Gupta – 19A2HP418
5. Manik Bhatt – 19A1HP036
6. Aarushi Bhkshi – 19A1HP101

Guided By:
Prof. Rambalak Yadav
 Summary
In 2006, Ido and Roy Schoenberg founded “American Well” with a vision to change
healthcare delivery to a more technology driven platform namely ‘Online Care’, which would
enhance the connectivity between patients and physicians to a real time, on-demand service
environment. They established themselves amongst the health insurers, practitioners and
patients as a platform for effective time and resource management along with affordability.
American Well differentiated itself from its market competitors like RelayHealth, Medfusion,
Cisco TelePresence by leveraging the internet to redistribute medical services which was a
market opportunity never explored before.
In 2009, American Well collaborated with health insurance companies to achieve cost
efficiencies. This resulted in health insurers incurring less expenses and expanding their
customer base to non-members as well.
In developing the way forward for American Well, Ido and Roy, apart from developing a
next generation product code named “Team Edition”, they were also considering expanding
their service internationally. All this would require extensive change in American Well’s
structure to tailor its service to each individual market due to difference in regulation,
governing privacy and online transfer of health information policies internationally.

Q1. What is the value proposition being provided by the firm to

customers, doctor and insurers?
To patients:
Main focus was on convenience, quality, choice, affordability, and immediate availability.
The patient would be able to take the appointment at their location of choice and time. It
would offer a new form of privacy that was not available before. The cost of health check-up
has reduced. Patients were able to access and manage their medical information and records.
Patients using American well’s platform can have different choices of providers and can
choose a second option if not satisfied.
To Doctors:
Service provider had to put a number of things in place before they could practice which
included accreditation, leasing and equipping office hiring and training staffs, purchasing
insurance and so on. Doctors can start working from home and generate revenue, who used to
work in clinic for many years and not willing to continue. Few doctors can even start a
second shift at night/evening. Some can work on weekends to make additional money and
work as usual in clinic on weekdays. American well also allows retired doctors to practice in
their free time.
To insurance companies:
One of the main value propositions to health insurance companies is “savings”. The amount
to be reimbursed for online consultation will be cheaper than that of an office visit. Another
value proposition is “open their doors to non-members”. The firm will allow online
consultation to anybody willing to pay out of pocket and insurance companies can determine
how much they want to charge. Insurers could improve their reputation by offering
consultation to non-members. Insurers’ costs could decrease if patients use the Online Care
for non-emergency and follow-up appointments.

Q2. What is the core competency of American Well in the case study?

1) Innovation:

i) With entrance of American well in the market, the waiting time to consult a
physician became negligible as patients have a real time option of getting
connected to various doctors according to their need.
ii) Unlike any other competitors American Well differentiated them by using a DTC
(Direct to Customer) model.
iii) Technology:
- Computerised decision support and order entry system for physicians.
- Online Electronic Health or Medical Records (HER/EMR)
- Online bill-pay services
- Online appointment scheduling and communication of lab results
iv) The technology allowed patients to view the queue for a specific doctor online and
if the patient wished to speak to that specific doctor, they could add themselves to
the virtual queue in real time.
2) Flexibility:
i) Patient and health care providers were flexible to choose the time and place of
service to be provided according to the customers convenience.
ii) As per Exhibit 6, the customer had the option to interact with the physician using
online chat, live web conferencing or phone.
3) Forward Thinking:
i) American Well brought various healthcare stakeholders i.e. practitioners, insurers
and patients under one umbrella providing benefits for all.
ii) Practitioners were provided with the opportunity to get revenue from home.
Q3. With respect to Porter’s Generic Strategy, which strategy is being
adopted by American Well in this case?
According to Porter, there are 3 different strategies namely:
1) Cost Leadership
2) Differentiation
3) Market Focus

Copyright © 2013 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt Ltd. Authorized adaptation from
the United States edition of Marketing Management

Among the three generic strategies given by Porter, American Well used “Differentiation
Strategy” to gain competitive advantage in the American market.

The product differentiation principle in American Well stood out in their strategy which used
technology to replace the practices of traditional healthcare into people’s doorsteps and
workplaces. To attain their vison, American Well, invested in a system that used the world
wide web technology and phone calls to bring patients and physicians together in real time.
The biggest drawback of the orthodox healthcare system was the supply and demand
inequality. They derived a service that got rid of these restrictions of geographical and time
constrains of physical location and availability of physicians and patients and linked the
excess supply, wherever its located and whenever available with excess demand.
• They financed the new project with high-net-worth individuals who were
sophisticated and like-minded investors.
• They invested $70 million on technology to create a sophisticated platform for the
patients and physicians to communicate seamlessly between different modes such as
phone calls, video calls, live online chat and video conference & also allowed
asynchronous communication, through which patients could chat with a physician
without any delay
 • Even the patients without insurance were allowed to be on the platform and consult
PCPs and specialists without any extra cost. As per Exhibit 9 insurers would save
9.3% using American Well services over the traditional service cost of $36.06.
• They also developed a unique malpractice coverage for Online care at nominal price

Q4. How did the company position itself as compared to its

competitors?
American Well, in its early days had a complete market monopoly. Soon a number of
companies entered the market recognising the potential of the sector of online health care.
With American Well investing $70 million in its technology being the first mover in the
market, no other company was able to compete with them.
As per Exhibit 5, Survey responses by US consumers:
i. 59% of consumers believed, the service saved time as they didn’t have to consult
the doctor physically.
ii. 56% customers said, it took less time to wait for an appointment.
iii. For 50% customers, it was quicker to consult online and saved time of the doctor
as well. Also, It cost consumers much less than regular consultation.
iv. Transportation cost was down to negligible.

Compared to its competitors like RelayHealth, Medfusion, TelaDoc which focused mainly on
scheduling appointments, maintain medical records, tele-assistance, American Well provided
its users with a comfort of accessing healthcare without any appointment or any specific time
and place along with online care kiosks. In comparison to its competitors, patients using
American Well system had a larger choice of providers.
American Well offered significant advantages over the traditional healthcare system by
reducing the wait time for a patient to interact with physician. Exhibit 11 shows the average
wait time for new patients for appointments with physician and compared to this American
Well provides them with convenient time and place for immediate consultation.