a16z’s Daisy Wolf and Vijay Pande

Startups

Foodsmart Loads Its Plate With $200M

The headliner of this week’s funding-heavy news lineup was Foodsmart, which loaded its plate with over $200 million to expand the reach of its virtual nutrition services.

Foodsmart supports patients facing chronic disease and food insecurity by partnering with health plans and providers to improve access to personalized healthy eating options.

• The FoodSMART telenutrition platform delivers virtual nutrition counseling from the largest standalone network of Registered Dietitians in the US, with integrated benefits management to help with things like applying for SNAP/EBT benefits.

• The FoodsMART marketplace then bridges the gap between the visit and the table, allowing patients to order quality food and have it delivered to their doorstep.

The combination of Foodsmart’s dietitian network and food marketplace sets it apart from most of its competitors, which either focus on supporting specific conditions or avoid tackling the logistics of grocery delivery.

• That versatility has led to Foodsmart serving over 2.2M members, as well as numerous peer-reviewed studies highlighting the cost reductions and health improvements resulting from the approach.

The food-as-medicine movement has provided fertile ground for startups since the pandemic, with shifting consumer behaviors and regulatory changes planting the seeds for growth.

• Rock Health’s primer on the market showed that FaM partnership volume in the last 18 months has surpassed that of the prior seven years combined.

• Investors are taking notice, and Foodsmart’s mega-round follows close behind other raises from Season Health ($7M), Fay ($25M), and Nourish ($35M).

The Takeaway

At a time when weight management medications are getting all the attention, Foodsmart is paving its own non-pharmacological path to preventing diet-related issues. If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, then $200M should be heavy enough to help Foodsmart improve the lives of plenty of patients.

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The Wire

• Risant Acquires Cone Health: Kaiser Permanente’s Risant Health finally found its second health system: North Carolina-based Cone Health. Risant planned on targeting large regional systems with their own health plan and some form of exposure to value-based care, so Cone Health’s 200k-patient ACO, insurance arm, and four acute care hospitals clearly checked all the boxes. The move arrives a full year after Geisinger became the first system to come on board, keeping Risant on pace to hit its goal of acquiring one health system every year for the next five years. 

• Physicians Support Home Testing: An ixlayer survey of 140 physicians found that 83% believe at-home testing can help accelerate the path to diagnosis, while 80% felt it would also enhance their existing workflows. Nearly all of the physicians reported they’d be willing to provide at-home diagnostic kits to their patients (91%), a surprisingly large share considering only 63% think home tests are reliable.

• Adonis Series B: Adonis landed $31M in Series B financing to expand the reach of its revenue cycle management platform beyond the 10k providers and 3k different payors it already works with. The Adonis Intelligence platform serves “as the engine that powers dramatic reductions in staffing needs and improved collections outcomes,” with real-time dashboards, claims status tracking, and AI-driven recommendations that help streamline manual workflows.

• Deaconess + KeyCare: Indiana-based Deaconess Health System is partnering with KeyCare to give its patients access to around-the-clock urgent care via virtual visits embedded directly within their MyChart portal. Deaconess said the partnership will initially focus on treating minor acute illnesses to help keep patients out of the ED, although KeyCare’s been expanding its offerings to include primary care, behavioral health, and other specialties like rheumatology.

• Brain MRI Predicts Parkinson’s: Researchers uncovered a new technique for predicting Parkinson’s disease by using MRI to create maps of brain activity, or connectomes. In a study of 146 patients, connectome mapping of structural and functional brain connectivity predicted higher rates of gray matter atrophy over three years in certain brain regions. The connectome maps can reportedly help detect the loss of neurons and the accumulation of abnormal proteins that disrupt neural connections, setting the stage for earlier treatment. 

• Ascension Spear-Phishing: Even the best firewalls can’t protect hospitals from human slip-ups, and it looks like that’s exactly how ransomware gang Black Basta pulled off its recent attack against Ascension Healthcare. PCMag detailed how an elaborate “spear-phishing” attack, which involves extensively researching a target individual to deceive them with a well-timed email, led to an Ascension employee downloading a malicious program that provided access to seven of the system’s servers.

• Consumer Preference Survey: A Jarrard survey explored the factors that influence patients’ choice of provider, with insurance acceptance (80% viewed as important) and location convenience (70%) ranking as top priorities. Of the patients with an established PCP relationship, a third found their doctor through a recommendation from a friend or family member, while about a quarter used a provider directory from their health plan. It was also interesting to see that only half of the respondents said online reviews played a significant role in their decision.

• Function Raises $53M: Membership-based diagnostic startup Function raised $53M in Series A funding to give consumers access to over 100 different lab tests for $500/year. The assessment includes 5X more lab testing than a typical physical exam (heart, hormones, thyroid, cancer signals, aging factors, autoimmunity), with results displayed in a digestible dashboard alongside a detailed summary from a clinician. Function already has 50k members and a 200k person waitlist, due in part to a star-studded investor roster that includes Matt Damon, Zac Efron, and Kevin Hart.

• How We Live Longer: Andreessen Horowitz put out a memo framing up why industry outsiders are likely in the best position to help us live longer. The article makes the case that most poor health outcomes stem from diseases we already know how to cure, and that improving overall life expectancy is a problem of (1) helping patients navigate their way to the right care, and (2) supporting optimal behavior change in areas like diet or exercise. “These are both issues of consumer experience, not science or medicine.”

• Gut Microbiome Age Signals CVD Risk: In a Nature study classifying the gut microbiome, an analysis of about 10k adults found that groups with “obesity-related mixed” or “hyperglycemia” microbiome types had a 75% and 117% higher risk for heart disease than individuals with a “metabolically healthy” microbiome profile. Researchers developed a gut microbial age measure, finding that cardiovascular risk is exacerbated in people with a higher microbial age, while lower microbial age meant lower CV risks.

• Information Blocking Disincentives: HHS released a final rule that establishes “disincentives” for providers that engage in information blocking, with different penalties depending on the organization type. ACOs participating in MSSP will be made ineligible for at least a year, hospitals will be penalized through the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program, and MIPS-eligible clinicians will be sidelined for a year. The final rule takes effect next month, building on previously established penalties for health IT vendors.

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Modern diabetes management requires personalized, always-on, and connected care. Explore Glooko’s latest clinical studies to see how remote patient monitoring is making real-word improvements across multiple glycemic outcomes.

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