Best Life Brands has appointed Kevin Vesely as its new chief financial officer.

“We enthusiastically welcome Kevin to the Best Life Brands family to execute our continued success and financial health,” Best Life Brands CEO J.J. Sorrenti said in a press release. “His diverse experience, including private equity success and proficiency in process optimization, makes him an ideal fit for this role. Kevin’s insights from health care and audiology align perfectly with our mission to improve the lives of seniors and those in need of care, while his finance and administrative expertise enhances our growth capabilities.”

The Troy, Michigan-based Best Life Brands is a holding company that includes the home-based care companies ComForCare, At Your Side and Boost Home Healthcare. It has more than 600 franchise locations across the U.S. and Canada.

Prior to joining Best Life Brands, Vesely served as CFO of Alpaca Audiology. Before that, he was vice president of finance and controlling at Sonova Group.

“Best Life Brand’s commitment to enhancing the quality of life for seniors and those in need of care aligns perfectly with my professional experience, especially in healthcare and audiology,” Vesely said in the press release. “I am honored to bring my financial leadership skills to contribute to the company’s continued growth and success. Best Life Brand’s dedication to excellence and its aggressive expansion strategy, including international expansion and acquisitions, present exciting opportunities, and I look forward to being a part of this dynamic journey.”

CVS Health CFO will take a leave of absence

CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) recently announced that Shawn Guertin — executive vice president, CFO and president of health services — will be taking a leave of absence from his position due to unforeseen family health reasons.

During this time, Tom Cowhey, who serves as senior vice president of corporate finance, will step into the role of interim CFO.

Additionally, CEO of Oak Street Health, Mike Pykosz, has been named interim president of health services.

“Our thoughts are with Shawn and his family during this difficult period,” Karen S. Lynch, CEO and president of CVS Health President, said in a press statement. “The Board and I have every confidence that Tom and Mike will ensure we continue to execute our strategy seamlessly while we give Shawn time to be with his family.”

Cowhey joined CVS Health in February of 2022, and Pykosz joined the company after the acquisition of Oak Street Health in May 2023.

Guertin’s role is a vital one in terms of home-based care services. Prior to his leave of absence, Oak Street Health and Signify Health leaders began reporting to him directly.

Gateway Home Health & Hospice gets a new CEO

Mike Suor has joined Gateway Home Health & Hospice as its new CEO.

The Denver, Colorado-based Gateway Home Health & Hospice is a home-based care company that offers home health, hospice and home care services.

Prior to joining Gateway Home Health & Hospice, Suor served as the CEO of Bridge Home Health & Hospice. He also served as the executive director there.

Additionally, Suor has served in leadership roles at SV Healthcare Solutions and Harden Healthcare.

VillageMD makes several new leadership appointments

VillageMD recently made leadership announcements for Summit Health, CityMD and Village Medical.

The company has appointed Dr. Rishi Sikka as president of Village Medical. In his new role, Sikka will be responsible for the clinical outcomes. He previously served as president of system enterprises for Sutter Health.

VillageMD also promoted Becky Levy to president of Summit Health and Starling Physicians. Levy joined Summit Health in 2011. She has served as the organization’s chief legal officer, as well as chief administrative officer and chief strategy officer.

Additionally, Dr. Dan Frogel will hold a dual role of president of CityMD and chief clinical officer of the enterprise. Frogel joined CityMD in 2013 when Premier Care and CityMD merged.

“I’m delighted to welcome and congratulate Dr. Frogel, Dr. Sikka and Becky Levy to these new positions as we’re on the precipice of transforming healthcare,” Tim Barry, CEO and chair of VillageMD, said in a press release. “Each leader brings the perfect balance of passion for our mission along with extensive experience to lead us to operational and clinical excellence as we grow and serve more patients in the United States.”

As a company, the Chicago-based VillageMD delivers care services across 26 markets. It acquired Summit Health-CityMD — the result of the 2019 merger of Summit Medical Group and CityMD — at the start of the year. VillageMD is backed by Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA).

DUOS names new vice president of marketing

The New York-based startup DUOS has named Michael Furstenberg as vice president of marketing.

