DispatchHealth, a Denver-based provider of in-home medical care, has announced it has secured an additional $200 million in Series D financing, less than one year after closing a $135.8 million Series C round. This latest investment brings the company's total funding to more than $417 million and raises its valuation to $1.7 billion, making it the industry’s latest company to reach “unicorn” status.
Tiger Global led the Series D investment with previous investors Alta Partners, Echo Health Ventures, Humana, Oak HC/FT and Questa Capital funding the remainder of the round. DispatchHealth said it will use the funding to expand its platform for in-home medical care to a total of 100 markets, with the aim to ensure that its Advanced Care line of service is widely available in the U.S. Company officials noted that the Advanced Care service provides patients comprehensive medical care in their home as an alternative to being admitted to a hospital.
Since launching in 2013, DispatchHealth has set out to spearhead the delivery of in-home care and at its current growth rate, will generate more than $2 billion in medical cost savings by 2023, according to officials. The company has developed a platform that integrates an array of in-home care services, including: on-demand, high-acuity care that substitutes an avoidable emergency room visit; 30-day episodes that substitute for a hospital stay; and a marketplace to coordinate ancillary services.
Last month, health insurer Humana announced that it was partnering with DispatchHealth to provide an advanced level of care in Humana Medicare Advantage members’ homes in select cities. As part of that agreement, members who are living with multiple chronic conditions—such as cellulitis, kidney and urinary tract infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure and many others—will be provided an opportunity to be treated safely at home and thereby avoid hospital visits.
In November, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a waiver program to allow qualified health care providers to offer acute, hospital-level care in the home. The Dispatch-Humana agreement is believed to be the country’s first program to provide hospital-level care involving a national payer, officials said last month. They further referenced statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that noted 56 percent of adults aged 65 and above have two or more chronic conditions, and that 63 percent of U.S. adults prefer to receive care at home.
Humana further stated that since the onset of the pandemic, the insurer has seen a substantial increase in demand for in-home care. Some members—especially older adults with multiple chronic conditions— are seeking care at home to reduce their chance of exposure to the virus. “Humana members who meet the clinical admission criteria will have access to an on-call dedicated DispatchHealth medical team, which includes an internal medicine trained physician with ER experience, and a physician assistant or nurse practitioner. Patients receive 24/7 physician coverage with remote monitoring, an emergency call button, and daily visits from DispatchHealth’s medical team, including bedside nursing,” they said in the February announcement.
DispatchHealth's platform also enables the coordination of additional services, such as pharmacy and meal deliveries, physical and respiratory therapy, Durable Medical Equipment (DME) access and imaging services.
Following the recent funding news, Mark Prather, M.D., CEO and co-founder of DispatchHealth, asserted, "We anticipate the care continuum to continue to move into the home and we expect our platform to enable the movement of that $140 billion marketplace."
