This N.L. virtual care company is questioning government's decision to pick American group instead

A central Newfoundland doctorwhose company lost out on a contract to provide virtual care in the province iswondering why an outsidecompany was chosen insteadof hisgroup oflocal doctors.

Dr. Todd Young of Springdale is the medical director of Medicuro, a company thatbrands itself as Newfoundland and Labrador's first virtual health-care clinic. The company bid on the provincial government's proposal to provide virtual care to residents, but the province chose American-basedTeladoc Health instead.

The contract with Teladoc is worth $22million over two years. Young told CBC News his bid would have cost $3.5 million per year, and hopes to get answers in the future as to why Teladoc was chosen.

"When I look at the [request for proposals] and reflect on it, there may be a couple of reasons. First, we were a smaller company and maybe there wasn't confidence that we would be able to handle that," Young said Monday.

"I think that we could have. I wouldn't have put a bid in if I didn't think that we were able."

Young says another reason Medicurowasn'tchosen might be that many of the physicians working in the company are already based in Newfoundland. He said thatcould be perceivedas exhausting existing resources in the health-care system.

Teladoc's work will address gaps in care, he says, but a local touch would have been better.

"I liken it to a small corner store in a small town in Newfoundland, and then Walmart moves in," he said.

"When we look at corporate America and how health care is delivered there, there has to be drastic differences. I'm sure they'll be able to provide the service, but, again, they have shareholders to make happy."

While Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services says it can't comment on specific cases like Young's, spokesperson Tracey Boland said each proposal went through a rigorousevaluation process conducted by a panel of experts and was evaluated based on a company's finances and a demonstration.

Part of that process included the ability to provide virtual health care, emergency room care and urgent care services, a statement from Boland added, and provide a "technical solution and human resources to support the continuation of services during clinician shortages.

"AsTeladoc scored the highest on the comprehensive RFP evaluation process, it was awarded the contract," Boland wrote in a statement to CBC News. "We are in the process of contacting all vendors who submitted proposals for a debrief.

LISTEN|Hear Dr. Todd Young'sfull interview with the CBC's Bernice Hillier:

CBC Newfoundland Morning6:57A U.S.-based company's bid to offer virtual care cost 3 times that of a Newfoundland-based care provider. Yet Teladoc Health got the contract. We ask Dr. Todd Young of Medicuro why he feels his company would have been a better choice

A doctor in central Newfoundland is questioning how the province plans to offer virtual health care. Dr. Todd Young owns Medicuro, which promotes itself as "Newfoundland and Labrador's first virtual health clinic." Medicuro bid on a government contract to provide virtual care but lost to a U.S.-based company.

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