“I’m delighted to join DUOS and serve a growing population of beneficiaries who deserve convenient, accessible, and intuitive resources for maximizing their benefits and maintaining their livelihood so they can lead fulfilling lives at home,” Furstenberg said in a statement. “With a clear strategy centered on reimagining the future of aging with high-tech and high-touch solutions, innovation will continue to be a catalyst for growth at DUOS in an evolving landscape where social determinants of health are impacting people’s health, well-being, and quality of life daily.”

DUOS works with Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and dual-eligible plans to better accommodate aging-in-place seniors. The company also leverages proprietary software as a service component.

Previously, Furstenberg served as chief marketing officer at NationsBenefits. Before that, he served as head of marketing for Aetna Behavioral Health, a business unit of Aetna, which is a part of CVS Health.

In addition to Furstenberg’s appointment, DUOS has also launched DUOS+AI, a conversational interface meant to help recommend care services and more.

“With the launch of DUOS+AI and more solution innovations on the horizon, Furstenberg’s experience in managing great brands, executing influential campaigns, developing innovative tech-enabled products, and building high-performing teams for startups and established companies alike will prove indispensable to our leadership team,” Jenn Kerfoot, chief strategy & growth officer at DUOS, said in the statement. “Increasing brand awareness and scaling our member activation solutions will further enable us to dismantle barriers to care and access for the thousands of older adults who are aging into Medicare each day in the U.S.”

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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 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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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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These forward-looking companies offer a new avenue for health plans looking to reach their members and, in turn, improve health outcomes.

One such company, DUOS, engages with the seniors through Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and dual-eligible plans in order to aid them in their desire to age in place.

Founded in 2020, the New York-based DUOS places expert personal assistants — “Duos” — into the homes of seniors. In addition to working with payer and provider organizations, the company also works directly with consumers.

“We work with large MA plans like UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) and Magellan to outbound outreach to those populations, consult and understand what the needs are for each unique individual,” DUOS CEO Karl Ulfers said during a presentation last month at the Home Care 100 conference.

DUOS has been able to cement its value at a time when the retention of MA members has grown more difficult for health plans due to an abundance of available plan options.

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

Ulfers also noted that MA plans are dealing with financial incentives that are tied to member satisfaction.

“That is now driving almost 40% of the stars’ bonuses for these plans, and that can be up to $500 per member, per year,” he said. “Having those members satisfied, and using those benefits, is a key driver for them. [MA] itself just continues to grow like crazy, putting more and more pressure on these plans – and their providers – to be able to perform at these levels.”

A key part of the DUOS plan is to not begin with health care-related needs. Instead, the company starts by focusing on other needs, such as help around the house, food or transportation.

“We tap into benefit providers like Modivcare Inc. (Nasdaq: MODV), we tap into food providers that the plans make available, we tap into home modification and home personal health care assistance, to help those older adults feel safe within their home,” Ulfers said. “Once we have built that relationship with the older adults, it allows us to complete some of the high-value actions the plans care about, such as helping these individuals get engaged within their annual wellness visits, or preventative care screenings.”

Overall, DUOS has been able to achieve a 90% increase in plan retention via supplemental benefits utilization.

Upward Health’s whole-person care

Upward Health is another company working with health plans to aid its members.

“We serve the top 5% of a health plans membership — the highest risk, the most complex,” Dr. Dennis Mihale, chief medical officer at Upward Health, said during the presentation.

Upward Health is a Hauppauge, New York-based in-home primary care and behavioral health care company.

Its care delivery model focuses on whole-person care, as its leaders put it.

“Behavioral health is a tough thing to solve, so we formed a collaborative model where the [primary care provider] and the psychiatrist work together,” Mihale said. “The psychiatrist or the nurse practitioner can develop a treatment plan, and then support the primary care doctor in seeing that patient. Then we do chart rounds every month, so that the PCP knows if the treatment plan is still working.”

As part of Upward Health’s whole-person care approach, the company also zeros in on social determinants of health. The company leverages community-based organizations such as medical centers, housing shelters and mental health centers.

Similar to DUOS, Upward Health first engages patients by focusing on their immediate needs, and then shifts to health care-related needs.

