Home care technology is rapidly evolving, with new innovations such as artificial intelligence creating exciting growth opportunities for providers. Harmony Cares, a physician group that provides home care services to high-needs patients, recently raised $200 million in funding to leverage new technology to create better outcomes for patients and physicians, the company disclosed this week.
“We evaluated what we were using today and we saw the potential for significant upgrades,” HarmonyCare CEO Matt Chance said in an interview with McKnight Home Care on Tuesday. “Given all the technology that’s emerging now in areas like AI, machine learning and other areas, investing in logistics and routing technology to the people that we serve will allow us to reach them in a more efficient, effective and more effective way.”
Harmony Cares, which primarily provides in-home primary care, home health care, hospice, palliative care, radiology and lab services, is particularly interested in upgrading its logistics systems for scheduling, tracking and deploying staff, Chance said. The company is also using part of the $200 million investment to improve its electronic medical records system.
“Most EMRs aren’t built for working from home,” Chance says, “so what we’re looking to do is create workflows that are both patient- and provider-centric, and create a better experience for providers to interact with patients on their laptops, but in a way that’s consistent with their encounters.”
Chance said the company will use the funding to explore ways technology can improve how it can address social determinants of health (SDOH) for patients.
“SDOH is really important for this population,” he said, “and there are some technologies out there that can connect us to broader community resources. We’re using some of that right now, but we’ll continue to ramp it up.”
These upgrades are critical to HarmonyCares’ two-fold growth strategy. Chance said the $200 million investment, which includes contributions from private equity and venture capital firms General Catalyst, McKesson Ventures, K2 Health Ventures, Rubicon Founders, Valturis, HLM Capital and OakHC/FT, will help the company deepen its influence in existing markets while also expanding into new geographies and fostering partnerships. Today, the company serves more than 70,000 patients in 15 states.
Technological innovation is essential to the success of value-based care, he added. HarmonyCare is focused on serving both traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage patients. The investment will enable the company to expand the reach of its value-based model to patients with limited access to care.
“For this type of model to work, you have to participate in one of the value-based models,” he explained. “So for us, having value-based contracts with both managed care plans and available government programs is really important for us to grow and expand and drive access for people.”
McKnight’s Tech Daily is an e-newsletter for readers of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care.
