Employer health benefits solution Collective Health raises $280M

With this funding, the company is now reportedly valued at $1.5 billion

Healthcare really shouldn't be as hard to navigate as it is, but because its so confusing and complex there are real consequences: more than half of employees don't understand their health benefits. That leads to people not getting the care that they need because they don't know how to access it, which leads to worse health outcomes. 

Collective Health has been on the forefront of solving this problem by allowing employers to enroll their employees in health plans, via an online platform, which conform to their specific needs, and which are easier to understand than traditional healthcare plans. 

The company announced a $280 million in funding in a Series F round. This is the company's first funding since it raised a $205 million round in June 2019 and it is now reportedly valued at $1.5 billion. 

Collective Health was founded in 2013 after Ali Diab, the company's co-founder and CEO, fell ill with a life threatening illness. The experience of dealing with his insurance company, which he has said was worse than dealing with the illness, is what led him to launch a company to reduce the complexity, and burden, of paying for healthcare.

Employers work with Collective Health to design health plans that meet the needs of their populations by bringing together medical, dental, pharmacy and vision networks, in addition to other health benefit programs the employer has in place for their employees.

This allows employees to choose the best plan for their needs, to have a clear understanding of their all of their benefits, including medical, pharmacy, dental and vision. It also allows employees to access their health and claims information online and through a mobile app.

Collective Health, which has seen 10x member growth in the last few years, currently has a member satisfaction rate of over 90%.

The company's new funding round was led Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), the largest customer-owned health insurer in the U.S.; the company operates in five states. New and existing investors, including DFJ Growth, Founders Fund, G Squared, Maverick Ventures, NEA, PFM Health Sciences, SoftBank Vision Fund 1, Sun Life, and others, also participated.

This investments builds on a pre-existing partnership between Collective and HCSC, which was revealed in March, through which HCSC will offer its customers access to Collective Health's digital platform and services, beginning with self-funded Blue Cross and Blue Shield customers in Illinois and Texas, starting on January 1, 2022. The plan is then to expand into all of HCSC’s markets.

Collective Health says it plans to use the new funding to accelerate adoption of its platform over the next few years, with the goal of bringing Collective Health’s to millions more employees.

(Image source: collectivehealth.com)