Pictured: Ulili Onovakpuri and Vijay Patel, two panelists at Engage at HLTH
Healthcare investors are facing a myriad of care delivery startups seeking their capital. And it’s an interesting time in the care delivery startup space — there’s more and more questions arising about how much scrutiny should be applied to the way these companies are growing, what should be included in their gross margins, and how they should be valued.
When it comes to her feelings about investing in care delivery startups, it’s a real “mixed bag” for Ulili Onovakpuri, managing partner at Kapor Capital. She said so Sunday at Engage at HLTH, a patient engagement summit hosted by MedCity News in Las Vegas.
Healthcare is a stratified experience in the U.S. Onovakpuri drew attention to the fact that this stratification is getting worse with the advent of provider startups that operate on a cash-pay model, such as Sesame and Tia.
These types of cash-pay providers usually offer a simpler healthcare experience compared to the endless bureaucracy and billing confusion patients face in the traditional healthcare system. This can be very attractive to patients — they don’t want to deal with months-long wait times to see a provider, nor do they wish to navigate the Kafkaesque ordeal of trying to understand and pay their healthcare bills.
In Onovakpuri’s view, these cash-pay providers “are good for some” — those who can afford it. But those who lack the means to pay for care outside the traditional healthcare delivery system don’t get to take part in these startups’ care model, regardless of how innovative or convenient it may be.
“If I’m honest, it’s hard for me because I see a lot of great tech every single day, and when I talk to them, I’m like, ‘Wait, this is awesome — how much is this?’ and then I say, ‘Well, we can’t do it because the people that we care the most about can’t afford it.’ And it’s hard, because they’re probably the folks who need it the most,” Onovakpuri said.
She summarized the issue quite succinctly: there’s an incredible amount of innovation happening, but the people who could benefit the most from this type of care will be the last ones to receive it.
“Innovation is great, but it’s another dividing factor we face,” Onovakpuri declared.
Onovakpuri noted another key concern: the fact that many of the country’s most talented physicians are opting to leave their hospitals and health systems to work for cash-pay care delivery startups. She said she can understand why they make this choice (they are understandably fed up with the inefficiency of standard systems), but it still is a problem because it exacerbates hospitals’ labor shortage problem and makes patient wait times even greater for traditional providers.
Photo: HLTH