“What’s important to them?” Mihale said. “Is it transportation or housing? Is it food insecurity? Is it one of their family members? Once we’ve addressed their issues, we built up a relationship of trust. Then when we want to talk about something that might be very important, like their diabetes, their congestive heart failure, their lung disease, we’re going to find them engaged, and they are participating in their care.”

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This week, Magellan announced the launch of its new Senior Assistance program, powered by DUOS.

The new service will allow Magellan members to get connected with personal assistants — or “Duos” — who focus on members’ social needs to help maximize their independence while aging in place.

The duos will also be able to coordinate community resources for health plan members to make at-home care a more holistic and personalized experience.

Launched in 2021, the New York-based DUOS helps place expert “Duos” into the homes of seniors. The company works directly with consumers as well as with payer and provider organizations.

Magellan Healthcare — the health care arm of Magellan Health Inc., which was acquired by Centene — is a care provider that mainly focuses on solutions for complex conditions for behavioral health and medical specialty treatment.

DUOS started working with Magellen a year ago through a pilot program in order to prove that its services were valuable and effective.

Of the members involved in the pilot, 45% identified themselves as socially isolated some or most of the time, a rate that is 80% higher than the average rate of isolation for older adults.

The Magellen and DUOS pilot resulted in a 93% success rate in addressing members’ social determinants of health needs and an 85% retention rate.

“Based on the success of that pilot, what this contract now gives us is the ability to start selling through the other payers that Magellan does business with,” DUOS CEO Karl Ulfers told Home Health Care News. “We’re going to be bringing to market an employer-based solution that focuses on caregivers, because we know there’s an immense amount of pressure on caregivers. Helping solve these needs for older adults helps take that pressure off of caregivers.”

Through the Senior Assistance program, Magellan members will receive a personalized plan and weekly virtual check-ins to help them meet daily needs and hurdle other barriers that might be in the way as they age in place.

Those barriers often include safe housing, transportation, meals and groceries and health care navigation, among many others.

For DUOS, this partnership is a great opportunity to scale at an even quicker rate than anticipated following their $15 million Series A funding round.

“This gives us incredible scale and opportunity to help as many people as possible,” Ulfers said. “For Magellan, this helps them advance their mission to help older adults from a whole person perspective — in addition to what we can do to help from a mental health and behavioral health standpoint.”

At a macro level, DUOS has the ability to do a lot, Jacques Anderson, co-founder and chief of staff at DUOS, told HHCN. That’s what’s exciting and also challenging about the road ahead.

“There is so much that goes into aging,” Anderson said. “DUOS really aspires to capture and carry members where they’re at and establish a longitudinal relationship throughout their aging process, which I feel like is a lofty, aspirational goal. It’s ambitious, but it’s ambitious on purpose, because aging is a huge issue. We take this very seriously and we’re committed to doing the best job we can to deliver top quality customer experience.”

At the end of the day, DUOS hopes to simplify the complicated nature of at-home care.

“It’s a really complex landscape that older adults face, and so our job is really to simplify that complex landscape,” Ulfers said. “These populations have a really high rate of social isolation. The way that we solve that though is not by just providing them a friend. Our way of solving that is to actually solve these barriers that are resulting in them being isolated.”

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The round was led by Imaginary Ventures, with participation from existing investors Forerunner Ventures, Declaration Partners, and a new investor, Optum Ventures.

The $15 million is a significant mark for the company, which sees itself in a new stage after the round, Karl Ulfers, co-founder and CEO of DUOS, told Home Health Care News.

“DUOS, from a seed round perspective, had tremendous investors between Redesign Health and Forerunner, but that round was more in the $6 million range,” he said. “It was a great round. It propelled us to where we are today, but this Series A is definitely our most substantial round to date.”

Launched in 2021, New York-based DUOS helps place expert personal assistants — “Duos” — into the homes of seniors. The company works directly with consumers, as well as with payer and provider organizations.

The recently raised capital is earmarked for fueling both the company’s technology advancements and growth plans, Ulfers said.

“The funding itself will be used to continue to build out our incredible team from a product engineering and design standpoint,” he said. “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.”

Specifically, DUOS will put funds towards two key areas.

One of these areas is taking the tools the company has built to allow its “Duos” assistants to help seniors and externalizing these capabilities so that family caregivers can also tap into them through an app. The second area has to do with the company’s partnerships.

