In this episode, we explore the fascinating evolution of telehealth, tracing its roots back over 150 years and uncovering how it has transformed into a vital consumer product over the last decade. Host Larry is joined by Wayne Orchard, Executive Vice President and Partner at Lyric Health (formerly MyTelemedicine), one of the leaders in telehealth and virtual care innovation. Wayne shares insights from his extensive experience in the telehealth industry, including his partnership with early pioneers like Teladoc, the impact of regulations, and how technology has paved the way for more accessible and comprehensive virtual healthcare services. From urgent care to behavioral health and chronic condition management, Wayne discusses the challenges and opportunities that have shaped telehealth's journey—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which accelerated public awareness and adoption.
In this episode, we explore the fascinating evolution of telehealth, tracing its roots back over 150 years and uncovering how it has transformed into a vital consumer product over the last decade. Host Larry is joined by Wayne Orchard, Executive Vice President and Partner at Lyric Health (formerly MyTelemedicine), one of the leaders in telehealth and virtual care innovation.
Wayne shares insights from his extensive experience in the telehealth industry, including his partnership with early pioneers like Teladoc, the impact of regulations, and how technology has paved the way for more accessible and comprehensive virtual healthcare services. From urgent care to behavioral health and chronic condition management, Wayne discusses the challenges and opportunities that have shaped telehealth's journey—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which accelerated public awareness and adoption.
Learn more about how virtual healthcare is evolving the healthcare industry: https://optimaltelehealth.com/virtual-healthcare-what-is-it-how-it-works-and-benefits-for-family-care/
Learn more about this episode and our show: https://optimaltelehealth.com/ep-10-part-1-the-evolution-of-telehealth-a-conversation-with-wayne-orchard-of-lyric-health/
Chapters
00:49 Welcome and Introduction
01:34 Guest Introduction: Wayne Orchard
02:22 Historical Context: Early Telemedicine
06:17 The Role of Insurance in Telemedicine Growth
08:06 Covid-19's Impact on Telemedicine
10:32 Lyric Health's Approach to Telehealth
12:01 Consumer Trends in Virtual Healthcare
16:51 Advanced Virtual Care and Technology
20:09 The Lyric Health Advantage
23:25 Addressing Primary Care Challenges
24:49 Personal Insight and Importance of Access
25:50 Looking Ahead: The Future of Telemedicine
Resources Mentioned:
Optimal teleHealth: https://optimaltelehealth.com/about/
Lyric Health: https://getlyric.com/
About Wayne:
With over 25 years of progressive leadership experience in the healthcare industry, Wayne serves as a Partner and Executive Vice President at Lyric Health, the servicing entity for MyTelemedicine, Inc., which provides comprehensive head-to-toe virtual care solutions. Wayne is passionate about transforming the economic equation of care by introducing innovative ways to connect patients, providers, payers, and employers through telemedicine services and technology.
Since joining Lyric Health in 2015, Wayne has led the company to dynamic year-over-year growth, now delivering virtual care to over 5 million members through thousands of clients. Under Wayne's leadership, the company has received accolades from Entrepreneur Magazine, Investopedia, Inc. 500, JD Power, and other esteemed organizations for its excellence in customer satisfaction, innovation, and impact.
Wayne has also played a pivotal role in establishing and managing strategic partnerships with national and regional vendors, clients, and stakeholders. With expertise in sales, negotiation, client management, and product development, Wayne is a resourceful and customer-focused leader who excels at empowering and developing teams to deliver exceptional results.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:26:23
Welcome to next generation health care, proudly presented by Optimal Telehealth, our soaring health insurance costs for your family or business causing you stress. Tired of the long waits and high fees for a simple doctor's consultation? Then you found your podcast. Next Generation Health care is here to empower you to take back control over your health care decisions, freeing you from the constraints set by insurance companies.
00:00:27:00 - 00:00:49:01
In our episodes, you'll uncover the secrets to circumventing traditional insurance to access direct services from your preferred providers at savings of 40 to 50%. This podcast is a creative part of Larry Stoute, the visionary founder and CEO of Optimal Telehealth. Now let's hear from Larry.
