As part of its business model, San Francisco-based Float helps patients receive care in their homes by contracting with registered nurses and scheduling shifts. The company was founded in 2021, and operates in California and Arizona.

One of Float’s key areas of focus as a company is addressing chronic illness, which impacts 133 million people in the U.S.

“After years in the emergency room treating patients with chronic conditions, and from treating my dad who suffers from one, I realized that moving specialty medicine into the home would be a sea change for everyone, ” Ryan Johnson, CEO of Float, said in a press release statement. “Expanding access to this type of care would have a huge impact on patient outcomes, not to mention the burnout of my nurse friends exhausted by long shifts and juggling priorities. Float has proven successful in doing exactly that.”

Float works with specialty pharmacies that send the company’s nursing staffing requests. The company’s clients include CVS Health’s (NYSE: CVS), Kroger (NYSE: KR), Option Care Health (NYSE: OPCH), Optum, Soleo Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA) and more.

The funding round — which also saw participation from Wave Capital, Y Combinator, Burst Capital and Also Capital — is indicative of investors’ focus on health care companies that offer solutions and stretch care services beyond traditional institutions.

The participation from Wave Capital, Y Combinator, Burst Capital and Also Capital brought Float’s total funds to $15 million raised.

Additionally, the funding round saw individuals join as angel investors. This included Max Mullen, co-founder of Instacart, Jed Nachman, COO of Yelp (NYSE:YELP), and Brian Osborn, former vice president of marketing at Yelp and more.

Overall, Float has achieved 19,000 visits and has a staffing rate of 97%.

Broadly, Float patients get 22 visits, compared to the average home infusion patient who receives 13 visits a year, according to reports.

The post Home-Based Care Staffing Startup Float Health Raises $10 Million appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The Massachusetts-based Devoted Health is an all-in-one health care company that delivers virtual-first care and insurance to primarily Medicare Advantage patients. It’s one of the many payers that has prioritized home-based care as well.

Devoted, founded in 2017 by brothers Todd and Ed Park, was one of the first organizations to popularize the term “payvidor.”

The company delivers in-home care by combining Medicare Advantage coverage with its virtual and in-home care provider — Devoted Medical — as well as partnerships with other home health providers.

The company has seen significant growth recently, boasting a year-over-year increase in membership of over 70%, according to the company. Devoted Health now serves over 140,000 members.

In 2023, Devoted Health also broadened its service footprint, extending its reach to cover a total of 299 counties across 13 states during the last Medicare annual enrollment period.

“In a health care system that isn’t always accessible or easy to navigate, we at Devoted Health are profoundly honored to provide each member with the same quality of care and service we’d want for our own families,” Ed Park, co-founder and CEO of Devoted Health, said in a statement. “It’s deeply gratifying to have so many others believe in the promise of our model, and we’re very excited to bring the love and world-class care that is Devoted to more and more Americans.”

According to Pitchbook, digital health funding remained low in Q3 of 2023, with $800 million in funding and just 60 new deals, both multi-year lows since at least 2020. Deals in the digital health space have been dropping since 2020.

Devoted Health’s $175 million was one of the highest funding rounds of any company, notably trailing Monogram Health’s $375 million Series C funding in January 2023.

The funding will help Devoted expand its reach across the country. It will help bolster its technology, clinical and operational capabilities, according to a company spokesperson.

“This includes continuing to innovate our home health care program and our proprietary technology platform,” the spokesperson said in an email to Home Health Care News. “By offering virtual and in-home care to members that complements the care they receive from their primary care physicians, we can ensure that members get the right care when they need it to keep them healthy.”

As the company has grown, recognition from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has also come in the form of increased star ratings.

In 2023, 94% of all Devoted members in star-eligible plans enrolled in a 4-star, 4.5-star or 5-star plan, according to the company.

Devoted Health was also named to Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Health Care list and its Best Workplaces for Women list.

The funding was led by a lead syndicate made up of The Space Between (TSB), Highbury Holdings, GIC, Stardust Equity, Maverick Ventures and Fearless Ventures

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Geoff Abraskin has been named the new president of the hospice division at Amedisys (Nasdaq: AMED). 

He has been with the company for nearly 15 years.

“Geoffrey Abraskin has been promoted to President of the Hospice Division!” Amedisys wrote in a LinkedIn post last week. “Geoff is a doctor of physical therapy and a certified wound specialist who joined Amedisys 14 years ago as an administrator and rehabilitation specialty director. He most recently served as SVP of the home health northeast region, and brings strong operational, clinical, integration, engagement and overall strategy expertise to the hospice team.”

