Optum Ventures, CVS Ventures, Anthem and HLM Venture Partners announced they are investing in CareBridge, a value-based care company for patients receiving home and community-based services.
CareBridge has closed a $140 million financing round to begin expanding to more than a dozen states. Over the last year, the company has grown from serving approximately 1,100 full-risk patients last June to 19,000 to date and is now valued at over $1 billion.
Although the group exclusively serves Medicaid patients who have a physical or intellectual disability and are receiving home and community-based services, the investment represents an increasing payer interest in value-based care.
And with the trends in healthcare moving toward value-based care models, ASCs could be in the perfect position for growth.
"ASCs continue to grow year after year as more cases are migrated to the setting," Tina DiMarino, DNP, RN, administrator of Mid-Atlantic Surgery Pavilion in Aberdeen, Md., told Becker's. "ASCs have an important role in the shift to a value-based model of healthcare. ASCs also provide positive outcomes for the patient for a more reasonable cost."
CMS and payers are seeing opportunities in bundled payments over traditional fee-for-service models. Many ASC companies and physician practices recently secured partnerships to bolster value-based care and leverage these contracts. For example, Brentwood, Tenn.-based Surgery Partners is collaborating with ValueHealth to expand access to surgical care, aiming to build new ASCs and deploy ValueHealth's value-based surgical programs across Surgery Partners' locations.
For CareBridge, the financing will be used to support the company's expansion to 16 states and Washington, D.C., by next year. The expansion will be an ongoing build of the nation's largest database for home and community-based services and expansion of services to patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
"CareBridge is proof that you can build great value-based healthcare companies in the Medicaid space," Annie Lamont, managing partner of Oak HC/FT, said, according to a June 8 news release and the Nashville Business Journal. "We are excited to support the CareBridge team as they continue to expand their services to patients across the country."