JPM 2022: Key industry partners funnel Medically Home another $110M to deliver acute care at home

At-home acute care company Medically Home has picked up another $110 million in a funding round headlined by new strategic investors Baxter International and Global Medical Response, according to a Monday announcement.

Prior backers Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente and healthcare logistics firm Cardinal Health also participated in the funding round, which brings the company’s lifetime haul up to roughly $275 million.

The deal was announced in a press release as the industry meets virtually for the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

The investments from medtech company Baxter and medical transportation and mobile medic company GMR provide Medically Home several new strategic inroads that will help scale its decentralized care capabilities nationwide, CEO Rami Karjian said in a statement.

"The addition of these strategic national partners powerfully strengthens our logistics capability which our health system providers need to safely and reliably care for patients in their homes,” he said. “The accelerating decentralization of high acuity care from hospitals and other institutional sites to an ever-increasing number of patient’s homes enabled by Medically Home validates the importance of an ecosystem of health care partners working together on behalf of patients and the clinicians that care for them across the country.”

Medically Home installs a suite of communications devices, remote patient monitoring devices, emergency response systems and other supplies such as durable medical equipment in a patient’s home so that providers can treat high-acuity patients outside of the hospital.

RELATED: Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente to scale up hospital-at-home efforts with $100M investment into Medically Home

Providers use these integrated tools to coordinate care from a “command center” that allows continuous monitoring and on-demand communication with patients around the clock, according to the company. Should the patient require additional support, such as a delivery of oxygen, the startup’s logistics system connects patients with additional support, such as delivering oxygen to their home.

The company said more than 7,000 patients have been treated using its platform and ecosystem, thanks in part to deployments by health systems such as Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente.

But the new funds and partners also offer Medically Home an avenue for expanding its approach to decentralized care.

Giuseppe Accogli, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Baxter, said in a statement that the global medtech’s alignment with the young business will help “expand its unique care model while furthering innovation in digital health and monitoring technologies and solutions."

Medically Home's Karijan and GMR CEO Randy Owen added that Medically Home has had a successful relationship with GMR, a front-line response service provider, since last year and that both companies looking forward to fleshing out the strategic partnership.

“This partnership is a natural fit with GMR’s 30,000 exceptional front-line clinicians who provide care at a moment’s notice with our health system partners,” Owen said in a statement. “Our current at-home partnership with Medically Home has already proven that this model works well for patients, hospital systems and caregivers, and we’re looking forward to future growth opportunities with Medically Home.”

RELATED: Kaiser Permanente's hospital-at-home push prioritizes savings over high-quality care, nurses union says

Baxter, GMR and Cardinal Health will each have a spot on the Medically Home board as a result of the investments.

Medically Home already won over the backing of Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente last year when the health systems announced major investments and deployments of its tech-supported model last spring.

The trio are founding members of the Advanced Care at Home Coalition, an advocacy movement launched in the fall with the support of several other provider organizations. Those efforts have faced some pushback, however, with a national nurses’ union arguing in November that these hospital-at-home models are less focused on outcomes than they are maximizing profits.

Still, home-based acute care programs like Medically Home’s have gained traction over the course of the pandemic. Contessa, a fellow home recovery care services and technology company, was bought out by Amedisys for $250 million last summer and announced the launch of new provider partnerships in the fall.