American Well should go ahead with its core product Online Care because of the following reasons:
a. Technology is one of the strengths they have harnessed in implementing Online Care and this can further serve to block competition in the future
b. They had the first mover advantage and progress in this segment with maximum customer satisfaction will provide American Well the opportunity to become the definitive leader in Online Care
c. No huge investment or hiring of resources will be required to continue the operations
d. If they fail in this venture (their first and core product) none of their extensions would then have a potential to capture the market
e. They had good financial support of many sophisticated and angel investors
f. Managerial expertise of both Ido and Roy in handling this sector and their previous track record in this area is an advantage which they can leverage while marketing this product
g. Market demand of such a product was huge as according to a survey of 2006, 74% of the respondents wanted such a service
h. Value proposed to all the players with this service created a win-win situation for all and hence growth in this segment was inevitable. Health insurance companies could save $3.36 per patient per month (Exhibit 9) and patients too could exercise choice and convenience According to Exhibit 11 (selected cities also shown above), Boston, Los Angeles and Washington DC has the highest average time new patients wait for appointment with family practice physicians (62, 58, 30 days respectively). This is a great opportunity for American Well to transfer this segment of people who still go for family practitioners to online health care segment by helping them to utilize their time efficiently and cater to their health needs immediately.
Hence, National Roll-out Plan