Based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Amedisys is a provider of home health, hospice and high-acuity care services in the home. It has about 16,500 employees that deliver care through over 520 care centers in 37 states and the District of Columbia.

Abraskin recently sat down with Home Health Care News to chat about some of Amedisys’ recent successes.

“We’re seeing some green shoots from people applying for jobs,” he said. “We actually just had our best two months in terms of fills. We’re seeing contractor costs coming down, so that’s a big positive for us. But overall, there’s so many people that need home health today, and there’s just X number of capacity. We’re hiring more people. We just can’t hire fast enough.”

UnitedHealth Group’s (NYSE: UNH) Optum agreed to acquire Amedisys earlier this year.

Elevance Health’s Next CFO

Earlier this month, Elevance Health (NYSE: ELV) announced that CFO John Gallina would be retiring from his role as executive vice president and CFO later this year. In tandem with that news, the company announced that Mark Kaye would be taking over those positions.

Kaye was formerly the CFO at Moody’s Corporation. He will report directly to Gail Boudreaux, the president and CEO of Elevance Health. From September 6 to November 1, Kaye will serve as CFO Designate. After that, he will officially become the executive vice president and CFO of Elevance Health.

Gallina will also remain with the company as a special advisor to the CEO following his retirement. He has been at Elevance Health for nearly three decades, and was named CFO in 2016.

“On behalf of the entire Elevance Health team, I want to thank John for his contributions to our company over the last three decades,” Boudreaux said in a statement. “John has been a valued member of our organization who has successfully led our finance organization, navigated an ever-changing and dynamic health care landscape, and played an important role in our transformation to become a lifetime trusted health partner.”

Based in Indianapolis, Elevance Health is a large managed care company. It also is part provider, however, and has made in-home care a priority.

It most recently teased big plans to get more involved with at-home acute care.

“Mark is a well-respected leader with an extensive global finance background, who has significant experience in leveraging data-driven financial insight to support the execution of superior operational and strategic decisions, including growing and scaling businesses to drive success,” Boudreaux said in a statement. “With an innovative and customer first mindset coupled with his passion for fostering a high- performance culture, Mark will be a tremendous asset as we work to deliver on our purpose to improve the health of humanity.”

The Helper Bees’ Daniel Murphy joins the Family Caregiving Advisory Council

The Helper Bees announced last week that Daniel Murphy will join the federal Family Caregiving Advisory Council, which “makes recommendations to the administrator of ACL/Assistant Secretary for Aging on how to support and improve the lives of family caregivers.”

Murphy is the general manager of SaaS solutions at The Helper Bees. He previously was the co-founder and chief product officer of healthAlign, which was acquired by The Helper Bees in 2021. Before that, he served as national director of population health product and strategy for Maxim, a home health care provider.

“My experiences in the military led me to the home health care industry when I transitioned to the private sector, where I continue to serve others,” Murphy said in a statement. “I’ve spent the past decade in the aging services industry, helping families, insurance companies and policymakers deliver better care for veterans and older Americans who deserve quality care. I look forward to working with other members of the Council, advising on solutions to improve caregiving.”

Based in Austin, Texas, the Helper Bees is an insurtech company that partners with payers and home-based care providers to help coordinate care in the home.

Murphy will serve on the Family Advisory Council through 2026.

DUOS appoints chief strategy and growth officer

The home-based care startup DUOS has named Jenn Kerfoot as chief strategy and growth officer.

Kerfoot previously served as the chief experience officer at FarmboxRx.

“Coming off a stellar Series A funding close earlier this year, DUOS brings on Kerfoot at a critical time of expansion to lead all things growth, including business development, B2B sales, brand marketing and more,” the company said in a statement.

Indeed, DUOS announced in June that it raised $10 million, bringing its funding total to over $33 million. The round was led by Primetime Partners and SJF Ventures.

Based in New York, the company places personal care assistants into seniors’ homes. It also has proprietary software, which has become a larger part of its business model.

DUOS hired Tom Shankle as the company’s new VP of health solutions earlier this month.

AlayaCare brings on new SVP of customer success

AlayaCare announced that Rhonda Bosch is joining its executive leadership team as SVP of customer success.

In the her role, she will “spearhead customer success strategies and initiatives, driving unparalleled value and satisfaction for clients across the home care sector,” according to the company.

