Commons Clinic – a branded value-based health system offering all-inclusive, expert care for spine, orthopedics, and pain management – recently announced its $19.5 million Series A financing led by RA Capital Management with participation from existing investors Floating Point and Courtside Ventures and new investor Time BioVentures. This financing round brings Commons Clinic’s total funding to $33.5 million including investments from industry-pioneering angels like Elliot Cohen (Co-Founder, Pillpack), Mike West (former CEO, Rothman Orthopedics), and founders from Cityblock Health, CityMD, PatientPing, Elemy and more.
This funding round sees Commons Clinic add two new board members, Prithviraj Singha Roy of RA Capital Management and John Loser of Floating Point, who join Nick Aubin, co-founder and CEO, Paulo da Costa, co-founder and COO, and Bob Badal, co-founder of Strive Health. And Commons Clinic is a branded, independent, value-based health system bringing in a new era of service that isn’t held hostage by today’s stagnant hospital-centric model.
By 2028, 85% of total joint replacement procedures will be outpatient. And cases are rapidly migrating from the traditional and nationwide hospital system to outpatient sites-of-service and ambulatory environments. And about 40% of surgeries are low value and can be better cared for with conservative treatment like physical therapy. Plus, new minimally-invasive surgical techniques and conservative (often digital-first), care models are maturing asymptotically to effectively manage high-cost episodic care, with the potential for health plans and consumers to save billions of dollars. These trends could unlock value everywhere as specialty care simultaneously gets more affordable, better, and faster.
Procedures at surgery centers are 40% cheaper than the same procedure at traditional hospitals on average. And hospital fees account for 61% to 84% of the expenditure for common specialty episodes of care and, over the past decade, have driven 90% to 93% of all increases in cost. And there’s an estimated $58 billion of care delivered at an inappropriate site-of-service and over $100 billion wasted on low-value care each year. Consumers are dissatisfied as their healthcare experience falls short of those delivered by other consumer companies that enable modern life.
With its group of top orthopedic physicians, branded care centers, a network of state-of-the-art surgical facilities, and native virtual clinic, Commons Clinic offers consumers with all-inclusive care programs for total joint replacements, spinal fusions, etc. The company’s vertical integration is key by giving the organization unparalleled control over care, experience, and costs to win in value-based care and earn long-term consumer loyalty. The simple and transparent bundled payments (surgical and non-surgical) are ideal for health plans and employers, guaranteeing savings while offering plan members a high-value alternative to high cost hospitals.
KEY QUOTES:
“With Commons Clinic, I believe there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to foundationally change how specialty care is delivered, enabling us to win long-term consumer relationships, earn the power of top physicians’ loyalty, and capture the power of a rebuilt specialty care value chain. We’ve been fortunate enough to quickly gain traction, adding six of LA’s top surgeons to our group, opening three clinics, and securing a top five national health plan as our anchor value-based partner in our first two years of operations.”
“Hospitals continue to consolidate power, increase the cost of care, and drastically underperform against the expectations of today’s consumers. They remain the single biggest obstacle to realizing scaled improvement of our nation’s healthcare ecosystem. We believe in putting our community’s elite, specialty physicians in the driver’s seat, giving them the power and resources to compete with a more value-based, consumer-focused, and independent platform.”
- Nick Aubin, co-founder and CEO, Commons Clinic
“For over ten years, I’ve been developing and implementing advanced bundled payment models and driving adoption of outcome-based provider contracts; I believe Commons Clinic is the first company to do it right – end-to-end. I’m thrilled that through RA Capital Management’s investment I’ll be able to support Nick, Paulo and the team as Chief Strategy Officer and evangelize Commons Clinic’s transformative approach with my health care industry peers.”
- Mike Sherman, Venture Partner, RA Capital Management and former Chief Medical Officer of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Point32Health
“We believe specialty care is the next frontier for innovative healthcare models. Companies like Commons Clinic that prioritize customer experience, cost reduction, and procedural efficacy are best positioned to win. The last few years have shown that differentiated provider groups—Oak Street, One Medical, Signify Health, just to name a few—can create massive, enduring value even in a challenging market. At Oscar Health, we saw first-hand the power of accessible, transparent brands to demystify the complex healthcare system for consumers. We’re eager to impart those learnings as we help Commons Clinic grow and serve more patients, bring incredible physicians into the fold, and rightfully take market share from legacy hospital systems.”
- John Loser, Managing Director, Floating Point
