Vytalize Health, a value-based care platform for seniors, announced Monday that it has raised $50 million to support its rapid growth and expand partnerships with payers and primary care practices.
The Series B funding round was led by Enhanced Healthcare Partners. Series A funding lead Kittyhawk Ventures, as well as Kawn Ventures, North Coast Ventures and other existing investors also joined the latest round.
“Vytalize Health will use the capital to continue investing in our care delivery infrastructure, partner with Medicare Advantage and commercial plans, and expand our incredible team,” said CEO Faris Ghawi in an email provided by a representative. “We are growing into new markets while also increasing our concentration of practices in existing ones.”
Headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey, Vytalize has grown its patient base 150% year-over-year and is now partnered with 280 primary care practices across 16 states, according to the company. In addition to having a presence in New Jersey and New York, it operates in states ranging from Ohio and Oregon to Texas. A Medicare accountable care organization, the company currently supports physicians caring for 130,000 senior patients and has a goal of operating in every state.
“Value-based healthcare will be the rule rather than the exception, and we expect Vytalize to help activate value-based care in all markets,” Ghawi said.
Founded in 2014, the company launched as a Medicare-focused primary care practice in New York. It developed a solution that combines a risk-bearing entity, virtual and in-home clinic, and a technology platform, and began offering that solution to other primary care practices in 2017. It also acquired the AI-driven patient engagement platform MedPilot last year.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
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.
“We are very excited to back [Ghawi] and the team as they continue to activate value-based care across the healthcare market,” said Samarth Chandra, general partner at Enhanced Healthcare Partners, in a statement. “Vytalize Health and its network of practices have repeatedly demonstrated they can improve the quality of care for patients while also better managing healthcare spending overall.”
Amid a shift away from solely volume-based reimbursement toward payment that’s contingent on quality of care, many startups have made it their aim to help providers transition to value-based care. That includes organizations like Caravan Health that also focus on Medicare ACOs.
For its part, Vytalize is trying to position itself as a novel solution that’s tightly focused on value-based primary care for older patients.
“Our new kind of Medicare ACO focuses on helping doctors strengthen relationships with their patients through data-driven, holistic and personalized care,” Ghawi said. “This financing is a significant step toward our mission of accelerating the world’s transition to value-based care by taking care of the doctors that take care of us.”
Photo: aldomurillo, Getty Images