“We are delighted to welcome Rhonda to our executive team,” AlayaCare Founder and CEO Adrian Schauer said in a statement. “Her proven expertise in fostering customer relationships and driving growth aligns seamlessly with our mission to provide innovative solutions that exceed our client’s expectations.”

Previously, Bosch served as the COO of Mercatus Technologies Inc.

“I am honored to join AlayaCare and lead the customer success efforts,” Bosch said in a statement. “What drew me to AlayaCare is that our people really care. And when you care about making a difference, you really own it. AlayaCare works hard to make it easier for caregivers to be able to execute a high level of care, and I’m excited to help nurture and foster their customers to achieve better outcomes.”

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The Series A-3 investment was co-led by SV Health Investors’ Medtech Convergence Fund and Aspire Healthtech Partners.

One of the company’s largest goals after the funding round is to connect with more home-based care providers. It already partners with home care companies like Griswold, Right at Home and BrightStar Care. It wants to expand those partnerships, but also form more partnerships with home health providers.

Satish Movva, the CEO and founder of CarePredict, is a home-based care veteran. He previously served as chief information officer for Interim HealthCare before starting his own company. CarePredict is his second startup.

While caring for his parents, Movva found it overwhelming and nearly impossible to monitor their conditions in between his visits with them. He started CarePredict to find a solution to that problem.

“I was the primary caregiver for them,” Movva told Home Health Care News. “I used to talk to them every day. But when I showed up in person, I would find new things about them that either caused me to take them to the ER that day or to specialist appointments the following week. It was highly disruptive and unpredictable. They needed something that would give me some indication about what’s really going on with my parents without having to rely on self reporting, because as we age, self reporting becomes very unreliable.”

Based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and originally founded in 2013, CarePredict identifies those changes in a senior’s conditions autonomously. Specifically, it is able to track urinary tract infections, fall risk, malnutrition and depression. Doing so has allowed it to reduce hospitalizations for patients by 39% and falls by 69%. It also is able to increase length of stay in lower care settings by 67%, according to the company.

Fundraising for digital health companies has been incredibly challenging of late, making the $29 million raise for CarePredict all that more impressive.

It wasn’t easy, though. External economic factors forced the company to pause fundraising at times or rely on individual or inside investors. Eventually, the money came through.

“We persevered, and finally found folks that were much more strategic in nature versus just venture capital,” Movva said. “That is really what made the breakthrough happen for us. I think in tough times like this, a company’s value is better discerned by a strategic investor than by a purely financial investment.”

CarePredict is paid for mostly by operators, such as the aforementioned home care companies, senior living companies and assisted living facilities.

The company also works with health plans, namely Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. In some instances, it’s able to work with plans and providers in shared savings programs.

As home-based care providers work more with MA plans – and shift more toward value-based care in general – Movva sees CarePredict as the perfect platform to augment their care plans.

“We plan to be very active in home care and in home health,” Movva said. “Those home care companies [that use] our solution have found that it has immense value for their business. Once you have this level of predictive capability and understand what’s going on with a client, you can be the one to react and not necessarily have to put the the family in the way of reacting.”

Greg Madden, managing partner at SV Health Investors, added that he believes CarePredict is “well positioned to expand into the aging-in-place segment.”

“Aging has become a black box in between medical encounters,” Movva said. “If we can have this observation model when there’s nobody around, we should be able to find the same predictors in that [home] setting as well.”

The post After $29M Fundraising Round, CarePredict Looks To Partner With Home-Based Care Providers appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Based in Brentwood, Tennessee, Spiras Health provides nurse practitioner-led, at-home clinical care to patients with complex and chronic needs. Not a traditional home care or home health provider, the company focuses on underserved populations in a value-based care context. It believes its unique model enables it do so.

A proprietary “predictive model,” personalized care planning and attention to social determinants of health (SDoH) are all a part of that model. Spiras’ structure supports the patient’s existing medical system, supplementing provider abilities to fill care gaps.

In early June, the company named Ashley White as CFO. White previously served as VP of population health for Lifepoint Health, and before that, spent time at UnitedHealth Group and The Advisory Board.

In January, Spiras hired Nancy Hess as chief commercial officer. On her end, Hess spent 10 years as a VP at Optum, followed by a six-month stint as SVP of growth and strategy at TurningPoint Healthcare Solutions.

