Hint Health CEO Zak Holdsworth

Primary Care

Hint Health Raises $45M for Direct Primary Care

Direct primary care startup Hint Health closed $45M in Series B funding to support its ambitious mission of giving providers a way to get off the fee-for-service “hamster wheel” through an end-to-end platform for opening membership-based direct care practices.

Direct primary care (DPC) is a membership model where patients are charged a monthly rate (usually between $50 and $75) in exchange for a predetermined list of services from their primary care physician, aligning incentives similarly to value-based structures but without any third party payor involvement.

• DPC allows physicians to work for patients as opposed to the healthcare system, which results in shorter waits for appointments and more time spent in each visit (45min avg, compared to 18min for FFS models).

• According to Hint’s in-depth overview of the market, DPC membership has increased 241% since 2017, but has yet to break into the mainstream. The 300k patients enrolled across 1.6k DPC practices still represent less than 1% of total US primary care.

• Critics argue that DPC could worsen physician shortages because doctors see fewer patients under the model, but considering how frequently we cover stories related to burnout and early retirements, lower volumes might not be as bad as it sounds. 

Hint is leading the charge of driving DPC adoption with its HintOS platform that reduces the administrative burden of opening a direct care practice by automating enrollment, membership management, and billing.

• HintOS supports the direct-to-employer contracting frequently used by DPC practices by managing eligibility and other aspects of the relationship that typically rely on a FFS infrastructure.

• Hint also operates a national DPC network called Hint Connect that connects providers to potential employer partners, and the new funding will be used to expand this network while continuing to build out HintOS.

The Takeaway

Getting physicians to abandon the payor revenue that’s traditionally served as the foundation of their business sounds like a tough pitch, but Hint’s DPC operating system probably makes the conversation a lot more interesting. Until recently, there hasn’t been a turnkey solution to enable the creation of a DPC practice, and if Hint can use its new funding to become that solution, it will make the model a viable path for plenty of other physicians looking to cut out the payor middleman and spend more time working with patients.

Explore Nuance’s Personalized Patient Experience

Personalized digital experiences drive better outcomes for patients and providers. Explore how Nuance is using AI automation to advance the quality of service across the care journey here.

The Wire

• Cerner Acquisition Approved: Oracle’s $28B acquisition of EHR vendor Cerner gained regulatory approval after clearing the last of its antitrust hurdles, including European Commission clearance. The acquisition is expected to become official in the next few days, with the company scheduled to host an online event on June 9 where it will discuss its new suite of cloud-based health management applications and plans to expand Cerner’s business internationally.

• Remote Parkinson’s Monitoring: npj Digital Medicine published a study indicating that a remote monitoring program involving a wearable smartwatch could effectively track Parkinson’s Disease. Verily researchers developed a smartwatch-based assessment that measures motor signs of PD (rest tremor, bradykinesia, gait), then had 388 participants with early-stage PD perform twice weekly motor tasks for one year. The smartwatch assessment showed moderate-to-strong correlations with an in-person baseline, demonstrating the feasibility of wearables for tracking PD progression over time.

• Accrete Acquires Nordic: Less than a month after Bon Secours Mercy Health launched Accrete Health Partners to expand its digital health services, Accrete acquired Nordic Consulting Partners to bring the advisory firm’s experience in interoperability and cloud initiatives to BSMH’s portfolio. Nordic specializes in making technology more useful for caregivers and cost-effective for hospitals, which fits well with Accrete’s goal of scaling solutions that make it easier for health systems to compete in today’s market.

• Gen Z Health Screenings: Researchers at the University of Michigan led a poll (n = 1,038) indicating that 81% of Gen Z patients want their providers to consider social factors such as food availability and education in health screenings. The survey also found that 25% want caregivers to provide resources regarding social needs, 22% want helpful general advice, and 11% want their provider to “just listen,” suggesting that younger generations are placing a larger emphasis on the SDOH factors impacting their day-to-day health.

• Solv Adds Female Investors: On-demand health app Solv Health recently diversified its cap table by creating a special purpose vehicle to help its investor base better represent its average user. The SPV added $3.4M to Solv’s $45M Series C round in just two weeks by eliminating minimum investment requirements for those looking to contribute, resulting in 75 new female investors with contributions ranging from $1k to over $1M, including participation from actress Kerry Washington, Cityblock CEO Dr. Toyin Ajayi, and PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada.

• Group Teletherapy Struggles: A survey of 114 therapists published in JMIR found that providers working with families and couples are less likely to continue teletherapy beyond the pandemic, while those offering teletherapy in rural areas are more likely to keep providing the service. The researchers conclude that therapists need more training to effectively use teletherapy in group settings since managing multiple clients brings unique challenges when working virtually.

• Hoag Compass: California-based Hoag health system launched a Compass mobile app to complement its virtual care center, allowing patients to schedule appointments, check lab results, and request medication refills. Hoag said that the goal of the app was to make healthcare less episodic for its patients, which appears to be especially true for the $50/mo premium version of the app that gives patients access to an on-demand care team, wellness visits, and dedicated health coaches.

• Hospital Margins Decline: Kauffman Hall’s latest National Hospital Flash Report shows that declining new patient visits and rising expenses contributed to the fourth consecutive month of negative hospital margins, which averaged -3.09% in April. System revenues fell 7% following a 5.7% month-over-month drop in patient days, reversing the modest rise in patient volumes recorded in March.

• Telehealth for Rural Americans: A study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine found that access to telehealth increases the likelihood of rural Americans following through with doctor’s appointments by 20% compared to in-person visits. After analyzing data from over 100k patient visits (including 13k telehealth visits), the researchers found that the likelihood of making virtual appointments was most noticeable among patients with rigid work schedules and those living furthest from the clinic.

• EnsoData Raises $20M: EnsoData announced the close of its $20M Series A extension (total funding now $31M) to accelerate the adoption of its EnsoSleep platform that helps providers identify patients with a high risk for sleep apnea using data from waveforms and wearables. Alongside the funding news, EnsoData announced a partnership with Inspire Medical to enable the EnsoData platform to determine when sleep apnea patients require therapy adjustments or alternatives such as Inspire’s implantable neurostimulation device.

• Parents’ AI Perceptions: A Lurie Children’s Hospital survey (n = 1,620) found that most parents are open to emergency clinicians using AI tools to manage children with respiratory illnesses. The majority of parents were comfortable with the use of AI to assess the need for antibiotics (77.6%) or bloodwork (77.7%), and to interpret X-rays (77.5%). Black parents and parents between 18-25 years reported greater discomfort with AI than White parents (odds ratio: 1.67) and parents over age 46 (odds ratio: 2.48).