“We see this awesome opportunity in terms of the services that we tap into — so think of transportation, think of scheduling appointments, think of helping arrange meals, helping with things around the older adult’s home,” Ulfers said. “We are actively adding partners into our business that will allow us to integrate them into our technology to go the final mile.”

As a relatively new company, DUOS has already begun making headway when it comes to making those partnerships.

It has formed relationships with a number of health insurance plans, including Magellan Healthcare, Geisinger Health Plan and other national and regional payers and providers in California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and Georgia.

DUOS’ value-add to its partners is its ability to fulfill the needs of seniors in the wake of Medicare Advantage’s expansion of home-based supplemental benefits and Medicare’s creation of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).

“What that ultimately drives for our plan partners is a direct impact relative to their star ratings, as well as their overall satisfaction with their members, to help retain them in their Medicare Advantage plan,” Ulfers said.

On its end, Ulfers calls these partnerships “mission-critical” to the company’s overall growth. They also give the company a broader reach and impact.

“These partnerships pay for our services and then allow us the ability to directly market and activate older adults, as well as their caregivers that are in need of our services,” he said. “If we didn’t have these partnerships, the only other angle we’d have is our direct-to-consumer model. That’s just a far harder model in terms of growing and scaling the business versus striking these large and strategic partnerships.”

While many startups have entered the senior care market purporting to be “disrupters” in the space, DUOS ultimately views its position in the industry as the “connective tissue.”

“We like to think of ourselves as coming into this space to act as the additional connective tissue that will really unleash a lot of the existing services that have been there for older adults that maybe weren’t easily utilized,” Ulfers said.

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In the past five years, in fact, venture capital firms have invested more than $2.5 billion into a seemingly never-ending list of elder care and home health startups, according to a recent Crunchbase report. While the influx of capital is partly due to long-term demographic tailwinds, it’s also because of the highly innovative nature of health care.

“There has been a rise in investor interest because the demographic shift is undeniable,” Primetime Partners Managing Partner Abby Miller Levy told Home Health Care News. “However, I think what has really driven the shift in the past five to seven years has been investors’ interest in health care as a place to innovate.”

Overall, the number of Americans 65 and older will more than double over the next 40 years, reaching 80 million by 2040, according to the Urban Institute.

As a VC firm exclusively focused on aging services and senior care, New York-based Primetime Partners has honed in on this space. The company provides seed and early-stage investments in products, services, technologies and experiences related to aging.

In addition to demographics and innovation, the COVID-19 emergency has accelerated both the number of entrepreneurs entering into the aging services sector and investor interest. In 2021 alone, VC entities have invested more than half a billion dollars into U.S. senior care and home-based care startups, Crunchbase reported.

“One of the things that happened during the pandemic is, you couldn’t pick up a newspaper or watch the news without broad-scale awareness of how seniors were managing amid the pandemic,” Levy said. The news cycle covered everything from the crisis in nursing homes to older adults’ reactions to getting vaccinated. That had a tremendous impact on investor focus, as well as on entrepreneurs’ interest.”

Additionally, entrepreneurs and investors were often personally invested, Levy noted. A significant portion of the people launching or backing senior care startups have older family members that have been affected by the public health emergency, she said.

On top of that, the COVID-19 crisis opened the door wider when it comes to reimbursement and potential revenue streams. That, too, allowed more companies to enter the senior care game.

“I talked to entrepreneurs all the time who said, ‘Unless there’s a payer reimbursing for this, the business model won’t work,’” Levy said.

Several Medicare Advantage plans began paying for remote monitoring technologies and services aimed at mitigating social isolation, for instance. Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) made huge advances toward reimbursing for new models of care, such as hospital-at-thome programs.

Searching for staying power

It’s in this environment that companies such as DUOS and Tomorrow Health launched.

Backed by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, Tomorrow Health and its digital marketplace deliver medical supplies and equipment directly into its patients’ homes. The company, which began operations in April 2020, already operates in 29 states.

For Tomorrow Health, it was all about addressing a pain point felt by home-based care providers. Tomorrow Health Co-founder and CEO Vijay Kedar noticed that providers often had trouble obtaining manageable, reliable and consistent medical equipment and supplies for patients.

