A Denver startup helping health care professionals make more informed prescribing decisions for medication announced that it raised $15.9 million to further expand its platform.
RxRevu closed its Series A funding round Tuesday, led by UCHealth, a Colorado-based nonprofit health system. Additional investors include University of Virginia LVG Venture Fund, Presbyterian Healthcare Services, Inception Health/Froedtert Health, Children's Hospital Colorado, UnityPoint Health and JAZZ Venture Partners.
Prior to its Series A, RxRevu had raised $5.3 million, bringing its total to just over $21 million.
RxRevu's electronic health record-integrated technology allows healthcare professionals to consider factors like a patient's medical history, individual insurance coverage and out-of-pocket cost that patients will pay at their local pharmacy when making prescribing decisions.
"Our SwiftRx suite of tools makes it easier for clinicians to identify the right medicine for every patient. We provide both Real Time Benefit Check information and therapeutic alternatives to allow clinicians to see if there are less expensive options or options that do not require a prior authorization," said Carm Huntress, co-founder and CEO of RxRevu in a statement. "One of our goals is to eliminate the millions of pharmacy call-backs because the patient is surprised at the cost of their medication, or that it is not covered under their plan, which leads to unfilled prescriptions and higher costs for everyone."
For more than two years, UCHealth’s CARE Innovation Center has worked closely with RxRevu, developing and testing the technology together and integrating it into the electronic medical record system.
The health care system announced last month that it launched RxRevu, making it the the first health care system in the country to go live with this tool within its electronic medical record, Epic.
In a press release on RxRevu's website, CT Lin, M.D., an internal medicine physician with UCHealth and the system’s chief medical information officer, said this tool enabled him to change a prescription from tablets to capsules, reducing the co-pay estimate for the patient from $250 to $50.
RxRevu currently has 30 employees and plan to hire additional staff, but don't have a specific number in mind.
"Nearly 80 percent of doctors don’t know the out-of-pocket cost patients pay for the medication they prescribe. Not having that information available leads to administrative issues for doctors and rampant prescription abandonment by patients. This funding will help us change that paradigm and help patients get the medication they need at prices they can afford. Having additional resources available allows us to expand our ability to work with providers and health systems to create a frictionless prescribing process that benefits patients, providers and payers," said Benton Barney, senior vice president of business development with RxRevu.
As part of the funding, Richard Zane, M.D., chief innovation officer at UCHealth, and Toby Cosgrove, M.D., executive advisor at Cleveland Clinic, will join RxRevu's Board of Directors.
