Forefront Telecare, a company that provides behavioral telehealth services to seniors in rural facilities, has closed a Series A round of funding and announced that Rob Rebak, the former president and CEO of AbleTo, has joined as CEO.
The funding round was led by Spring Lake Equity Partners. The Ziegler Link•Age Fund also participated. Via email, Rebak said Forefront Telecare isn’t disclosing the amount raised, but that “it is a low eight-figure number.”
The company plans to use the funding to increase its network of telepsychiatry providers, develop its telehealth platform and expand to new states. Rebak added that the money will help with hiring and establishing new office locations.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Rebak joined Forefront this month and left AbleTo, which provides tech-enabled behavioral health solutions, in June 2018. When asked what led him to take on the position at Forefront Telecare, Rebak pointed to his passion for “combining technology and human care to help people with behavioral health problems at a large scale.” In the past, Rebak also served as CEO and chairman of QualityHealth, a digital patient acquisition and engagement platform that was acquired by Sharecare in 2014. He has held positions at Pfizer, Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb as well.
Headquartered in Novato, California, Forefront Telecare was founded in 2010. Through its HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform, it offers behavioral health services to Medicare patients in rural hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. Its network includes psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners and other behavioral health professionals.
The telehealth space is filled with players like Teladoc, American Well and Doctor on Demand. When asked what sets Forefront apart from competitors, Rebak pointed to three elements: its “expertise, geriatric psychiatry and related care;” its provider platform; and its ability to integrate with its hospital and clinic clients’ existing systems.
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A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
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