00:00:49:01 - 00:01:11:20
Hey there fans, welcome to this episode. I appreciate you coming in to, to talk with us today. We're going to have a very interesting conversation. I've got a special guest on today, and we're going to take a deep dive into, telehealth and virtual health care. Just to kick off the conversation. Now, I'll just share with you that telemedicine is is over a hundred year old process.
00:01:11:20 - 00:01:34:12
It can actually be traced back as much as 150 years, but it's only in the last 10 or 15 years that it has evolved into a consumer product. So, as we take a dive into that today, I ask Wayne Orchard with Lyric Health, which is one of optimal telehealth, primary provider service providers. I've asked Wayne to join us.
00:01:34:12 - 00:02:03:06
Wayne is a partner and executive vice president at, at lyric. It's corporation's name is my telemedicine. And, some time ago, they changed and started rebranding, started marketing their services as Lyric Health. I'll say, based on my experience, the average consumer. And this is exactly what happened to me, the average consumer, if you ask them what they know about telemedicine or if they know what telemedicine is, they'll say, sure, I know what that is.
00:02:03:08 - 00:02:17:13
But when somebody that, is in the business sits down and explains it to you, you quickly find out you really have, have no idea how what the capabilities are, what it, as I say, what it's evolved into in today's market. So,
00:02:18:00 - 00:02:19:11
Wayne, I'm glad to have you with
00:02:22:06 - 00:02:38:06
Appreciate being here.
00:02:38:08 - 00:03:05:23
You know, back in 2004, the well known, you know, kind of like Kleenex. You know, the 800 pound gorilla out there called Teladoc, you know? So there were the first Covid who brought, virtual care, into a consumer market. And so the employer market because, like you said, Larry, telemedicine has been around forever.
00:03:05:23 - 00:03:34:08
I mean, from remote brain surgery to second opinions to all kinds of things. But it it had never really been in a daily use on an employer or consumer basis. So, you know, the gentleman thought at one point in time, back early 2000. Hey, well, why can't we, why can't we do this? And and so, that's when I was introduced, to it.
00:03:34:08 - 00:04:53:00
And a company I had previously, worked for, we had partnered we were the first ones to partner with Teladoc. And so I've been in this industry of virtual care since that time. And with that has been the expansion of, of services, but more so education, and the consumers understanding what they can use virtual care for.
00:04:53:02 - 00:05:27:13
Yeah. You know, and and the funny thing there is, you know, the state regulations, you know, certainly always mold around to what the current environment is. Right. And so as more things went virtual, other things, you know, that we're looking at the regulators going, well, hey, maybe this can actually be done, but I think about it, you know, when I was a kid, you know, growing up in a small rural town, if I got sick, right, my mom could call, our family doctor and family doctor.
00:05:27:13 - 00:05:51:09
Oh, yeah. Is something going around? And they just made, you know, mast cell, and I'll call that in right. Well, when did when did that really stop? When it really stopped was when insurance came around and said, oh, no, doctor, unless they come in to see you face to face, I'm not going to pay you a reimbursement.
00:05:51:11 - 00:06:17:04
So. So really, one of the things that that stopped the growth was the doctors being able to, use a telemedicine platform, but also to get reimbursed. I mean, their time is money, you know, but they do know that that is a much more effective and efficient way to get through all the patients that that they need to get through.
00:06:17:06 - 00:06:48:08
So, so with that, you know, not only the regulation side, but now, you know, with insurance companies. And I was like lyrical wealth that are out there that are on a subscription model where there is no claims. Right? It's a zero cost, you know, of, you know, no co-pays or anything else. It's made it a lot easier for access and the providers to feel comfortable in, in providing this type of care.
00:06:48:08 - 00:07:09:17
remember when I was young, I was probably in elementary school, raised in a small farm town in central Kansas. I vividly remember sitting in the chair in our living room at the doctor, actually coming to our house to diagnose, what I had at the time was strep throat, but, but that was the only, it probably happened when I was younger, but that's back when doctors made house calls.