While White will be tasked with tackling the “complex issues of value-based care,” Hess will be leading growth strategy and innovation, especially as it relates to Spiras’ work with payers and providers.

“We’re in a sweet spot in the industry, because we have an opportunity to greatly reduce health care costs and positively affect how patients utilize services both inside and outside of the home,” Hess told Home Health Care News. “There’s certainly an opportunity to help patients set and achieve health-related goals fueled by greater education and understanding, which ultimately improves their quality of life.”

In 2021, Spiras Health raised $14 million in a Series B led by Altitude Ventures and FCA Venture Partners. The company helps health plans keep costs down by targeting patients in the home to reduce the incidence of acute events. It utilizes direct hands-on care – including palliative care – as well as telehealth and remote patient monitoring.

Through an identification of members with an elevated probability of “avoidable costs,” Spiras is able to deploy clinicians specifically trained to care for these patients with chronic conditions, intervene and address SDoH concerns before they lead to adverse health outcomes.

“There’s a formula for success that I see Spiras having that some of the other providers of care don’t have in the home,” Hess said. “And that includes addressing social determinants of health, closing these gaps, including addressing the isolation factors that we saw during COVID. There is also the need for the aggregation of services with better coordination of care across providers and other resources available to patients, which [Spiras is doing].”

Spiras Health CEO Scott Bowers also comes from a payer background. Previously, he was the president and CEO of Passport Health Plan and Evolent Health’s national Medicaid president. Before those stops, he also served as the president and CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Tennessee.

Spiras’ executives are using their past experiences to inform their future strategy.

Its patient population targets are under Medicare Advantage, managed Medicaid and D-SNP plans. Besides being nurse practitioner-led, its model also utilizes a pod of clinicians focused on delivering individualized patient care.

“We have already achieved significant outcomes that we measure on behalf of the health plans – which include reduced hospitalizations, reduced ER usage, gap closures, smoking cessation program participation and improvements in medication adherence,” Hess said. “We report on those outcomes, impact STARS measure, and measure SDOH outcomes, which positions us uniquely as we identify, treat and close those gaps in the home. And then, we report on those pathways and their positive impact on the patient’s healthcare experience back to the health plan in collaboration with their PCPs and specialists.”

Spiras focuses on patients with polychronic needs, such as COPD, CHF, or diabetes, for example. In addition, it addresses other diagnoses that “you might see with a patient that has severe illness in the home,” according to Hess. And one of the biggest differentiators is its ability to uncover previously undisclosed patient information for the health plans, she said.

The main goal now is further growth and more market differentiation. Moving forward, Spiras is also exploring partnering with providers across the continuum.

The post Behind Spiras Health’s Strategy To Uncover, Address Care Gaps In The Home appeared first on Home Health Care News.

But their workers are not always equipped with proper training or certifications to meet patients’ wound care needs.

The Wound Company — a startup based in Minneapolis — hopes to bridge that gap by partnering with home health and hospice providers across the country.

“A home care company today is burdened with a growing problem of wound care,” Nima Ahmadi, founder and CEO of The Wound Company, told Home Health Care News. “They’re having more wound care patients than ever before on their doorstep, and they do not have sufficient staffing levels in many cases. Very few home care providers have certified wound and ostomy nurses on staff. That number continues to dwindle despite the growing crisis of wound care that they’re facing.”

Ahmadi is a veteran in the health care space. After starting a mobile platform company for care management and preventative health that managed 15 million Medicare Advantage and Medicaid patients on behalf of health plans, he came into the wound care world to become the head of innovation for a global medical device company that is now part of Abbott (NYSE: ABT).

Recognizing the need for wound care innovation in the home, Ahmadi started The Wound Company, which just announced seed funding of $4.25 million from Susa Ventures and Sozo Ventures.

The funding will be used to expand the company’s national footprint, hire talent and continue the company’s mission to improve outcomes with cost efficiency.

“There’s a space missing for a leading company to be built,” Ahmadi said. “The investors that we engaged with quickly saw that this is a problem that is spiraling out of control. There are 13.5 million people a year, by the most conservative estimates, that are battling a wound or an ostomy. We’re spending $46 billion a year when you look at primary diagnosis on claims analysis. And if you look at outcomes last year, we amputated 158,000 limbs just due to diabetic foot wounds. That’s a 75% increase over the last decade. That number is predicted to grow over the next decade.”

In order to aid home health and hospice providers, The Wound Company uses its technology, predictive analytics and communications tools to help coordinate wound care on the spot.

