There’s healthcare disruption, and then there’s a different kind of overhaul proposed by the newly formed company Homeward.
The San Francisco-based startup is certainly ambitious in its aims to “rearchitect rural healthcare,” as CEO Dr. Jennifer Schneider put it. Launched Monday with an initial investment of $20 million from General Catalyst, the company is looking to bolstering access to high-quality, affordable primary and specialty care. But it isn’t planning to displace or replace providers in less populated areas.
“We don’t disrupt at all. We’re not taking money from existing providers,” Schneider said in a sit-down interview during the inaugural ViVE conference held at the Miami Beach Convention Center. “That would be a really bad business model – and frankly really bad for the rural healthcare system.”
Instead, Homeward will deliver a hybrid model of care to increase access to primary care and specialty services, starting with cardiology. The company, which is led primarily by former Livongo execs including Schneider, employs a multidisciplinary care team with virtual care, mobile care units and in-home remoting monitoring.
Where broadband has been slow to reach many rural communities, Homeward is employing cellular-based monitoring devices and virtual services to better connect to remote members. As needed, the company will also refer its patients to local health providers for care.
But Homeward isn’t just supplementing the limited available healthcare in rural areas. Instead, the startup is positioning itself as the first comprehensive provider to take on full risk in rural markets. It’s doing that, to start, by partnering with Medicare Advantage.
“We get a fee for our services, and we contract with payers to take the responsibility of those risks for Medicare lives,” Schneider explained. “So when we deliver that total cost of care below a ratio, we get the upside in terms of savings.”
The economic model isn’t new, and it’s been applied again and again in urban areas, she said, but rural areas are different because health services are limited.
“You have to leverage technology,” Schneider said.
That’s where she and other leadership at Homeward are banking on its outcomes-focused hybrid in-person, virtual and mobile care model to provide a better way forward. In taking the helm at Homeward, Schneider will be joined by the former chief product officer at Livongo, Amar Kendale, who co-founded Homeward with Schneider and will serve as its president.
“We kind of designed healthcare for urban markets,” Schneider said, emphasizing how that’s disadvantaged people living in rural areas. Centralized care is great if you live close by; but for people living far outside population centers who can’t make the drive, it doesn’t work, Schneider said.
With Homeward, she hopes to provide an alternative that delivers care right where people are, no matter where they live.
Photo: marekuliasz, Getty Images