00:07:09:17 - 00:07:40:18
But that's, that's a new era a long time ago. That just doesn't happen anymore. So when I first affiliated with my telemedicine at the time, it was my telemedicine. We'll talk about Larry the convergence, Larry here in the future. But is is I when I first affiliated, you were basically for for services you you offered, consultations with, board-certified doctors 24 365.
00:07:40:20 - 00:08:06:14
Health care, behavioral health, counseling services, patient advocacy services and communications were the medical specialist, and that was that was it. That was telemedicine at its current, best, what did. And then all of a sudden, as things moved forward and people got a little more accustomed to it and began to embrace it a little bit, when we got hit with, the Covid pandemic.
00:08:06:16 - 00:08:14:18
What can you tell us about what happened during that time and how that affected my telemedicine and and telemedicine general?
00:08:15:17 - 00:08:39:13
Sure. So, yeah. We started my telemedicine in 2015. Right. And as you stated, it was what? What I consider urgent care. Telemedicine. Right. This wave, when you say telemedicine, what is a conjure up? It's cold, cough, flu. You know, something that you need, you know, one and done. There's usually no follow up. There's no daily care, you know, medication.
00:08:39:13 - 00:09:06:02
There's a five day medication or something. It's real, real quick to, to get over. So that's what, you know, in 2015 coming from that. And then the evolution was really about service, you know, the technology, the hook up, a doctor and a patient, you know, that's kind of out there. It's it's the norm. There's nothing really fancy about it.
00:09:06:04 - 00:09:36:14
What the difference is when we came aboard, you know, it was a very busy market, even, you know, back then, was how to do it differently, right? How to get rid of some of the bumps, the hurdles of stuff that I had gone through. You know, my partner, and chief is Jack Daniels or founder Ray Cologne, you know, was a co-founder of MRA doc and, you know, and and with that, he's having, you know, the same issues that I was there in the industry.
00:09:36:14 - 00:10:04:16
So when we came together, said, hey, let's do this. Definitely a lot of technology was was the answer to this. So by introducing a new way, easier way to, to get it, we got a lot of traction there. Then the evolution was the next step of, you know, bringing in behavioral health, telephonic counseling. And and that was just, again, because of resources.
00:10:04:20 - 00:10:32:01
You know, a lot of, you know, urgent care business came to us all because it was about trying to get with a, it's an easier open access, right? It was always about, you know, how many doctors do you have in your network and stuff when they're looking at insurance? Well, being virtual, we can cover a lot of areas with not as many doctors because you don't have to travel.
00:10:32:06 - 00:11:07:02
Right. So with that then comes of following the needs of the consumer. Covid right hit. And when it used to be two out of ten people understood what telemedicine was, you know, March of 2020 when doctors could no longer see patients in their own office because America basically shut down. All sudden it's eight out of ten people knew, oh, I need to talk to a doctor.
00:11:07:02 - 00:11:34:03
This is the way that I'm going to communicate. Well, now it's taking those services from that urgent care side to these the doctors at that point in time were having to take care of chronic, you know, illnesses. How did you manage someone remotely on daily medication and get their, refill appointments and reminders and, you know, prescriptions, you know, sent to the pharmacy.
00:11:34:05 - 00:12:01:12
So it was the, the, the need. You know, I think any kind of consumer, you know, market, it's always okay. What what is it need? And do you have an answer for that need. And one thing is because of our technology, we've always been able to answer it very quickly, if not ahead of time. You know, there's products that we have in our tea right now that is looking out into the future of what we can possibly do, you know, in remote care and stuff.
00:12:01:12 - 00:12:36:13
So, you know, it's all about following the the trends in education. And you know, really, Larry, you know, everybody is living off of these things, right. You know, and so health care, you know, when it comes down to it, you know, talking about the you're the big carriers out there, they they're not in the, the, the I would say the health care business right there in the claims business that that's it.
00:12:36:13 - 00:12:58:15
So to them, they really don't care if you have convenient service or not because all they care is that if I'm going to have to pay a claim out, then I need to collect so much of premium. And as health care costs go up, well, premiums go up. But they're not they're not trying to find the solution of saying, how do I make this easier?
