Helping patients manage chronic conditions, Better Health raises $14M

The company provides peer support, education, and easy access to medical supplies

Today, people with chronic conditions face significant obstacles such as isolation, lack of proper education on managing their conditions, and insufficient access to necessary medical supplies. These issues often result in poor health outcomes and frequent ER visits and hospital readmissions. Additionally, the burden of navigating insurance and getting medical supplies adds to their stress and financial strain.

"The status quo for patients often requires that they spend hours on phone calls and back-and-forth emails each month just to get their essential products, or travel long distances to get them from specialized durable medical equipment stores," said Naama Stauber Breckler, CEO and co-founder of Better Health, a medical supply and support provider built on peer-to-peer connection, which announced a $14 million strategic funding round on Thursday. 

"The options people have today are to either find their products at a local DME store that likely has limited selection and availability, or work with one of the national providers which typically have processes that are highly manual and not user-friendly processes. As a result, people are left with little to no support at home to learn how to integrate their medical supplies into their daily lives and deal with issues, which far too often lands them in the emergency room, or back at their doctor."

Established in 2019, Better Health addresses the challenges of managing chronic conditions at home by providing patients with a care model that integrates peer support, education, and easy access to medical supplies, thereby reducing unnecessary ER visits, improving patient engagement and adherence, and ultimately lowering healthcare costs for patients, providers, and payers.

For patients, the company makes it easy for them to discover and receive the best supplies by carrying all the top brands, while helping them choose the right products for their specific needs. Better Health handles all the insurance and doctor paperwork, delivers the supplies quickly right to their door, and make its easy to get resupplies.

"The majority of our members have a life-long chronic condition so they need to get these products month over month, often for the rest of their lives. Some of these services have become table stakes when it comes to ecommerce, but are non-existent when it comes to medical supplies covered by insurance," Breckler explained.

Additionally, patients receive ongoing support by being connected to one of Better Health's peer coaches who also lives with the same chronic condition, allowing patients to build the skills and knowledge they need in order to self-manage, get hands-on support to troubleshoot any issues, and receive emotional support by talking to someone who genuinely understands their experiences.

For providers, the company offers Concierge support, which serves as a single point of contact for both the provider and the patients they refer, ensuring smooth coordination and communication and fast access to the right medical supplies and support. This saves medical teams hours of administrative work each week.

Better Health currently operates in 48 states and serves the members of over 150 health system and health plans​​​, including Medicare, Medicaid, Cigna, Humana, Florida Blue, and Oscar, with an engagement model that includes 10.5 interactions per year, or 2.5 times more than the average primary care physician engagement.

The company has a 98% customer satisfaction rating, with 86% of the people who’ve gone through Peer Support reporting they were able to avoid a healthcare visit, and 47% reporting an improvement in their overall mental health. 

The new funding round includes investments from Healthworx, the innovation and investment arm of CareFirst Inc., UHealth - University of Miami Health System, and Mosaic General Partnership, along with existing investors Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, Bill Ackman’s family office Table Management, and at.inc/. Better Health previously completed a $10 million Series A round co-led by Caffeinated Capital and General Catalyst, and a $3.5 million seed round led by 8VC; with the addition of this $14 million in financing, the company's total funding has reached $27.5 million.

The company says it will use the funding to bring a more comprehensive solution to payers and providers, while also expanding into new categories to better serve members with chronic conditions.

The company is also actively exploring incorporating AI into its value stream to improve efficiency, automate manual tasks, and enhance the overall patient experience. This includes simplifying processes like insurance coordination, document retrieval and supply management, thereby reducing service times and improving patient outcomes​​.

"Our ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone with a chronic condition does not have to manage it alone. Better Health is committed to addressing the needs of underserved populations, providing support and connection to people with chronic conditions from someone who has walked in their shoes. A healthy person has a thousand wishes, but a sick person has only one," said Breckler.

"Better Health is leveraging humans to do what they’re uniquely positioned to do: human-to-human connection to support quality of life and improve health outcomes. Our focus on combining technology with human connection through their peer support program is a core component of their strategy to improve the overall well-being of their members​​​​."

(Image source: joinbetter.com)