Boulder Care takes in funding as its opioid telehealth program yields industry-leading retention rates – Nob6

Boulder Care, a Portland, Oregon–based mostly telehealth supplier centered on medical remedy and help for folks overcoming substance use problems, raised $36 million in Collection B funding.

Based in 2017 by Stephanie Sturdy, the corporate has a mission to deal with nationwide overdose charges, notably with opioid and alcohol use problems. Evaluation from the White Home in 2017 exhibits the cost of the opioid epidemic was over half a billion {dollars}.

Roughly 92,000 individuals within the U.S. died from drug overdose in 2020, together with illicit medication and prescription opioids, in keeping with National Institute on Drug Abuse figures. The variety of overdose deaths has steadily risen because the late Nineteen Nineties, however the 2020 determine is a pointy rise from the simply over 70,600 deaths in 2019.

To meet its mission, Boulder Care is delivering hundreds of naloxone doses, a medication for reversing an opioid overdose, to sufferers and providing telehealth help alongside the treatment, together with case administration, peer teaching and fundamental wants help. Boulder works to hyperlink collectively disparate suppliers alongside the continuum of care, “reasonably than facilitating ‘heat handoffs,’ we by no means let go of a affected person’s hand,” Sturdy informed Nob6.

It’s been a sizzling minute since we checked in with the corporate, final profiled across the starting of the worldwide pandemic when its opioid remedy was gaining traction. At the moment, Boulder Care picked up $10 million in Collection A funding, led by Tusk Enterprise Companions.

Over this time, the corporate went from caring for tons of of sufferers to hundreds of sufferers, Sturdy mentioned. And, because the {industry} is shifting towards value-add potential, it made sense to go after extra funding to speed up development.

“We are actually working with dozens of plans and wish to meet these wants which can be required,” she added. “We additionally plan on going into partnerships and new states methodically.”

Backers of the Collection B embrace Qiming Enterprise Companions (U.S.), Goodwater Capital, Laerdal Million Lives Fund and present traders First Spherical Capital, Greycroft, Tusk Enterprise Companions and Gaingels. The brand new funding provides the corporate over $50 million in complete funding.

The corporate has seen 100% year-over-year buyer renewals since 2017, and 70% of its sufferers stick with this system for 12 months. Sturdy additionally touts its 90% one-month retention fee is a three-time enchancment over {industry} benchmarks.

It additionally launched partnerships with 20 enterprise prospects, giving hundreds of thousands of individuals, nationwide, entry to the corporate’s providers through well being plans and employers, together with Regence, Anthem, Comcast and Hewlett Packard by means of ComPsych EAP.

Within the 2 years because the Collection A, Boulder Care has additionally logged some spectacular development figures: It’s serving a number of thousand sufferers with opioid and alcohol use problems and grew its income over 10 instances.

A lot of its income comes from in-network reimbursement from Managed Medicaid preparations that cowl low-income members with advanced wants. Because of this most of Boulder Care’s sufferers don’t pay something out of pocket to be part of this system.

With this funding, Sturdy expects to triple the dimensions of Boulder Care’s medical group, broaden and deepen its presence in a number of markets and implement payor contracts that maintain the corporate accountable for scientific and nonclinical outcomes.

The corporate shouldn’t be alone in leveraging expertise to unravel the issue of substance abuse. Others have additionally attracted some venture-backed capital previously couple of years — for instance, Path, which gives care as a part of an worker profit; Have an effect on, which focuses on methamphetamine abuse; and Monument and Tempest, each aimed toward alcoholism.

Sturdy says that what units Boulder Care aside from a few of its opponents is the variety of well being plan contracts it has and that almost all of its sufferers pay nothing for this system, or maybe a $4 co-pay, versus others providing month-to-month subscription charges which can be pricing out people who can’t afford to maintain that long-term.

Subsequent up, the corporate will give attention to development into new states “in a considerate means,” Sturdy mentioned. When getting into new states, the corporate goals to forge relationships with native and state packages as a solution to bridge the gaps in care with telehealth. Additionally it is working with regulators on what telemedicine can appear to be as look after substance abuse evolves.