00:12:58:20 - 00:13:31:11
How do I prevent these kinds of things? That's where we've taken, a total 180 from the health care industry and forward thinking to say, okay, how can we do technology? If I can sit there and I can order food, groceries, delivery of I can buy a car, I could buy a house sight unseen right now in any state, including Hawaii, off of this.
00:13:31:13 - 00:13:53:01
So why can I not get my health care the same way? Yeah. So it's just a different way of thinking. And it's not the end all. You know, you hurt your finger and you need, you know, someone to poke a prod to see. How do you need extra idea? Yeah. You're still going to have to have face to face, and that's perfectly fine.
00:13:53:01 - 00:14:13:15
We're not trying to replace anything that's I think that's a lot of people conjure up is that, you know, we're trying to be this standalone and and we can do everything. No, you know, we're just part of the health care system that is, you know, now the Ferrari. Right. You don't have to be, you know, the Ford of the Dodge or anything.
00:14:13:15 - 00:16:51:18
If you want that nice luxury feel of convenience, then this is the way to go.
00:16:51:20 - 00:17:25:09
Yeah. And and we're we're seeing a huge, you know, surge in this, Larry, with the the younger generation. Right? And because of everything becoming virtual that, you know, they're just getting all their services that way. If I can't, you know, again, if I can't go online and get it, then apparently I don't need it, you know, so the health care it had is I think it's just ingrained, you know, in of okay, I'm sick.
00:17:25:11 - 00:18:00:06
What I need to do. Okay. You know, and and that's also why claims have gotten so out of control, is because someone automatically runs off to the urgent care or to the emergency room when it's not even necessary, you know? And so that's where a little change in the education process, but more so that they're actually able to now, conveniently pick up the phone or, or, you know, go online.
00:18:00:08 - 00:19:05:00
Of course, we also have our, our 24 over seven, you know, call center that can help someone else that, you know, make it appointments. So it's a it's a big change there, that we're actually starting to see that generation, embrace it a lot more.
00:19:05:01 - 00:19:30:08
Yeah. So we want to. To take a face to face. Visit into the virtual world. You know, you know, you've seen the movies and stuff where someone puts on the the goggles and they're just, you know, they're right there, you know, it looks like they're with the person. Guess what that stuff is, is happening, right?
00:19:30:08 - 00:20:09:00
That stuff that, that that's that's going to be here soon. But in a virtual sense, we can take care of basically a lot of chronic needs, you know, daily medications and stuff, by getting proper labs, you know, if there's imaging, you know, mammograms, colonoscopy, all that stuff is ordered by your primary care doctor, right? You know, that that someone is going into and, you know, if there is something, again, that needs to be poke prodded, hey, I've got a bump here.
00:20:09:00 - 00:20:42:05
So then maybe some of that needs to be done. And and that's where our care team actually comes in. That's the what makes lyric a little bit differ too. Is that because we understand, the virtual side and also the, the side of having someone that may need a little additional assistance. Right. Based off of that, if we can now have somebody, you know, call in and say, hey, I need to get an annual wellness exam.
00:20:42:07 - 00:21:10:21
Well, guess what? We can actually do that. I mean, it's it's it. Yeah. It's crazy from, like, a couple of years ago. Right? It was just urgent telemedicine. But a person can actually pick out the doctor that they want to, to see. They say stay with that same doctor for follow up care and all. And if a specialist is needed, if a lab is needed, if anything is needed, then that goes to our care team.
00:21:10:23 - 00:21:38:14
And our care team then assists in making those appointments. I know it's happened to me. I've gone into my primary care, doctor, you know, previously and oh, hearing you need this done and they write a script or, you know, give me a referral sheet and hand it to me. You know, now it's a list of ten different specialists, and I need to go get this taken care of, or.
00:21:38:19 - 00:22:09:14
Hey, you need to go get these labs done. Where do I. You know. And so now the onus is on me as the patient to to figure it out. Right. Again, this is a sustained, you know, now a step of here ahead of things where those types of incidents, anything that is ordered by the doctor goes to the care team and the care team make sure that someone, someone's comfortable and knowing where they need to go, you know, do they need to use your insurance?