“As soon as a home care provider gets a patient with a wound or an ostomy, they are sending us that information securely,” Ahmadi said. “We are providing either a real-time telehealth assessment facilitated by the home care nurse assigned to that patient or — depending on how much data is available upfront — we can do it synchronously.”

What is unique to the company’s approach, Ahmadi said, is that virtual consulting is not a one-and-done situation. It’s a continuous process that lasts as long as the patient’s conditions evolve.

Ideally, a new nurse can deliver advanced and sophisticated wound care at the point of care.

“In that way, we’re democratizing access to wound care expertise, elevating nurse acumen in the home care setting and enabling home care to rise to this growing challenge of wound care at the site of care where we know patients want to be,” Ahmadi said.

Ahmadi believes his company is a perfect partner for home health providers looking to deliver on more value-based care.

Its home health and hospice partners pay a fixed fee on a per-patient basis.

“Providers of home care that are taking capitation and risk are very interesting partners for us because the economic value that we’re able to deliver them is different than the traditional provider of home care,” Ahmadi said. “When 15% to 25% of your patient population has a wound every year, it becomes even more important that you have a strategy and the expertise to manage those costs.”

The post How A Wound Care Startup Plans To Fill Care Gaps For Home Health Providers appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The new funds will further drive DUOS technology investments, according to CEO Karl Ulfers.

Though DUOS launched in 2020 as a company that helps place expert personal assistants — “Duos” — into the homes of older adults, it has since evolved to include proprietary software as a service component.

“Older adults themselves, caregivers and care team members are able to use our software, which actually maps in the right Medicare Advantage benefit, the right government program, or the right community resource to solve their needs,” Ulfers told Home Health Care News. “We’ve deployed an artificial intelligence layer that makes it really easy for us to get all sorts of different inputs, understand the intent of what is needed for the older adult, and then automatically match that right benefit for that person’s needs.”

Last year, DUOS raised $15 million in a separate round. This latest influx of capital brings the company’s total funding to more than $33 million.

In addition to technology, the latest funds will go toward growth investments.

“The opportunity in this space is immense,” Ulfers said. “We’re really trying to make sure that we maximize our mission and our impact by getting the good work that we’re doing out to as many people as possible.”

As part of its business model, DUOS works with Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and dual-eligible plans to better accommodate aging-in-place seniors.

For health plans, the company’s value-add sits at the intersection of solving seniors’ social determinants of health and care navigation needs, according to Ulfers.

“The more that older adults use those benefits, the higher they rate that [MA] plan, and this increases the CAHPS scoring, which is part of the stars bonus that those plans get,” he said. “We help them drive better outcomes and quality of care for the people that they’re serving. We also help them achieve greater bonus dollars.”

DUOS has also been able to achieve a 95% closed loop referrals rate, and the company has delivered an over 80% care gap closure rate on annual wellness visits, and in HEDIS gaps with chronically ill, non-compliant MA members.

“We’ve indexed over 100,000 benefits, government programs and community resources that allow us to then deliver on those statistics,” Ulfers said. “Take, for example, someone who is food insecure, and they have grocery credit through their supplemental benefits with their health plan. Our platform identifies this and we’ll be able to help them start to get access to food through that credit.”

If this same senior is also low-income, the next step is also helping them get on SNAP. Ulfers noted that seniors aren’t always aware that they have access to such benefits.

Looking ahead, Ulfers still feels like there’s plenty of room for continued and consistent growth.

“There’s becoming more and more awareness, relative to plans, on why it’s so important to engage with their populations around these needs, and the positive impacts that it has from both a health outcomes and a risk adjustment standpoint,” he said. “We’re very much on the forefront of this change, and helping drive awareness within the market.”

The post Senior Care Startup DUOS Raises $10M, Bringing Its Funding Total To More Than $33M appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Whether its food, fashion or transportation, startups are known for playing the role of disruptor in whatever sector they’re operating in. 

While disruption can lead to innovation and efficiency, it’s also important for startups operating in senior care and home-based care to have a sound business model, healthy funding, strong backers, a clear value-add, advantageous partnerships and proper wherewithal to fully integrate into the space.

Home Health Care News did a deep dive into the standout startups that have cemented themselves in the senior care and home-based care space in recent years.

These companies have the above mentioned characteristics and more, making each one a startup to watch in 2023 and beyond.

Homethrive

At a time when aging in place is the established preference among seniors, Homethrive has cropped up as an aging-in-place enabler.