Additionally, the public health emergency increased the demand for medical equipment and supplies, particularly oxygen and respiratory supplies.

“We saw … the existing cracks in the home-based care ecosystem — some of the challenges in the operations and logistics of actually obtaining the medical equipment and supplies that patients needed,” Kedar told HHCN. “As retail locations closed across the country, patients and providers struggled to manage the coordination and processing of the critical equipment and supplies that patients needed at home.”

Essentially, Tomorrow Health is angling to become an Amazon-like service for home-based care providers. Since launching, the company, which announced $25 million in Series A this April, has partnered with more than 125 health plans and hospital systems.

But even with plenty of firepower, Kedar realizes that not every senior care startup makes it.

The ones that do must offer “an incredibly strong” value proposition to the customer, he said.

“That’s what separates an enduring and scalable business from those that have strong products but don’t have the capability for continued growth — a relentless focus on driving value to each of the stakeholders you serve,” Kedar said.

From 2016 through 2018, there were between 62 and 68 deals to fund senior care or home-based care startups in the U.S., according to Crunchbase. That jumped to 83 in 2019, then hit 91 last year.

DUOS is a New York-based company that helps place expert personal assistants — “Duos” — into the homes of older adults. The company officially launched earlier this month, with the announcement of $6 million in seed funding from investors Redesign Health and Forerunner Ventures.

While DUOS has a direct-to-consumer business model, the company has started to strike deals with large B2B customers within the Medicare Advantage and dual-eligibility spaces. It has similarly turned to risk-bearing providers as well.

DUOS’ value-add is that the company addresses the social determinants of health while helping seniors age in place, co-founder and CEO Karl Ulfers told HHCN.

“They really do want to be able to age independently in their home, so the value proposition to an older adult is we fuel their independence,” Ulfers said. “The value proposition from an [informal] caregiver perspective is to directly ease the stress and the burden they encounter.”

For context, roughly 44 million people in the U.S. step in as informal caregivers. These are spouses, partners, friends or family members who assist with activities of daily living (ADLs) and possibly even medical tasks, according to San Francisco-based nonprofit Family Caregiver Alliance.

Even from the early stages of the company, DUOS saw a lot of VC interests, but Ulfers pointed out that interest does not always translate into an investment.

“The last domino to fall that really led us to this funding was our pilot testing, both from an enterprise perspective and also from a direct-to-consumer standpoint,” he said. “We were able to really prove that this model was going to drive high levels of satisfaction, which we measured by [net promoter score].”

On the other hand, one challenge early-stage companies often face is being creative with the resources they have.

“We have a value at Tomorrow Health, which is ‘do more with less,’” Kedar said. “It’s about having the most thoughtful and scalable use of existing resources, and being lean and efficient.”

Ultimately, what separates startups that are able to go the distance and the ones that fizzle is a deep understanding of the senior population.

“Really understanding what they need, and how that need is critical,” Ulfers said.

The post Built to Last: Why Some Senior Care Startups Stick — and Others Fail appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The startup is DUOS, a New York-based company that enables aging in place by deploying expert care coordinators — “Duos” — into the homes of older adults. It unveiled its model on Tuesday while also announcing $6 million in seed funding from investors Redesign Health and Forerunner Ventures.

“At the highest level, Duos — our personal assistants — work with older adults to help them stay at home while also providing their regular caregivers peace of mind,” co-founder and CEO Karl Ulfers told Home Health Care News. “We’re using technology plus that personal assistant to establish relationships with older adults and caregivers, around all those needs they have to be able to age independently in their own home.”

Broadly, DUOS is building its business via two different strategies, Ulfers explained.

On one hand, it works directly with consumers who require help coordinating everything needed to age in place through its technology platform. Those services are already available across the U.S. in a 100% virtual capacity, with DUOS planning to integrate its in-person offering down the road.

On the other, the startup teams up with both payer and provider organizations to help them keep members and patients out of institutional settings. Its enterprise business is currently up and running with one client across Georgia, with particular density in the Savannah area and its surrounding rural communities.

