The New York-based startup DUOS announced that it has secured $10 million in funding. Its latest round of funding was led by Primetime Partners, SJF Ventures and CEOC’s Aging Innovation Fund, which is managed by Castellan Group.
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.”
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