AI-enabled virtual care company Counsel Health has raised $25 million in a series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz and GV (formerly Google Ventures).
The company seeks to transform the way healthcare is delivered while simultaneously, lowering the cost of care by relying on chat-based care. Counsel Health’s core feature is a medical-grade AI chatbot that can collect medical history and provide initial medical information.
If the chatbot determines that a member needs assistance from a physician, the patient can choose to join a telehealth visit on demand, via chat. The care model is suited for issues that arise between doctor’s visits and provides members with healthcare guidance without turning to Google or ChatGPT.
“Today, a lot of patients can't schedule a PCP visit 30 days or more, and so they're left on two ends of the extreme, either going to ChatGPT and Google for their healthcare or going to emergency rooms and urgent cares, which are unnecessarily expensive and not often the right care setting for them,” Muthu Alagappan, M.D., CEO and co-founder of Counsel Health, said in an interview.
Alagappan was an AI researcher before he went to medical school at Stanford. Later, he worked as a physician at Mass General and was the chief medical officer of Notable Health.
Counsel Health integrates with national health information exchanges, allowing members to pull their records from their primary care or specialist’s practice. This allows Counsel Health’s physicians to access these records and share notes with other physicians.
As part of the series A announcement, Counsel Health also unveiled that it will open up access to its AI chatbot for free, directly to consumers. If the chatbot recommends consultation with a physician, they can pay $29 to engage with a clinician via chat or video visit. Users can interact with the doctor for up to seven days.
Counsel Health is also offering an annual membership plan for $199, with unlimited access to physicians.
The startup is trying to shore up the supply and demand issues in healthcare that worsen access and affordability. A Counsel Health clinician, who they staff in-house, can do 15 to 20 visits an hour, and lower the cost of healthcare dramatically, Alagappan said.
Counsel Health has an emergency detection agent whose sole focus is to evaluate the conversation for clinical emergencies like suicidal ideation, stroke or heart attack. The company creates its AI with a physician in the loop as well to enhance safety.
“What we found is that chatbots without a doctor in the loop often over escalate to higher resource care, because there is no doctor in the loop, and they're trying to avoid any clinical liability, and so you've got to dial that in just right where you don't over escalate patients, but you also don't miss any true emergencies,” Alagappan said.
The company touts a cost savings of $381 per engaged member per year. Some of the most engaged users on the platform thus far are women over the age of 65, demonstrating wide adoption of the technology across age groups.
“General society has moved away from picking up the phone or scheduling and has moved towards 'I have a question' or 'I have a need and on demand, I want to be able to go find the answer',” Alagappan said.