About one in 4 Medicare enrollees have a psychological sickness, however 40% of these over the age of fifty with severe psychological sickness battle accessing care.
That’s the hole Writer Well being is making an attempt to fill. The corporate, which launched Wednesday with $115 million in financing, targets seniors with severe psychological sickness and substance use issues by working with Medicare Benefit plans. It additionally introduced its first payer partnership with Humana in South Florida. Writer Well being, primarily based in Boston, offers digital and in-person care with a staff that consists of specialised physicians, nurses, therapists and neighborhood well being staff.
The corporate treats sufferers with extreme situations together with melancholy, nervousness, schizophrenia, bipolar dysfunction, Alzheimer’s and substance use issues. Its companies embody diagnostic evaluations, remedy prescriptions, psychotherapy, speak remedy and social assist.
The $115 million in financing was led by Normal Atlantic and included participation from Flare Capital Companions. Michael Greeley, co-founder and normal accomplice of Flare Capital Companions, stated the agency selected to put money into Writer Well being as a result of it’s filling an unmet want.
“[There are] disappointingly poor current care fashions which are scaled and so we expect there is a chance in partnership with Humana … to supply actually transformative companies to that inhabitants that’s simply woefully underserved immediately,” Greeley stated in an interview.
The senior inhabitants is quickly rising, with the variety of People ages 65 and older anticipated to achieve 80 million by 2040, based on the City Institute.
With the financing, Writer Well being is concentrated on advancing its expertise and increasing into new markets, stated Dr. Katherine Hobbs, CEO of the corporate, in an interview. Whereas its companies are at the moment solely provided in Florida, the startup plans to develop into different places and work with extra Medicare Benefit and Particular Wants plans by 2024. Writer Well being can even use the funding to rent extra workers.
The association with Humana is at the moment primarily based on a fee-for-service mannequin. Nevertheless, Writer Well being goals to transition right into a value-based care mannequin, with a deal with behavioral well being outcomes like decreasing signs of melancholy, in addition to a deal with bodily well being outcomes like seeing an enchancment in glucose administration for diabetes, Hobbs stated.
The precise remedy of the affected person (akin to from the nurse practitioner, doctor and therapist) is all achieved just about, however the neighborhood well being staff employed by Writer Well being work with sufferers in individual to deal with social challenges and assist with expertise. This assist might be supplied in sufferers’ houses, on the major care workplace or different places. This hybrid mannequin is constructed to ease workforce shortages, based on Hobbs.
“As a result of we’re providing companies by telehealth, we are able to recruit actually anyplace within the nation and license individuals appropriately within the state the place sufferers are being seen,” Hobbs said. “It builds actual efficiencies on the staff in the best way that we’re utilizing the MD actually for essentially the most advanced sufferers. That MD is the scarcest individual within the workforce and so they can now serve a wider inhabitants of individuals as a result of they’re working by this staff and in addition working by telehealth.”
The title of Writer Well being got here from the thought of serving to sufferers “outline the life that they wish to lead,” Hobbs added.
“You’re the creator of your personal life story,” she stated. “It might look a method immediately, however you could have the flexibility to jot down new chapters to construct a unique life tomorrow. Our firm is right here to assist individuals, to determine and construct on these instruments in order that they’ve the company to jot down that story.”
One other firm that treats severe psychological sickness is Brightside Well being, although this firm doesn’t deal with older populations like Writer Well being does. Valera Well being additionally offers assist for severe psychological sickness, although it cares for these with extra delicate situations as effectively and sufferers of all totally different age teams.
In the end, in launching Writer Well being, Hobbs goals to assist as many seniors battling severe psychological sickness and substance use dysfunction as attainable.
“We’ve recognized this main want nationally. … How will we create as rapidly as attainable a scalable mannequin that truly engages this affected person inhabitants after which will get them the best care such that they get higher and may stay of their houses, stay locally? That’s our singular focus,” she stated.
Photograph: PixelsEffect, Getty Photographs
