In April 2021, Healthcare Innovation interviewed Glen Tullman, CEO of Transcarent, a Silicon Valley-based company seeking to overhaul the employer-self-insured business via a consumer-directed health and care platform. Since then, Transcarent has continued to draw industry attention and just announced a $200 million Series C investment, bringing its total funding raised to $298 million in just over one year.
Transcarent describes itself as serving as the on-ramp for self-insured employers and their employees to a new kind of healthcare experience. The company said it provides personalized health and care support for the most common and most challenging needs, including urgent care but also lower-cost medications, personalized behavioral health symptom evaluation and support, along with specialty care and expert second opinions.
Members get 24/7 access to digital and live guidance and direct access to high-value care, the company said. Most members receive no bills nor are they responsible for co-pays and co-insurance. The company says it offers a fully at-risk model, which pays providers up-front for care and partners with employers without any up-front or per-employee-per-month (PEPM) fees.
“For us at Transcarent, it’s all about the consumer experience that we’re building,” Tullman told Healthcare Innovation last April. “In the future, the companies that win will be the ones that provide people with unbiased and transparent information, trusted guidance, and accessibility. Think about what Amazon did—they didn’t just give us the option to buy Amazon stuff, but said, you can buy anything you want from virtually every provider on Amazon—even things that competed with their own offerings. They just wanted to put the consumer in charge.”
Several leading health systems are among the investors in Transcarent, including Northwell Health, Intermountain Healthcare, and Rush University Medical Center.
“Northwell Health has long been committed to doing our part to drive health reform in our region,” said Michael Dowling, CEO of Northwell Health, in a statement. “It’s why we launched Northwell Direct to deliver high-quality employer health services tied to new payment models. Today, we’re proud to be partnering with and investing in Transcarent as a way to accelerate our efforts on a national level.”
Last year, Transcarent completed the acquisition and integration of BridgeHealth, a provider of surgical and value-based care serving over one million members. Also, Walmart selected Transcarent as its solution for self-insured employers, and the two companies will be working together to make it easy for self-insured employers and their employees to access Walmart services.
