Few COVID testing companies made it past the pandemic. Even fewer pivoted to a new model and found success. Only one became a payor with a unicorn horn. Curative.
Curative is reimagining health benefits, without OOP costs. It also landed $150M of Series B funding and a $1.3B valuation from investors that seem confident it can pull it off.
- When the end of the pandemic brought Curative’s testing days along with it, the leadership team began looking for the highest impact way to focus its expertise (and freshly-lined pockets).
- They opted for hard work over an easy next chapter, and decided to go after the area “with the most leverage to really change healthcare” – spinning up their own payor.
The idea was simple.
- The majority of payor costs are driven by a small slice of expensive members.
- The tiny amount of preventative care that gets done hardly helps to prevent that.
- This is also a capital-intensive segment with a bit of a PR problem (to put it lightly).
- That means startups might be able to make a dent, if they can find the resources.
The execution is harder. Curative decided that the best way to put its COVID coffers to use was to find a way to drive the preventative care that can actually balance the payor equation.
- Long story short, it pulled it off, and the breakthrough raised plenty of eyebrows. “No copays. No deductibles. No…really.”
There’s always a catch. The only thing Curative members need to do to eliminate their OOP costs is complete an annual baseline visit within 120 days of their plan’s start date.
- Turns out that’s a pretty good incentive. Most members complete the visit, allowing them to use their “Zero Card” to have Curative cover OOP costs for providers in their network (including office visits, behavioral health, and even some specialty services).
The math checks out. The baseline visits allow Curative to meet its members, understand their needs, and set their health journeys on the right path.
- That’s led to a 20% lift in primary care engagement, a 30% reduction in hospitalizations, and 40% lower drug costs within a year of a group joining the plan.
- Since making the big pivot less than three years ago, Curative has scaled to over 1,200 employer clients and 165k+ members. It’s also hit profitability in the process.
The Takeaway
The payor market is long overdue for some good ol’ fashioned innovation, which sometimes looks as simple as getting people to engage with their care. Curative made it happen, and it’s armed with $150M to take the model nationwide.