Accompany Health, a startup serving low-income patients with complex needs, launched Tuesday with $56 million in Series A funding.
The Bethesda, Maryland-based company offers primary and behavioral care for underserved patients. It also provides social care, such as food, housing and transportation assistance. Patients gain access to a full care team that includes a community health worker, an advanced practice clinician, a nurse practitioner, a physician, a psychiatrist, a social worker and a pharmacist. The care team visits with patients in their homes, as well as virtually.
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“The most important thing is that we establish a deeper relationship of trust with our patients and provide them excellent care,” said Dr. Rahul Rajkumar, CEO and founder of Accompany Health, in an interview. “And we will serve them in the best way possible to do that. So when we first serve a patient, we start out in the home. … We provide home-based care that is also virtually-enabled. A lot of work and assistance can be delivered virtually, but when we need to, we see the patients directly in their homes.”
Accompany Health is currently just operating in Detroit, serving 8,000 patients with a major national health plan. However, Rajkumar declined to name the health plan. The startup has a value-based arrangement with the health plan, in which it follows measures like quality, cost, health screenings and medication adherence. Rajkumar said he hopes to bring Accompany Health’s services to other markets in the U.S. over the next year.
The $56 million Series A funding round included participation from Venrock, ARCH Venture Partners, IVP, Granite Capital Management and Evidenced. In total, Accompany Health has raised about $63 million, according to Rajkumar.
Venrock chose to invest in Accompany Health because of its focus on underserved populations.
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“We know that low-income patients with complex needs have the most serious gaps in care and drive a huge percentage of health care costs, but innovators haven’t focused enough on them,” said Dr. Bob Kocher, a founder and board member of Accompany Health and a partner at Venrock, in a statement. “Accompany Health has assembled a world-class team with a deep dedication to serving those most in need — and with the experience with technology and care delivery to get it done.”
The financing will support the startup in hiring and training more providers and building technology that is meant “for the specific purpose of serving a low-income population,” Rajkumar said.
He added that the launch and financing speak to larger trends in healthcare of increasing acceleration toward value-based care and more focused attention on caring for medically complex and underserved populations.
Accompany Health isn’t the only company focused on underserved populations. Pair Team is a value-based primary care company that serves Medicaid patients and partners with local community-based organizations for care navigation and health advocacy support. However, the two companies are operating in different markets currently, with Pair Team serving patients in California. Other value-based primary care companies supporting Medicaid patients include Aledade and ApolloMed.
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