Accompany Health, which has set out to provide in-home care to the poor in underserved regions, has raised $56 million in a Series A round. Its backers include Venrock (Palo Alto, Calif., and New York), ARCH Venture Partners (Chicago), IVP (San Francisco), Granite Capital Management (Oakland, Calif.), and Evidence.
The Bethesda, Md.-based startup was co-founded by Rahul Rajkumar, a Yale graduate with degrees in medicine, law and history. Accompany Health combines primary care, behavioral health, and social care services, and integrates at-home visits, virtual care and 24/7 support. It has started service to about 8,000 individuals in the Detroit region under a partnership with a national health plan.
Medicine’s ‘Black Hole’
“Despite significant innovation in primary care over the past decade, vulnerable patients still face significant barriers to getting the care they need,” said Rajkumar, who has spent over a decade at healthcare organizations across the world, including the World Health Organization. “To deliver the dignified, high-quality care these patients deserve but rarely receive, Accompany Health will walk alongside them for their entire care journey.”
In an interview with Osmosis’ Raise the Line podcast, Rajkumar said his startup would focus on what he terms the “black hole of American medicine,” — a period starting with a patient’s discharge from hospital when coordinating care becomes difficult.
“Is there an accountable provider, or a quarterback outside of the hospital? Someone who, beyond their professional ethic, actually cares about what happens to this patient? That’s the nut of the issue,” he said.
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True Innovation Needed
Accompany Health’s board members include Stephanie Lovell, formerly of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts; Vivian Riefberg of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia; and Bryan Roberts of Venrock.
“We know that low-income patients with complex needs have the most serious gaps in care and drive a huge percentage of health care costs, but innovators haven’t focused enough on them,” said Dr. Bob Kocher, a founder and board member of Accompany Health, as well as a partner at Venrock. “Accompany Health has assembled a world-class team with a deep dedication to serving those most in need – and with the experience with technology and care delivery to get it done.”
Over more than a decade since graduating from Yale, Rajkumar has served a number of healthcare organizations, including CareFirst and Blue Cross North Carolina. Prior to starting Accompany in 2022, he was chief operating officer of Optum Care Solutions, a division of OptumHealth.
