Martin Ventures’ newest home health startup is ready to debut.
Reimagine Care LLC has completed a $25 million capital raise, led by Santé Ventures, Martin Ventures and LRVHealth, Martin Ventures CEO and Reimagine Care co-founder Devin Carty said.
Other investors include CU Healthcare Innovation Fund, City of Hope, McKesson Ventures and Sable Investments.
The Business Journal first reported that Reimagine Care was raising a $25 million round in August.
Reimagine Care partners with health systems, health insurance companies and employers to provide cancer care to patients inside their homes, CEO and co-founder Dr. Aaron Gerber said. The company uses remote patient monitoring technology, personalized care plans and primary, specialty, acute and virtual care teams to improve care, while using a value-based care model to reduce costs, he said.
Value-based care models offer financial incentives to physicians, health systems and other providers based on quality of care.
Reimagine Care will use the funds to further develop its tech platform, launch its 24/7 virtual care center and expand its workforce.
“When you think about the experience of many cancer patients, they travel sometimes a significant distance to a medical center to receive their treatments. As patients are living longer … that may be something they need to do for a long time,” Gerber said. “Those patients leave the hospital and are typically on their own. If [side effects] from the treatment happen, those patients usually go to the emergency room and are frequently admitted to the hospital. We partner with health care systems. We are an extension of their capabilities. That patient now has this home-centered, coordinated experience. … Instead of that patient having to travel to the hospital and potentially the emergency room — which is both expensive, inconvenient and not a great place for a patient who is immune-compromised — we can have somebody go to the home and start an IV. … We can even anticipate when patients will have problems.”
Reimagine Care joins a string of startups Nashville-based Martin Ventures has launched in recent years, including home health startup Contessa Health, which was sold to Amedisys in June for $250 million. Reimagine Care currently has 12 full-time employees and six part-time employees.
The company will launch with a hospital partner in its first market next month, Gerber said, with plans to expand into its second market during the second half of 2022. Gerber declined to disclose those markets.
One of Contessa’s first hospital partners was Nashville-based Ascension Saint Thomas. Santé Ventures co-founder and Managing Director Doug French is the former CEO of Ascension Health. He is also the chairman of Reimagine Care’s board of directors.
Carty said he and Gerber — who both previously worked at Vanguard Health, which was founded by Martin ventures founder Charlie Martin — have contemplated the idea for Reimagine Care for more than eight years. At the time, Carty’s friend had recently died from cancer and suffered from multiple hospital-contracted infections during his treatment.
Gerber said now is the right time to launch Reimagine Care because of the increased acceptance of virtual care as a result of the pandemic, as well as the emergence of value-based care. He also said the medical community has learned, through companies like Contessa, that patients with more severe illnesses can receive proper care in a home setting, while avoiding some of the inconveniences and infections associated with a hospital.
“[We look] for aspects of care that are extremely high-cost, where today not could be delivered in a lower cost setting, with a better patient experience and better care. that’s the underlying thesis,” Carty said. “By no means do we believe that all [health care] can be delivered in the home but their are portions of it that can be carved off and taken to a lower-cost, higher experience setting and that’s what we’re focused on.”