In addition to the Georgia client, which Ulfers isn’t able to reveal quite yet, DUOS will soon launch its enterprise business in Pennsylvania. That expansion into the Keystone State is related to an existing partnership with Magellan Health Inc. (Nasdaq: MGLN), one of the nation’s largest complex care management companies.

“At Magellan, we are committed to transforming the health care experience through high-tech and high-touch solutions that address the health and wellness needs of the whole person – life, mind and body,” Alisa Bahl, the company’s chief strategy and innovation officer, said in a statement. “This collaboration with DUOS will allow us to augment our behavioral health offerings and expand our multidisciplinary care teams through a personal assistant solution for older adults that addresses social determinants of aging.”

The human element

Similar to other senior care startups that address “social determinants of health,” DUOS is focused on “social determinants of aging,” according to co-founder and Chief of Staff Jacques Anderson.

That’s an important mission considering America’s rapidly aging population.

Upwards of 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day, with the vast majority of them looking to stay out of long-term care facilities. By 2031, one of every five U.S. citizens will be of retirement age.

Unlike other senior care-startups that operate with a tech-first mindset, however, DUOS is somewhat unique with its hybrid approach.

“The human element is one of the things that underpins our business model,” Anderson told HHCN. “We’re in a world where there are a growing number of older adults who are living alone. That’s coupled with growing technology and social needs. Oftentimes, these individuals don’t have any additional support, such as an adult child or a caregiver who can potentially help out. Our business model is looking to fill that gap that’s essentially left in the market in our culture.”

In addition to Anderson and Ulfers, the DUOS leadership team includes COO Anne Marie Aponte, previously of Accolade and DispatchHealth, plus Chief Product Officer Kristen Lynch, previously of Onduo and Athenahealth.

For Anderson, co-founding DUOS has been a deeply personal experience, she explained.

Although her parents are still under the age of 65, they both live with chronic health conditions, which Anderson has tried to help manage remotely. On top of that, Anderson’s father recently battled through “a very bad bout of COVID.”

“They both live in St. Louis, while I live in New York,” she said. “They each have chronic conditions, so I manage a multitude of things. And they are individuals who are not quite recognized as senior citizens, … but they’re already facing a tremendous amount of issues.”

A three-pronged approach

As far as reimbursement, DUOS has “three primary channels,” Ulfers noted.

Thanks to the ongoing supplemental benefit expansion in Medicare Advantage (MA), DUOS is able to contract with payers offering social-needs benefits and programs for chronically ill members. DUOS also works with plans coordinating care for dual eligibles.

“We can also sell directly to those risk-bearing providers that service those MA and duals plans,” Ulfers said.

A second channel is long-term care insurance.

“We’ve got a number of conversations going on right now, where long-term care insurers are interested in offering DUOS as a benefit to help people age independently in their home when they go on claim,” Ulfers added.

The last channel is employers with employee-benefits packages that offer respite for workers caring for older loved ones. Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and TripAdvisor (Nasdaq: TRIP) are just a few of the corporate giants now offering caregiver benefits.

“There is an incredible amounts of stress that working parents go through between taking care of their kids and taking care of their aging parents,” Ulfers said.

As for the Duos, they’re part-time workers — not independent contractors. There’s not one single profile of a Duos, though DUOS has found success in recruiting workers from the “9 a.m. to 3 p.m.” segment.

“The ‘9 a.m. to 3 p.m.’ movement are moms and dads that are stay-at-home moms and dads, people who maybe have time during the day while their kids are at school or at other activities,” Ulfers said. “They have a strong desire to continue to be involved in a mission like ours and have work that’s meaningful.”

DUOS additionally tries to recruit individuals with prior caregiving experience.

“We’ve done a ton of research in this space on who older adults actually want to work with,” Ulfers said. “What we’ve learned is that they really want to work with people who have life experiences and have done caregiving themselves previously.”

Moving forward, DUOS plans on using its $6 million in seed funding to further build out its technology platform for both its direct-to-consumer and enterprise models.

“From a tech perspective, you need to have various modalities to be able to service everyone,” Anderson said. “We need to be able to have in-person [services], so you need to have a mobile app. You need to have a web form that people can interact with. The enterprise side of our business requires us to have security, privacy, HIPAA-compliance — all these different compliance and regulatory overlays.”

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