February - 2022

The HSB Blog

7 min

ACOs Direct Contracting Becomes REACH, Challenges Remain-The HSB Blog 2/28/22

Our Take: On Thursday, February 24th, CMS announced it was ending the GPDC ACO program and replacing it with the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) Model effective 1/1/2023. While the new program attempts to increase the role of ACOs in helping to achieve health equity and the amount of provider ownership in ACOs a number of fundamental challenges remain the same. In addition, given the program was only extended until th

3 min

Scouting Rpt-Trialjectory: Connecting Cancer Patients to Clinical Trials&Advanced Treatment Options

The Driver: Trialjectory recently raised $20M in its series A funding round bringing the total the company raised to $27.7M. The round was led by Invest Partners ( a private equity firm that invests in start-up technology and software companies) and was joined by JAL Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, TIA Ventures, Rho Ventures, and Connecticut Ventures. Trialjectory is an AI-based clinical trial matching platform that uses self-reported clinical information to facilitate th

7 min

We Can't Fix Inequities in Healthcare If We Don't Fix How We Measure Them-The HSB Blog 2/21/22

Our Take: Lack of available and high-quality health data for black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), as well as language barriers in healthcare settings, will make it impossible to reduce racial disparities in healthcare unless these issues are resolved. Not only is this type of data essential for ensuring quality care for everyone, but these hurdles are a reflection of system inequities and the ongoing disconnect between providers and patients of different background

4 min

Scouting Report-League: An Integrated Employee Benefits Platform

The Driver: League recently raised $95 million in a series C funding round led by TDM Growth Partners with participation from Workday Ventures and other unnamed existing investors to scale its consumer-centric healthcare navigation platform. Founded in 2014, League is a medical platform technology company powering next-generation healthcare consumer experiences which has now raised a total of $205M. Through League’s platform, companies ranging from health insurance to medica

5 min

Explosion of Digital Health Empowers More Efficient Medicaid Expansion-The HSB Blog 2/14/22

Our Take: The striking growth in demand and acceptance for digital health technology presents a way to improve the access and quality of care for the uninsured by further expanding Medicaid with lower administrative costs or expenses. Accumulating data suggests that nationwide Medicaid expansion as part of the ACA would benefit non-expansion states and their patients at lower costs than many opponents have argued. In addition, the increased adoption of healthtech has provided

4 min

Scouting Report-Koneksa: Validating Biomarkers for Decentralized Clinical Trials

The Driver: Koneksa Health recently raised $45 million series C funding bringing their total capital raised to $70.6M. As noted by the company, Koneksa Health is a healthcare data analytics company that develops end-to-end solutions for remotely collected clinical data to help produce more meaningful data in clinical research by collecting it in real-world settings. Koneksa is founded by Chris Benko, the former VP of Strategic Planning at Merck. The fundraising round was led

7 min

Take These Steps To Increase Vaccine Adherence-The HSB Blog 2/7/22

Our Take: We need to broaden the use of culturally appropriate tools, expand the use of digital tools as a source of vaccine knowledge and increase representation through broader use of digital clinical trials to improve vaccine acceptance as we move from Pandemic to endemic. While the initial COVID vaccines were developed in under a year, vaccines were not widely accepted for a number of reasons including (but not limited to) the politically infused tradeoffs between person

5 min

Scouting Report-Well: Empowering and Incentivizing People to Engage in Their Health

The Driver: Well Dot, Inc., or “Well”, is a healthtech company based in Chapel Hill, NC, and Newton, MA that is founded by Gary Loveman and Dave Werry with a mission to be the world's most effective partner in the advancement of individualized health. They recently raised 70 million in a Series B funding for their consumer-focused health improvement platform which combines leading-edge artificial intelligence, advanced behavioral economic techniques, and on-demand human guida