When private equity giant Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS) launched its new portfolio company Valtruis last week, it dedicated the new venture to value-based care. And while Valtruis didn’t specify its exact investment areas, it seemed likely that “the home” would play a big part, given the rise of new in-home care models.
“We’re very excited about the possibility of increasing access to care in the home,” Karey Witty, Valtruis managing partner, previously told Home Health Care News. “There are many models reaching critical mass relative to this [value-based care] effort.”
That hunch was verified just a few days later.
On Thursday, Cricket Health announced it closed an $83.5 million Series B funding round led by Valtruis. Existing investors Oak HC/FT and Cigna Ventures, as well as K2 HealthVentures, also participated. The round additionally included a strategic investment from Blue Shield of California.
This new capital will be set aside to fuel Cricket Health’s kidney disease care model expansion, according to the company.
“Kidney disease has been a tremendous problem for our health care system due to its complexity, high cost of care and the lack of early diagnosis intervention,” Tracy Bahl, one of Witty’s fellow managing partners at Valtruis, said in a press release. “Cricket Health’s approach of marrying cutting-edge analytics with dedicated care teams supported by a digital health platform is achieving outstanding clinical outcomes.”
Cricket Health is a San Francisco, California-based provider of integrated nephrology and dialysis care, which it provides in the home and institutionally. In total, the company has raised over $120 million in equity and debt financing to date.
Recently, Cricket Health has solidified a name for itself in the kidney care realm by improving clinical outcomes and curbing costs for its commercial and Medicare Advantage health plan partners. Along these lines, Cricket Health has been able to achieve more than 50% fewer hospital admissions than the status quo.
Additionally, Cricket Health reports that 45% of its patients who need dialysis are initiating at home, compared to the national benchmark of 11%.
“In our partnership with Cricket, we’ve been able to bring even more affordability, predictability and simplicity to our customers with kidney disease,” Tom Richards, an executive at Cigna (NYSE: CI), said in a statement. “Since May 2020, we’ve seen more than a 50% reduction in hospitalizations and an increase in patient autonomy in a customer’s transition to dialysis, and we look forward to continuing our partnership to help improve our customers’ experience and their health.”
Cricket Health has developed a predictive analytics model that pinpoints patients with chronic kidney disease in relatively early stages. The model, which has a 96% accuracy rate, helps the company risk-stratify patient populations for plans and providers.
On its end, Valtruis has set its sights on helping companies that want to “realign and transform U.S. health care.”
WCAS has announced an initial capital commitment of $300 million for Valtruis.
“CMS is a big supporter of value-based care and has launched several pilots targeting that area. But not all of the pilots have, in fact, reduced costs to the system,” Witty told HHCN. “It’s our goal to invest in and support innovative, disruptive companies that challenge the status quo by transforming costs, quality, access and the patient experience for the betterment of all constituents.”
Along with Witty and Bahl, Valtruis’ leadership team includes managing partner Anna Haghgooie.
The post New WCAS Portfolio Company Valtruis Leads Cricket Health’s $83.5M Funding Round appeared first on Home Health Care News.
