Mount Sinai Health Partners, through New York Telemedicine Associates, has premiered Babylon Health’s telehealth app as part of its services with five large New York health plans: Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield Commercial and Medicare Advantage; Humana Medicare Advantage; Oscar Commercial, and Cigna Commercial. The coverage of these five plans is claimed to be in the millions. Mount Sinai’s network covers Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and most of Long Island.

The app includes the Babylon chatbot and the opportunity to set video consults with a doctor. The app also has COVID-19 information and a chatbot app which leads you through a self-diagnosis menu, interactive advice, and will set up an appointment to speak to a healthcare professional. Release, Babylon Health US’ page on the Mount Sinai program   This Editor will add that Mount Sinai is rather late to the party, as rival NYU Langone has been promoting their telehealth Virtual Urgent Care program for months.

The Forbes article starts off like a glossy Babylon press release, but continues on to some of Babylon’s recent and controversial press, such as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) participating in the last $550 million investment round and the tart feedback of many UK doctors on how much ‘care’ can be pushed off onto apps like ‘GP At Hand’. Not mentioned is the controversy around the accuracy of the chatbots when it comes to giving advice, which was the subject of Newsnight and @DrMurphy11 (Dr. David Watkins), who has been raising performance issues for some time. [TTA 27 Feb]