The money you require to turn your app idea into a working telehealth app is considered as the capital cost, but it isn’t limited to only app development cost.

The capital cost to start a telehealth app business includes,

The best thing about capital cost is that you can estimate it almost accurately.

(After a quick calculation, my friend told me that his capital cost would be as low as $50,000.)

Here, I would like to mention that capital cost highly depends on your app type, location, and your business goals.

Thus, it won’t be the same in your case.

But I guarantee that if you choose a white-label telehealth app rather than a custom app, the capital cost would not surpass $50,000.

As the name suggests, the operating cost is nothing but the expenses related to the operation of telehealth apps.

It includes,

This time, he took more time to calculate his operating cost.

It was as low as $10,000 a month.

With $35,000 as the capital cost and $15,000 as a profit in a month, it would take him less than 3 months to reach the break-even point.

With $10,000 as profit, it would take less than 4 months to reach a break-even point.

And with $5000 as the profit, it would take around 7 months.

If you can’t comprehend this, let me simplify it with an example.

• $100 required to start telehealth app business (capital cost)
• $50 is the monthly operating cost
• $100 is the monthly revenue
• $50 ($100 revenue – $50 operating cost) is the net monthly profit
• 2 months ($50 + $50) to reach capital cost (break-even time)

He was trying to ask me about the revenue streams of a telehealth app.

To answer this question, I selected the top telehealth app – Maple – as an example.

Maple targets specific user groups with dedicated pricing models to generate multiple revenue streams.

The following are their most targeted user groups and how Maple makes money from them.

• Casual weekday users: From users who occasionally use the Maple app on weekdays and between 7 a.m. to midnight, Maple charges $49 per visit.
• Casual weekend users: From users who occasionally use the Maple app on weekends and between 7 a.m. to midnight, Maple charges $79 per visit.
• Casual night users: From the users who occasionally use the Maple app between midnight and 7 a.m., Maple charges $99 per visit.
• Regular users: Maple lets users buy personal membership worth $30 a month for up to 30 visits per year.
• Regular users and their family members: Maple lets users buy family memberships worth $50 a month for up to 50 visits per year.
• Premium users: The Maple app is equipped with eWallet in which users can add credit. The credit packages include Starter worth $100, Extended worth $200, and Year-Around worth $500. On the Starter package, users can get a 5% discount, 10% on Extended and 20% on Year-Around.
• Corporate Users: Maple ties up with SMEs and large corporations to offer telehealth services to their employees.

The second friend finally understood why a startup must identify the user group to earn more!

Unlike the first two, the third friend had a complicated question.

Generally, the healthcare service cost of the citizens of Canada is widely covered by provincial health plans.

Meaning, that if a user belongs to a province such as Ontario and British Columbia where telehealth is covered by the health plan, the app should not charge him.

If a user does not have a health card in Ontario and British Columbia province, he needs to pay the televisit fee.

Like that friend, you must now have a question,

If a physician treats a patient using a telehealth app in Ontario and B.C. where telehealth is covered by the health plan, the government pays a visit fee to the physician.

But to get the visit fee, the physician should claim the visit fee using the billing codes.

Each fee code corresponds to a specific dollar amount.

The fourth friend asked me a very broad question and I answered him more extensively!

In the post-pandemic world, there will be version 2.0 of telemedicine apps that will dominate the market.

This version 2.0 of telemedicine apps will not only help you generate multiple revenue streams but deliver telemedicine as a complete care solution.

The following are the top ways to be 2.0 of telemedicine apps.

• Start a healthcare eCommerce store from your telemedicine app to sell personal care and wellness items online
• Start an online pharmacy and let patients order medicines from your telemedicine app itself
• Roll out mental health services as it will be a major challenge for people
• Integrate a remote patient monitoring module with your telemedicine app as remote care and hospital at home is the future of healthcare