OSF Ventures has joined a $25 million investment in TailorMed, a leading financial navigation technology company that helps patients and health care organizations remove financial barriers to care.
The corporate investment arm of OSF HealthCare joined an extended round of funding, that increased overall investment to the $25 million level. OSF Ventures joins new investors: The American Cancer Society’s venture capital fund, BrightEdge, and the Citi Impact Fund. Existing investor Sanara Capital, Sanara Ventures’ follow-on fund, also participated.
The round, led by Providence Ventures, also included new investors Almeda Ventures, Bridges Israel, Discount Capital, and UnityPoint Health Ventures. Existing investors Accelmed, and Triventures also joined in the latest financing.
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TailorMed is focused on ensuring patients get the care they need in a difficult financial environment. TailorMed’s financial navigation platform automates the processes of identifying financially at-risk patients, matching and enrolling them in funding programs such as co-pay assistance, replacement drug programs, government subsidies, community and state resources, assistance from disease-specific foundations, and programs that support patients with their living expenses.
“It’s exciting to see a health system with the reputation of OSF HealthCare recognizing the value of a platform that gives health care providers more tools to help more patients avoid crippling medical debt,” said Srulik Dvorsky, CEO and co-founder of TailorMed. Medical debt is the single largest kind of debt owed to collection agencies in the U.S., according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). It has reached a total of $140 billion, twice as much as previously thought and yet the data does not cover the period that included the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dvorsky co-founded TailorMed on the premise that no one should have to abandon treatment that could save their life because of their inability to pay. He points to research that showed even among cancer patients with insurance, 16% quit their treatment plans because they could not afford life-saving chemotherapy drugs, and patients with higher copayments were 42% more likely to skip treatment.
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Mayank Taneja, director of Venture Investments, says the Ventures team at OSF HealthCare believes the TailorMed financial navigation platform is superior to what competitors offer because it includes access to resources not only for people with cancer, but for those with other chronic diseases and conditions as well.
“Chronic diseases such as congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and multiple sclerosis (MS) can also place a significant financial burden on patients,” said Taneja. “Additionally, the astronomical cost of specialty pharmacy drugs (current and new) across multiple disease specialties can present a prohibitive barrier for patients and health systems trying to provide the best treatment available.”
TailorMed’s predictive analytic capabilities leverage electronic medical records to reveal patients with the highest financial vulnerability. Financial navigators can then proactively match patients with resources early on to reduce their out-of-pocket treatment costs. This early intervention can help patients avoid dropping out of treatment before it’s completed because of financial worries.
Hospital systems can also benefit by incurring less bad debt, freeing up resources to invest in operations and offer additional options to access care.
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