Fortuna Health – a consumer-first platform simplifying Medicaid navigation – recently announced a seed investment of $4 million led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health with participation from BoxGroup and Y Combinator. This funding round will drive Fortuna’s state expansion and partnerships with managed care organizations (MCOs), health systems, and service providers in the Medicaid space.
Fortuna’s seed funding round includes notable healthcare angels and advisors, including Jeff Sachs (CEO, Sachs Policy Group), Cyrus Massoumi (founder, Zocdoc), Jeff Gerard (former President, Sutter Health Bay Area), Elliot Cohen (Founder, PillPack), Iyah and Sylvia Romm (Founder and former Chief Health Officer, Cityblock), Ellen DaSilva (Founder, Summer Health), and EGOT winner, entrepreneur, and social advocate John Legend – who came into the round through support from a16z’s Cultural Leadership Fund.
Fortuna Health was created by healthcare operators with direct Medicaid experience and a shared mission to create seamless Medicaid navigation. More than 90 million Medicaid beneficiaries encounter challenges with enrollment and recertification. These issues range from screening for Medicaid eligibility, submitting long applications, and tracking fluctuating renewal dates. The resulting procedural issues such as form errors, account for 80% of disenrollments.
Loss of Medicaid coverage creates huge downstream consequences: managed care plans lose over $36 billion from churn, and providers suffer from $20 billion in lost patient revenue and uncompensated care. And delayed enrollment also increases the total cost of care and worsens outcomes, as seen in maternal health.
Fortuna’s simple and self-serve platform eliminates the need to interact with state portals and physical forms. And the product screens for Medicaid eligibility in under 60 seconds with fast enrollment and recertification in more than seven languages. Consumers can connect third-party accounts to populate form fields, upload photos and documents, and receive text/email notifications for urgent actions to accelerate application completion. Fortuna offers additional live support from licensed navigators as needed.
Fortuna’s platform also gives providers and health plans unparalleled visibility into account statuses and consumers’ next steps. And with enhanced consumer data that includes tracking transitions from Medicaid to ACA/marketplace plans, teams are better equipped to serve their consumers with Fortuna’s comprehensive analytics.
Fortuna Health has partnered with organizations that touch thousands of Medicaid members in Minnesota, New York, and Pennsylvania.
KEY QUOTES:
“I’ve faced the hurdles of Medicaid first-hand as a beneficiary. These personal experiences are at the core of Fortuna’s commitment to consumer trust and simplicity in every interaction through our platform.”
— Nikita Singareddy, co-founder and CEO of Fortuna Health
“A core component of health equity is making healthcare coverage easy to understand, navigate, and access. Fortuna Health’s approach resonated with me by making Medicaid truly simple and intuitive. I’m proud to support their journey to combat health disparities and ensure patients get the care they need.”
— John Legend
“Everyone deserves simple access to healthcare, without legacy systems and broken processes standing in the way. As Medicaid becomes even more difficult to navigate post-COVID, we’re excited to be backing the Fortuna Health team as they do the essential work of modernizing the pathway for consumers to maintain eligibility and consistent enrollment in their health plans.”
— Julie Yoo, general partner at a16z Bio + Health
