On the heels of a federal hearing at which hospital-at-home received a senator’s endorsement, a startup firm in the space disclosed a $30 million cash infusion.
Inbound Health, which offers hospital and skilled nursing facility-level care in the home, on Wednesday confirmed the successful close of a $30 million Series B funding round. The investment was led by HealthQuest Capital with participation from existing investors Flare Capital Partners and McKesson Ventures. It represents three-quarters of a total $40 million raised and allows the company to build the business, Dave Kerwar, CEO of Inbound Health, told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse.
“Sometimes the challenge with start-ups is they have to both build a business and raise capital for the future at the same time and that can create a distraction,” he told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. “So we’re so excited that this now really takes financing risk off the table for us and we can be laser-focused on expanding into new markets, servicing the new customers that we’re fortunate enough to be winning. But also building an enduring capability set across our care model, across our supply chain and logistics platform, our managed care capabilities, our technology analytics platform and our labor platform.”
The company, which spun off from Allina Health in Minneapolis in 2022, expects to implement its services in two new systems in the next two to three months, Kerwar said.
While the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver is scheduled to expire at the end of 2024, Kerwar remains optimistic the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will create a permanent model. The growth of hospital-at-home and the company’s success in delivering results bode well for the future of the program, he said.
“We’re focused on doing everything we can to publicize the success we’re seeing and the help other health systems and even some of our competitors in the market … because I think there is a lot of room for all of us in this hospital-at-home space,” he said.
At the home health hearing in the Senate Tuesday, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) highlighted the benefits of the hospital-at-home waiver, which has been approved for 285 hospitals.
“The hospital-at-home program has been a true success story,” Carper said. “It has delivered positive outcomes, it has delivered a higher reported patient satisfaction, and I understand it has also delivered potential cost savings. Where I come from, that’s a win-win-win situation.”
Earlier this year, Inbound Health revealed that it expanded its skilled nursing-at-home home program to include post-surgical care for general surgery.