00:22:09:14 - 00:22:41:05
Is this a cash pay? You know, all the hurdles that that's going to stop somebody from taking that next step? Because continuity of care, right, is it's a big hole out there for most of, you know, anyone's health plan. And the more that we put it on a consumer, that's, that's, you know, part of our issue, you know, I think you were talking about a decrease in primary care providers, right?
00:22:41:06 - 00:23:25:11
There's still over the last or over 350,000 primary care providers in the US. That's a lot. Okay. Now, the reason that we say it's a shortage is, is because the the population is using those doctors in more ways than just chronic right now, every time, you know, I get a sniffle, I'm running after and because I've got to go, is sitting there waiting room because they're not doing virtual care, because they have my insurance and all that now, now it's overloaded, you know, and and so when it comes to a person saying, hey, I need to go get an annual wellness, right?
00:23:25:11 - 00:23:54:12
Which is critical because that is where those underlying conditions are found before they pop up. Right? And it's all a matter of people don't go to the doctors because they don't like them. It's not because they don't like the doctors or they don't like is the process meaning I got to select a doctor out of this huge PPO network.
00:23:54:14 - 00:24:18:23
I got to drive, I got to make an appointment. You know, I got to make a point. Two months from now and wait, right, Larry? I barely know what I'm billing two days from now. Unless my wife tells me right. So hopefully in two months I still have that date available. I gotta fight with traffic now. I got yeah, I got, now I got a gas.
00:24:19:00 - 00:24:49:12
Now I've got, you know, 500 emails that I missed at work that day or, you know, as an hourly worker, I just miss out on time for what we think is nothing worse. I got a I'm breathing, I'm walking. I must be fine. And and you know how I know, how I know this lawyer? Because it happened to me.
00:24:49:14 - 00:25:23:14
So from this personal as that, when we talked about going from urgent care to primary care back in 2021, it was all about access, because that's all that really urgent care was, was better access, better access. And as we're, you know, putting together this program, better access. Well, I had gone off on a business trip and it was a to Nashville was it was a fly in's meetings dinner next morning, fly back.
00:25:23:14 - 00:25:50:23
You know, I'm in the Dallas-Fort worth concourse, you know, terminal C, and I am just, walking off the plane, and I'm just. Yeah, I'm out of breath. Right. You know, my heart is just kind of out. Now, I know the symptoms of a heart attack and stuff very, unfortunately, very well. And I knew it wasn't that. And and because I had had previously been feeling bad, you know, already.
00:25:51:01 - 00:26:12:14
And I'm just like, man, I, you know, this is just, you know, this kind of injury. So I go, I get my Texas limo, my truck right from the Dallas, you know, airport heading home. Now, I call my wife telling, hey, I'm landed just fine. Added, you know, to the house now and I'll tell I, you know, man.
00:26:12:14 - 00:26:34:20
Yeah. This episode she goes, you need to go to the Mercy Room, right? You know, I like the the videos. Ain't nobody got time for that. You know, it's I just I'm way too busy. I gotta, you know, I've already been on a flight all morning, you know, and driving home. I gotta go so I can check my emails as she goes.
00:26:34:20 - 00:26:57:16
Don't stop. You know, I don't walk in this door unless you stop. And so I'm like, all right. I love, you know, rural area outside of Dallas. There's all, oh, if I go to the emergency room there, maybe I'll be quick and the doctor is going to tell me, hey, Wayne, watch what you you get some exercise and stuff.
00:26:57:18 - 00:27:21:00
So yeah, I'll walk in there. I'll tell you what. You ever want to get into the back of the emergency real quick? Go. Go to the E.R. reception. Go. You know, something's kind of going on with my heart, man. It's like bells, whistles. They're, you know, they're on the the PA system guys are rolling out, you know, the the the wheelchairs and stuff.