Homethrive’s staff of social workers provides clients with comprehensive care plans, as well as coaching, personal assistance and concierge services.

“One of the most common things [we do] is we help people understand the differences between ‘skilled’ and ‘non-skilled’ home care, helping them access that,” Homethrive co-founder and co-CEO Dave Jacobs previously told Home Health Care News. “That’s one of the most common things people come to us for, in terms of services. We are very much a partner for home care [agencies] across the country.”

The company was originally launched in 2018. Jacobs and his business partner David Greenberg were inspired by their own challenges with caregiving for their parents.

They brought their extensive health care backgrounds to this venture, having both been executives at the health care products company Medline Industries previously.

“Despite the fact that we were health care executives with a lot of knowledge of the industry, and were fortunate to have close families and the means to support our families, the caregiving journey was incredibly challenging,” Jacobs, previously told HHCN. “It was difficult.”

The Northbrook, Illinois-based company works with home care agencies, long-term care insurance companies and Medicare Advantage plans. Homethrive is also offered as a benefit at companies like Michigan Manufacturers Association, law firm McDermott Will & Emery and health-tech startup Emids.

In 2020, Homethrive raised $18 million, led by venture capital firm 7wireVentures and investment firm Pitango HealthTech.

At the time, Jacobs earmarked the funds to be used for a number of avenues that would push the company forward.

“We’re going to accelerate our penetration into health plans and also accelerate our penetration into the self-insured employer market,” he said. “Additionally, we are investing considerably to build out the technology stack that will power the service we provide to those different markets.”

Two years later, Homethrive raised an additional $20 million, led by Human Capital. Allianz, 7wireVentures and Pitango HealthTech also participated.

This new round of funding would help fuel what the company considers an “aggressive” plan to expand, as well as to accelerate its technology investments, specifically its digital assistant.

MedArrive

Already one of the “most successful” startups in the home-based care arena, MedArrive is certainly one to watch.

The New York-based company coordinates and delivers care in the home. MedArrive works with health systems and health plans to enable home-based care, utilizing non-traditional workers on the way, such as emergency medical services (EMS) professionals.

The company was founded in 2020 — Dan Trigub, the former head of Uber Health, and a former member of Lyft’s health care arm – is its CEO. MedArrive launched with $4.5 million in seed funding. .

“At the end of the day, Uber is a massive technology company with lots and lots of competing priorities,” Trigub told HHCN at the time. “I don’t think anyone would disagree, but it’s really not a health care company as its primary initiative. For me, I really wanted the opportunity to do more in health care.”

He founded the company with Inna Plumb, MedArrive’s COO, with the backing of Redesign Health, Kleiner Perkins and Define Ventures.

“I convinced Redesign, we went through our investment committee process to provide our seed stage funding.” Plumb said during an episode of HHCN+ TALKS last year. “We got to know CEO Dan Trigub. We clicked really well and the rest is history. We raised our seed from Redesign and then went on to raise an extension from Kleiner Perkins and Define Ventures, and then closed our Series A at the end of 2021. That’s our story.”

Plumb’s background includes a career in finance as an investment banker. She also spent time at the meal kit service company Blue Apron (NYSE: APRN).

Since its launch, the company has been able to lock down numerous strategic partnerships with companies such as Health Net, Superior HealthPlan, Brave Health and Spect.

“Partnerships sound really sexy, but at the end of the day, they have to serve a purpose,” Plumb said. “We really let the population and the needs of the population dictate what partnerships we form. When we identify a need within a population, then we go out and find the best possible partner there.”

MedArrive has also prioritized geographic expansion over the years. Currently, the company has nationwide capabilities, but is mostly focused in Florida, Texas, California and North Carolina.

More recently, MedArrive secured $8 million in funding this past April. Overall, the company has raised more than $40 million since it officially launched.

Inbound Health

As an off-shoot of Allina Health, Inbound Health is a hospital-at-home and SNF-at-home enablement platform.

Last year, Inbound Health became a separate entity, and launched with $20 million in funding from Flare Capital Partners.

“We started this internally within Allina Health,” Inbound Health CEO Dave Kerwar previously told HHCN. “As we built out our platform, it became probably one of the largest programs in the country. We designed it in such a way that it could be essentially multi-tenant. We could do this not just for Allina, but other health systems, too.”

