It looks like it’s already shaping up to be a big year for physician enablement companies, with Pearl Health raising $75M in Series B funding to help stake its claim in the independent practice land grab.
The Pearl Platform assists primary care providers participating in Medicare’s ACO REACH model with identifying patients who are driving expenses, then incentivizes them to deliver high-value care.
- The platform distills data from health plans, hospitals, and pharmacies into turnkey reports that help PCPs prioritize their sickest patients and rein in expenses.
- It also equips them with admit, discharge, and transfer alerts so they have the information they need to effectively coordinate care following acute events.
- Pearl’s seen some stellar growth since going live in 2022, growing its platform to over 800 physicians delivering care to upwards of 43k Medicare patients across 29 states.
Unlike many competing platforms, Pearl doesn’t require an EHR integration. After a practice is onboarded, using the Pearl Platform can be as simple as signing on to the website, which more-than-likely played a major role in its rapid adoption.
- Pearl views its platform agnostic approach as its key differentiator from other VBC enablers like Privia and Agilon that have longer onboarding time due to EHR integration requirements.
- The fresh funding is earmarked to help Pearl bring more practices onto its platform as quickly as possible, which should help it invite more payors to its model, and in turn allow it to offer more risk-based contracts to its providers.
The Takeaway
The sun is definitely shining on physician enablement platforms, with an aging population and increased utilization acting as powerful tailwinds for companies that can steer providers toward high-value care. That said, there are only so many available physicians and a growing line of startups knocking on their door to help them with the VBC transition, but Pearl’s recent growth seems to suggest that doctors like the sound of its platform agnostic knock.
