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Healthcare · head to head

Included Health vs Sysmex

Included Health logo

Included Health

Healthcare

Care navigation and virtual care in one contract for self funded employers and health plans

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Sysmex logo

Sysmex

Healthcare

Haematology and urinalysis analysers sold with the middleware that decides which results a scientist ever sees

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Included Health owning both the navigation recommendations and the virtual care delivery creates a structural incentive to steer members to the vendor own clinicians, and an employer should require disclosure and measurement of how often that happens.; Sysmex the middleware is not realistically separable from the instrument contract, so a laboratory that likes Caresphere but wants another vendor analyser has no clean path to buying just the software.
  • They diverge on capability: Included Health covers Care navigation, Sysmex covers Caresphere autovalidation.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Included Health and Sysmex actually diverge.

Attributes where Included Health and Sysmex differ
AttributeIncluded HealthSysmex
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb, Windows, On-premise

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Healthcare).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Included Health

  • Care navigation
  • Provider quality steerage
  • Expert medical opinion
  • Virtual primary care
  • Virtual behavioural health
  • Virtual urgent care
  • Benefits integration
  • Employer reporting

Only in Sysmex

  • Caresphere autovalidation
  • Delta and moving average QC
  • WAM rule sets
  • Fleet telemetry
  • Reagent inventory tracking
  • Extended white cell parameters
  • LIS interfacing
  • Multi-site harmonisation

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Included Health

  • A large self funded employer whose members cannot tell which specialist to see and who currently absorbs the cost of poor referral decisionsnot Sysmex
  • An employer that has bought several point solutions and needs one front door that routes members to the ones already paid fornot Sysmex
  • A self funded plan wanting expert second opinions before high cost elective surgery, where a changed recommendation pays for the programmenot Sysmex
  • An employer replacing separate navigation and telehealth vendors with one contract and one member experiencenot Sysmex

Sysmex

  • A hospital network standardising full blood count reporting across six laboratories so a result released at a district hospital carries the same rules as the tertiary centrenot Included Health
  • A pathology group trying to raise autovalidation rates to absorb rising demand without recruiting more biomedical scientistsnot Included Health
  • A blood sciences service consolidating haematology, coagulation and urinalysis onto one middleware layer to remove three separate QC workflowsnot Included Health
  • A laboratory running 24 hour service that needs remote analyser telemetry so an overnight fault is triaged before the morning shift arrivesnot Included Health

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Included Health

  • Owning both the navigation recommendations and the virtual care delivery creates a structural incentive to steer members to the vendor own clinicians, and an employer should require disclosure and measurement of how often that happens.
  • Pricing is per employee per month across the whole eligible population, so a plan with low navigation engagement pays for everyone to serve the minority who call.
  • Savings claims rest on avoided costs and changed referral decisions, which are counterfactual by nature, so performance guarantees need very careful definition or they measure activity rather than money.
  • The company is a merger of three organisations with different origins, and members and benefits teams still encounter seams between navigation, virtual primary care and behavioural health that the single brand implies are absent.
  • It sells primarily to large self funded employers, so mid market employers and fully insured plans find both the pricing and the implementation effort disproportionate to their size.

Sysmex

  • The middleware is not realistically separable from the instrument contract, so a laboratory that likes Caresphere but wants another vendor analyser has no clean path to buying just the software.
  • Reagent rental agreements set a minimum annual test volume, and a laboratory whose activity falls after a service reconfiguration keeps paying against a floor it no longer reaches.
  • Regulatory clearance is granted per parameter and per region, so a flag or extended parameter that a European laboratory relies on may not be released for clinical use on the same analyser in the United States.
  • Interfacing to a non-Sysmex laboratory information system is a project, not a configuration step, and integration effort is often quoted separately from the instrument contract.
  • Autovalidation rule sets are configured locally, so the gains depend entirely on whether the laboratory has the clinical governance capacity to write, validate and audit those rules; buying the software does not deliver the saving on its own.

Pricing, plan by plan

Included Health

On request
  • Included Health$undefined/year
    • Per employee per month across the eligible population, quoted not published
    • Navigation and virtual care modules priced separately or bundled
    • Some components offered with performance guarantees tied to measured savings

Sysmex

On request
  • Reagent rental or cost per reportable result contract$undefined/year
    • Analyser hardware, reagents, service and Caresphere middleware bundled into a price per test
    • Five to seven year term typical
    • Minimum annual test volume commitment

Which should you pick?

Choose Included Health if

  • You need care navigation.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want provider quality steerage.
Included Health review

Choose Sysmex if

  • You need caresphere autovalidation.
  • You work on Web, Windows, On-premise.
  • You also want delta and moving average qc.
Sysmex review

Questions people ask

Is Included Health or Sysmex better?
Neither clearly leads. Included Health starts at On request and Sysmex at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Included Health or Sysmex?
Included Health starts at On request and Sysmex at On request.
Does Included Health or Sysmex run on more platforms?
Included Health runs on Web, iOS, Android. Sysmex runs on Web, Windows, On-premise.
What is Included Health best used for?
Included Health is most often used for a large self funded employer whose members cannot tell which specialist to see and who currently absorbs the cost of poor referral decisions, an employer that has bought several point solutions and needs one front door that routes members to the ones already paid for, a self funded plan wanting expert second opinions before high cost elective surgery, where a changed recommendation pays for the programme, an employer replacing separate navigation and telehealth vendors with one contract and one member experience. Of those, a large self funded employer whose members cannot tell which specialist to see and who currently absorbs the cost of poor referral decisions and an employer that has bought several point solutions and needs one front door that routes members to the ones already paid for are not what Sysmex is typically brought in for.
What can Included Health do that Sysmex cannot?
Included Health covers Care navigation, Provider quality steerage, Expert medical opinion, Virtual primary care. Sysmex covers Caresphere autovalidation, Delta and moving average QC, WAM rule sets, Fleet telemetry.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Included Health: What exactly is Included Health?

The combination of Grand Rounds Health navigation, Doctor On Demand virtual care and the original Included Health concierge service, operating under one brand since late 2021.

Sysmex: Can I buy Caresphere without Sysmex analysers?

Not in practice. It is licensed as part of the instrument and reagent agreement, and its value depends on Sysmex-specific parameters and flags.

Included Health: Who pays for it?

The self funded employer or the health plan pays a per employee per month fee. Virtual care visits may also carry member cost sharing depending on plan design.

Sysmex: Is Sysmex software FDA cleared?

Clearance attaches to the analysers and to individual reported parameters, not to the middleware as a whole. Check the specific parameter and the specific market, because clearances differ between the United States, Europe and Japan.

Included Health: Is there a minimum size?

No published minimum, but it sells primarily to large self funded employers and the pricing and implementation effort do not suit small organisations.

Sysmex: How is it priced?

Per reportable result, or as a reagent rental with a minimum annual volume. There is no per user or per seat price.

Included Health: How does it recommend providers?

Through data driven quality analysis rather than a plain directory. Ask specifically how those recommendations are produced and how often they resolve to the company own virtual clinicians.

Sysmex: What is the contract length?

Typically five to seven years, aligned to instrument depreciation, with reagent pricing fixed or indexed over the term.

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