Fresenius Health Partners, InterWell Health, and Cricket Health to Merge
Fresenius Health Partners, the value-based care division of Fresenius Medical Care North America, is merging with Cricket Health and Interwell Health, a network of more than 1,600 nephrologists. The new company, operating under the Interwell Health brand, said it would seek to improve kidney care and health equity by reducing hospital admissions and readmissions, slowing disease progression, increasing transplant referrals and rates, and accelerating the transition to home dialysis.
The new company is valued at $2.4 billion, with over $6 billion of medical costs under management, responsibility for over 100,000 covered lives, and a total addressable market of $170 billion.
The deal combines InterWell Health’s network of nephrologists, Cricket Health’s technology-enabled care model and patient engagement platform, and the expertise in value-based kidney care contracting of Fresenius Health Partners.
InterWell Health’s goal is to accelerate growth in the mid- and late-stage chronic kidney disease value-based care population. By 2025, the company expects to engage and manage the care of more than 270,000 Americans living with kidney disease, increasing its medical costs under management to $11 billion.
“The new InterWell Health will bring together physicians, care management teams, and providers to ensure we show up as one team and provide the best possible experience for the patients who entrust us with their care,” said Bill Valle, CEO of care delivery for Fresenius Medical Care, in a statement. “Cricket Health’s predictive analytics and patient engagement platform combined with the physician-led clinical approach of InterWell Health and Fresenius Health Partners’ experience and expertise in value-based care will position the organization for accelerated growth.”
The company will take advantage of Cricket Health’s StageSmart machine learning and predictive glomerular filtration rate (GFR) model (known as pGFR). This technology will enable the combined entity to identify and risk-stratify patients prior to kidney failure with 96 percent accuracy, helping slow disease progression and giving patients the time necessary to choose a treatment option that is right for them. Through Cricket’s proprietary web-based patient engagement platform, the new company said it would be able to grow its operations across the U.S., providing patients with an immersive experience with their care teams.
InterWell Health was formed in 2019 as a partnership with nephrologists dedicated to driving value and innovation for chronic kidney patients in the U.S. This physician network provides individualized care to patients across the full spectrum of kidney disease – before and after kidney failure – including comprehensive 24/7 patient support service and access to the National Committee for Quality Assurance-accredited KidneyCare:365 CKD program. The new entity will expand the support physicians need to elevate the way they practice medicine. By closely aligning workflows and providing the data, education, and care management resources necessary to succeed in a value-based world, the new InterWell Health said it would work with practices to develop and implement care models specific to their community, as well as help them contract with national payers.
The new InterWell Health will be separate from Fresenius Medical Care, but have the benefit of the company’s experience, expertise, resources, and services, the company said. It also has the financial and strategic support of leading investors, including Valtruis, a WCAS company; Oak HC/FT; Cigna Ventures; and Blue Shield of California.
The management team for the new InterWell Health will include Robert Sepucha, Chief Executive Officer; David Pollack, President & Chief Operating Officer; and George Hart, M.D., Chief Medical Officer.
The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory review. Depending on the progress of such review, the company currently anticipates the transaction could close in the second half of 2022.
