DispatchHealth provides health care beyond traditional facilities to the most accessible environment of all: the patient’s home.

In the hands of DispatchHealth founders Mark Prather and Kevin Riddleberger, the rather “old-school” service of a doctor’s house call combines with mobile technology to provide high acuity, lower cost, in-home medical care. Venture capitalists continue to like the idea and have backed DispatchHealth with $135.8 million in the latest C round of funding. (Home Health Care News)

The current round was led by Optum Ventures with participation by existing investors Alta Partners, Questa Capital, Echo Health Ventures, new investors Oak HC/FT, Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM), and additional strategic investors.

With this funding, DispatchHealth has raised in total $216.8 million.

In-home care a booming business

Business is good in in-home healthcare and DispatchHealth has grown its revenues by 100% to 200% every year since its launch. However, it is yet to report a profit.

The company currently serves 19 markets across several states and has served more than 170,000 patients so far in 2020.

By helping patients avoid ER and hospital visits and skilled nursing facility admissions, DispatchHealth has helped save them over $200 million in medical expenses through in-home, high acuity care.

COVID-19 boosted calls for the startup’s services

During the COVID 19 pandemic, patients were unwilling to take the risk of enrolling themselves in a medical facility. As a result, many opted for in-home healthcare services from DispatchHealth.

“Our focus is on the high medical-needs and high social-needs patients,” Prather told Home Health Care News. “That person is exactly the most vulnerable patient with COVID-19. So our model has been in high demand to be able to service those patients in a safe environment, as opposed to bringing them into [a facility], where they may be exposed.”

Since March 1, DispatchHealth’s home-based visits have surged 90% compared to the same time last year.

DispatchHealth’s hospital-at-home service gaining traction

Due to adverse trends relating to the availability of hospital capacity, the high cost of hospital care, and the increasing lack of interest in building new hospitals, the “hospital-at-home” model is rapidly gaining traction.

DispatchHealth made a foray into hospital-at-home in 2019.

“Our focus has been on developing a platform that is designed to orchestrate and deliver complex medical care in the home,” Prather said to Home Health Care News. “The first obvious piece for us was on-demand, high-acuity, almost ER-like interventions in the home.”

DispatchHealth will use the new funding to grow in existing markets, expand to new markets, and launch additional services.

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