As part of its business model, the company works with health plans and health systems that are developing, or have up-and-running, hospital-at-home or SNF-at-home programs. When working with these partners, Inbound Health offers up the care model, clinical leaders, a technology platform that includes a workflow layer, a virtual command center made up of biometric monitoring nurses, triage nurses and virtual hospitalists.

Additionally, Inbound Health’s capabilities also include supply chain, labor and logistics partners, a machine learning analytics platform, an operations unit and a payer-contracting capability for health systems.

“We bring all those capabilities, but most of the health systems and health plans we talk to have some, if not all of those ingredients,” Kerwar said. “Our operating model allows us, over time, to turn on or off those capability sets, so our health systems can look at us as a flexible partner.”

Compared to other startups on this list, Inbound Health is still more local, but its aim is to expand its reach. The company is looking to lock down more partners in other markets. Currently, it counts Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota as one of its health plan partners.

As part of its growth strategy, the company recently expanded to include post-surgical care for general surgery earlier this month. This move creates value for potential hospital partners, according to Kerwar.

“ORs across the country are essentially getting backed up, and their ability to increase the elective surgery count is getting constrained,” he said. “This is because there’s no brick-and-mortar skilled nursing facility bed for the patient to step down to.”

DUOS

DUOS first appeared in the senior care scene in 2020. It had $6 million in seed funding from investors Redesign Health and Forerunner Ventures, as well as a relationship with Magellan Health Inc. (Nasdaq: MGLN).

DUOS is a New York-based company that helps place expert personal assistants — “Duos” — into the homes of older adults. The company engages with the seniors through Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and dual-eligible plans in order to help them age in place.

In addition to working with payer and provider organizations, DUOS is also direct to consumer.

Last year, when the company raised $15 million, led by Imaginary Ventures, it set its sights on growth and technology advancements.

“The funding itself will be used to continue to build out our incredible team from a product engineering and design standpoint,” DUOS CEO Karl Ulfers previously told HHCN. “In terms of what we’re focused on with them, we really want to be a leader in technology for the older adult and caregiving space.”

Ultimately, the company is one to watch because it’s been able to gain a foothold with MA plans who are looking to retain members in a market crowded with available plan options.

“That’s creating churn within their business,” Ulfers said at the Home Care 100 conference in February. “They’re looking for solutions like ours to help them be engaged in those benefits, so they stay on the benefits longer.”

Tomorrow Health

When Tomorrow Health first launched, its business model drew comparison to online retail giant Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN).

Since then, the company announced that it was revamping its business model. In May, Tomorrow Health announced its plans to shut down its medical supply business. It would shift focus to technology and other solutions.

However, the company still plans on working with its home medical equipment (HME) supplier partners.

“HME suppliers are a critical lever to shift care to the home, which is often overlooked by payers,” Tomorrow Health CEO and co-founder Vijay Kedar said in a press statement at the time. “Tomorrow Health’s technology and unique position with payers enables change end to end, supporting everything from prescription to reimbursement while arming suppliers with valuable insights that can drive business growth and ensure positive experiences for every single stakeholder.”

Seeing what Tomorrow Health plans to do next is reason enough for the company to make this list, but it also has an impressive past track record.

Since launching, the New York-based company has secured $92.5 million in funding. Tomorrow Health also works with a big network of providers, as well as 125 health plans and health systems.

The company also has a long list of backers, including Andreessen Horowitz, BOND and Obvious Ventures and more.

Plus, Tomorrow Health rolled out a product that is meant to help providers in the Medicaid and home- and community-based services space in May.

Looking ahead, the company sees this restructuring of its business model as a way to “unlock new opportunities” and lift roadblocks for its home-based care provider network.

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That’s when company leaders decided to take a look at health care.

“That’s when Lyft started to realize health care is not a $4 trillion monolith,” Poropatich, head of Lyft Health Care, told Home Health Care News. “It is hundreds and thousands of billion dollar industries — one of which is non–emergency medical transportation.”

Lyft’s health care strategy puts the company squarely within home-based care. It has been partnering in the space for years, with companies such as Right at Home, Comfort Keepers and Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM).

The company’s objective in the space is not to disrupt it, but to find a specific niche within it.

Poropatich cited a recent study from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that found 5% of American adults reported forgoing health care in 2022 due to transportation barriers.

“That means for 10 million Americans, health care is either inaccessible at its worst and inconvenient at best,” Poropatich said. “There was just a very natural and obvious fit for Lyft, where we can leverage automated transportation to get people to the care that they want. Since then, frankly, it’s been kind of a rocketship of growth and opportunity.”

