Independence Blue Cross is following up its collaboration with DreamItVentures’ health IT accelerator Dream IT Health last year with an innovation center and investment portfolio in a move that formalizes its investment strategy. It is allocating up to $50 million to invest in digital health startups and venture funds investing in healthcare. It’s part of a trend to invest in consumer technology and population health IT as payers transform themselves to be more consumer-friendly and competitive with each other.
Among the areas its Strategic Innovation Portfolio will invest in are the DreamIt Health 2013 class, and any future classes with DreamIt, according to a statement on the company’s website.
It is also opening a 5,000-square-foot center near its Center City Philadelphia headquarters. The Independence Blue Cross Center for Health Care Innovation will host facilities for Dream It Health companies. It will also provide offices for its partnership with Penn Medicine to research and evaluate adherence strategies, among other projects, and collaborations with New York University and NYU’s Langone Medical Center to develop ways to identify people with pre-diabetes before they are diagnosed.
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Daniel Hilferty, IBC CEO, said the center will help it champion healthcare entrepreneurship in the region, “acting as a catalyst for innovations that lead to superior care at lower costs.”
Eight of the companies from the Dream IT health program have remained in the region, according to the statement. DreamIt Health is accepting applications for a four-month summer class starting in March.