00:27:21:02 - 00:27:45:17
So I get back there pretty quick, even though there wasn't really hardly anyone, you know, in the waiting room to begin with. But they run these tests, right. And I'm going to make a long story short, that I had to stay overnight and, and then had a cardiology appointment the next morning to go over the tests and stuff.
00:27:45:18 - 00:28:22:08
And after doing multiple tests at the very end, this because I had two underlying conditions that both of those are under control with two $5 generic medications. Right, a stress event. What triggered this you know from going and and and so these these days combined you know sent me into the hospital. But worse than that, there is that now I had over $50,000 medical claims.
00:28:22:10 - 00:29:12:13
Because now we're talking about, you know, E.R., hospital doctor, five different doctor Bill, all kinds of, you know, stuff. And then and it just, the fire. And so the cardiologist said, well, why with this two condition, why why didn't your primary care have you on this? Well, because because I didn't go see. Well, why not? Because I, I was feeling okay, you know, and and if I did go right then the labs, that would if, if you have this lab wasn't there because I had at one time a primary care physician that I went to regularly, and they had the lab, right, right there, the same office, and I run it right the
00:29:12:13 - 00:29:33:11
last primary care provider that I had did it. And they would write it out and say, here, go to quest or LabCorp and and get this blood draw, what's it in my front seat? And my kid would jump in the car a couple days later, had blood, no one following up with me again. I was like, I thought I was fine, you know?
00:29:33:11 - 00:30:00:11
And as my grandpa used to say, you're good until you're not good, you know? And and so I sat down with the team. I said, I think I'm average Joe consume. Right. You know, by the same cars. Everybody else, my same house, everybody else travel same. Right. Do all this? Yeah. Same. Same. And I probably consume my health care the same way as I was, you know, doing more research.
00:30:00:11 - 00:30:31:18
If I mean that even in an employer market where it has rich benefits, only 30% of those employees actually go and get a annual bonus exam. I think they have insurers. Right. So why is a 70% not doing it? Of course you got this small 20% that are young, healthy, right? Maybe an older, healthy and just they don't, you know, they don't need to go.
00:30:31:20 - 00:31:05:17
But then you've got this other, you know, 40%, you know, 50% hanging out over here. That was like me that was just walking around waiting for something to happen. And these catastrophic claims, right, are stem mostly from that. Now, I know that is because that over 51% of all catastrophic claims the person had two or fewer claims previously.
00:31:05:19 - 00:31:33:03
So, so that's that's showing that someone is that typically it's a medical event that gets someone into a disease state that they finally know they're diabetic, that they finally know that they have hypertension. Right? Is again, the wine orders out there that, oh, okay, I need to be on the drug. But it costs, it costs. Yeah. With a cost share insurance you know.
00:31:33:05 - 00:32:02:23
And so it cost participants $50,000 for Wayne to learn that lesson. That's not how we should be. So I'm like okay, how do we how do we go about doing this? And what was stopping Wayne from, you know, getting the help it it was the process. It was all about that. I said, then let's scrap the process. And I sat there on a whiteboard and, and had bullet points of what are the what's the process now?
00:32:02:23 - 00:32:35:14
What's the regular health care process? How can we take care of this? You know? Yeah, so much so that, you know, if somebody especially at that time, you know, with Covid gone, you know, at a pandemic, if someone didn't want to go in and get a lab, we have labs that we gets in to somebody, you know, at home, you know, because of the, you know, now technology and all that, it is so is now someone can sit there and feel very comfortable.
00:32:35:14 - 00:33:03:11
So my primary care provider is virtual and I have I've had my labs virtual. I've had you know, I've had imaging done on a virtual basis, MRI done on a virtual basis. Yeah. So I've been taking care of 100% again. If I do need you know, I go to so why my insurance PPO that I can go in.
00:33:03:11 - 00:34:43:12
It has a touchy feely and all that. But I'm very secure in my health right now because I'm being monitored and kept up by a care team and having my annual physicals. Right. Those are my annual exams done every single year, and a board certified medical doctor is overseeing everything.
00:34:43:12 - 00:35:10:15
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00:35:10:21 - 00:35:32:13
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