Lyft’s health care leaders also recognized that more health care would be provided in the home in the future, Poropatich said.

Originally, the company thought it had a three- to five-year window to capitalize on that momentum. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became a three- to five-week sprint instead.

“Everything needed to get to the home, inclusive of care,” Poropatich said. “For us, all of a sudden new data points showed up for where things were going, where people were headed, new buying profiles, new drop-offs and destinations. Care was actually in the home.”

Poropatich believes Lyft can help patients get to health care appointments that are outside of their homes. At the same time, he believes it can help get caregivers and clinicians to those at-home visits, while also reducing windshield time for them.

One of the keys to the company’s success in health care is self-awareness, Poropatich said. He and the rest of the team know that ride-sharing is not for every at-home care worker or patient.

Understanding which lanes Lyft can fill, however, is the priority.

“The analogy we give is that we look at ourselves as urgent care,” he said. “Urgent care, from a delivery perspective, brought in cost, accessibility and convenience. That’s how we see Lyft.”

Lyft’s penetration in the market could also help health care professionals operate at the top of their licenses.

“We want the rideshare appropriate, ambulatory, fully cognizant person in a Lyft so that the people who are truly specialized in health care transportation can operate at the top of their license,” Poropatich said. “We want them to serve the population where wheelchair-accessible vehicles are needed. Not the other 40% of riders who are going to a wellness visit.”

Ultimately, Lyft wants to reduce costs, improve convenience and enhance accessibility for patients and its partners.

“We’re not a fully comprehensive solution,” Poropatich said. “This is not a threat to the academic medical center. It is a collaboration and an orchestration, and we work within the ecosystem and with the partners we have to make sure that we’re appropriately leveraged. And, when we can, bring an incredible member experience.”

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The company announced Thursday that it is closing down its medical supply business to further focus on enabling home-based care through technology and other solutions that benefit its provider and health plan partners.

Still, it will work with other home medical equipment (HME) supplier partners – such as Apria, AdaptHealth, Home Care Delivered, Lincare and Rotech Healthcare – and provide them with “scalable technology.” 

“HME suppliers are a critical lever to shift care to the home, which is often overlooked by payers,” Tomorrow Health CEO and co-founder Vijay Kedar said in a statement.” Tomorrow Health’s technology and unique position with payers enables change end to end, supporting everything from prescription to reimbursement while arming suppliers with valuable insights that can drive business growth and ensure positive experiences for every single stakeholder.”

The New York-based Tomorrow Health has raised $92.5 million in funding since it launched in 2018. It aims to improve how home-based care is ordered, delivered and paid for. It works with a large network of providers, as well as 125 health plans and health systems. It is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, BOND and Obvious Ventures, among others.

After originally making home medical supply a key part of the business, Tomorrow Health leaders believe they have found a better way to influence care moving toward the home. In part, that is through “the transformation of the end-to-end process of how HME is ordered, processed and delivered to patients at scale,” according to the company.

Closing its own first-party HME supply business, Tomorrow Health believes, will “unlock new opportunities” and “remove barriers” for its home-based care provider network.

The news comes on the heels of the company announcing a new product specifically tailored to help providers and health plans operating in Medicaid and home- and community-based services.

“It’s a recognition of the unique complexities that are faced by both Medicaid MCOs as well as care coordinators – and ultimately patients and their caregivers – in navigating home-based care,” Kedar told Home Health Care News last month. “This is something that we have worked to develop over the last year in partnership with a range of stakeholders to ultimately be able to deploy and deliver a product that is really tailor-made and suited to support some of these key stakeholders in the Medicaid space.”

On the HME side, Tomorrow Health still feels like it can make an impact.

It has reduced supplier operating expenses by up to 24%, according to the company. It also allows the supplier to communicate more seamlessly with all stakeholders involved with care, including payers and providers, through its platform.

“Our partnership with Tomorrow Health enables us to automate and dramatically scale Home Care Delivered’s best-in-class customer onboarding process, while simultaneously allowing us to drive the clinical, quality, and financial outcomes that are needed by patients, their healthcare providers, and payers,” Lowell Price, SVP of business development and chief growth officer of Home Care Delivered, said in a statement. “While there are other e-platforms in the market today that we support, none are more strategically aligned to us in both commitment and capability to delivering value-based care in DME than Tomorrow Health.”

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