A venture fund backed by Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans led a $20 million investment this week in a health tech company whose digital tools are designed to improve care management.
The company, Boston-based Wellframe, plans to use the money for hiring and for developing new products, according to a press release. It sells primarily to health plans who use the products to engage with members and deliver real-time information about those members to care managers.
“Health plans are under increasing pressure to differentiate themselves in a rapidly evolving market,” Jacob Sattelmair, Wellframe’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “We are gratified by what this round of funding indicates about the value we bring to our clients in partnering closely with them to re-imagine the relationship they have with their members.”
The lead investor in the latest round of funding was BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, a venture fund supported by 33 BlueCross and BlueShield plans. The Blues also are providing new board members for Wellframe: Mike Spadafore, who is managing partner of the venture fund, and Steve Martin, CEO emeritus of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska.
Other participants in the funding round include existing investors Threshold Ventures and F-Prime Capital, which led an earlier Series B round that raised $15 million. Also participating were Wellframe clients, whose names were not disclosed.
Engaging members has emerged as a key priority for health plans as they seek to tamp down costs and encourage people to take part in wellness programs and other initiatives designed to improve health. However, recent studies suggest the goal has been difficult to achieve and question whether wellness programs even work. Nonetheless, firms pitching tech-based tools to spur engagement have drawn the attention of health plans. Humana, for example, recently plowed $20 million into benefits tech firm Accolade.
Wellframe, of course, is not a benefits company or a wellness program through better engagement is a goal shared by the latter as well as disease management companies like Omada Health and Livongo and care management platforms. Care management, as Wellframe’s news shows, has attracted interest from both providers and payers.
The model is based on an app that delivers interactive clinical programs to a patient’s smartphone or tablet. As patients engage with the app, it feeds information back to a care team that can use the data to customize their advice or intervene as needed.
“We show significant improvements in engagement relative to traditional telephonic care management, taking a relationship that has historically averaged a few phone calls over a couple months to dozens of mobile exchanges over many months, with hundreds of digital touchpoints in between,” said Sattelmair, in an email response forwarded by a company spokesperson.
With the new funding, Wellframe also is planning to sharpen a new product that it calls a digital health advocate. Already in use with some clients, it goes beyond patients’ clinical needs to help them navigate the healthcare system and address their administrative and financial concerns.
“Wellframe is helping plans to fundamentally rethink the relationship they have with their members through digital enablement,” Spadafore said in a statement. “ Digital Health Advocate will provide these plans with an opportunity to build on their experience leveraging a digital solution for care management and address an even broader range of member needs.”
Photo: Salvatore Vuono, freedigitalphotos
