Sexual healthcare supplier TBD Well being has moved into the B2B market by offering digital well being firms’ sufferers entry to its at-home sexually transmitted illness exams, diagnostics lab and clinics, the corporate introduced Thursday. TBD Well being is beginning by partnering with LGBTQIA+ healthcare supplier FOLX Well being and sexual well being firm Wisp.
“We wished to deliver traditionally ‘competing’ manufacturers collectively to assist resolve the fragmented well being system we’re all united in opposition to,” mentioned Stephanie Estey, TBD Well being co-founder and co-CEO, in an e mail. “Working collectively in the end permits us to maneuver additional in direction of our aligned purpose to present unparalleled entry to sexual and reproductive healthcare for extremely stigmatized communities throughout the nation.”
New York Metropolis-based TBD Well being is a web-based and in-person sexual healthcare platform. It affords at-home STD testing and emergency contraception, in addition to telemedicine consults. Its in-person clinics are situated in Las Vegas and Denver. Boston-based FOLX Well being, in the meantime, is a telehealth platform designed for the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood. Its providers embrace gender-affirming care, main care, sexual and reproductive well being, household constructing and psychological well being care. Wisp, primarily based in San Francisco, is a digital well being supplier for vaginal well being, reproductive well being and sexual well being.
Via the partnership, FOLX Well being can supply its members TBD Well being’s at-home STD kits and rely upon its labs, which may present next-day STD outcomes. These providers are particularly useful for these within the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood, who typically battle to entry healthcare, mentioned Liana Douillet Guzmán, CEO of FOLX Well being.
“Solely 5% of our members might discover an LGBTQIA+ affirming supplier earlier than coming to FOLX,” Douillet Guzmán mentioned in an e mail. “A lot of our members both stay in a care desert or can’t be seen by an skilled in sufficient time attributable to lengthy wait lists. … Providing at-home STI testing is a cushty and affirming choice for a lot of of our neighborhood members. Via our partnership with TBD Well being, we are able to develop entry to look after our neighborhood members whereas additionally encouraging healthcare that is freed from judgment for everybody.”
For Wisp, the corporate can now refer its telehealth sufferers to TBD Well being’s in-person clinics in Las Vegas and Denver. These sufferers can obtain TBD Well being’s STD testing, PrEP prescriptions, UTI remedies and different providers.
“Particularly in terms of ladies’s sexual well being, there are specific issues like IUD insertion or your annual pap smear that we simply can’t [deliver virtually],” mentioned Monica Cepak, interim CEO of Wisp, in an interview final week at CES 2024. “These are such essential contact factors in a girl’s well being journey, and that’s why it’s essential for us to accomplice with TBD.”
Estey of TBD Well being mentioned that its enterprise mannequin with its digital well being companions “varies relying on the mixing.” In working with different digital healthcare suppliers, Estey added that she in the end goals to “make sure that everybody has the chance to take management of their sexual well being.”
Picture: alphaspirit, Getty Pictures
