LEWISTON — Grand Rounds announced a merger with Doctor on Demand on Tuesday, a move the company said could mean good things, including growth potential, for its Lewiston office.

Grand Rounds employs 203 people here who, before the pandemic, were based in Bates Mill No. 1.

The company works with large employers helping 6 million-plus employees access health care and advocating on their behalf as an employee benefit.

“Grand Rounds has been incredibly focused on developing a health care navigation platform which helps our members to receive high quality care, no matter where they’re at,” said Danielle Snow, senior vice president of patient care and a Lewiston native. “Doctor on Demand has been very focused first on developing one of the premium telehealth platforms and, recently, on providing a virtual primary care platform.

“We’ve been pursing very parallel paths and I think that we’ve both realized that we were coming to the point where our paths were going to start converging,” she added. “For the first time, we now have a place where a member can come and get any health care question answered.”

The merger requires regulatory approval, which is expected before July.

Doctor on Demand, which like Grand Rounds, is headquartered in San Fransciso, has 700 employees and a second office in Minnesota. It’s also offered as a health plan or employee benefit, currently covering 98 million people, according to a press release.

Grand Rounds opened in Lewiston in 2016 to give it an East Coast presence and has 900 employees company-wide. It moved into the fourth floor of Bates Mill No. 1 last year after a major renovation. Snow said most employees are currently working from home due to the coronavirus, but the company is working on a return to work plan.

Both Grand Rounds and Doctor on Demand have seen “tremendous growth” in telehealth services during the pandemic, Snow said.

“Looking at the companies coming together, we’re going to both need to continue to grow our teams, we’re both high-growth companies,” she said. “We will continue to grow on the same trajectory in Lewiston. I do think that once our (merger) approval comes through, it provides the opportunity for us to think about bringing more disciplines into the Lewiston office as well.”

Last week, Forbes called Grand Rounds “a GPS system of sorts for patients” and included it at no. 127 in Forbes’ list of America’s Best Startup Employers.

This story was updated at 8:45 a.m.

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