Laguna Health – an AI-powered contextual care management platform – announced the initial close of its Series A fundraise: a $15 million round co-led by SemperVirens and HC9 Ventures. The initial close brings Laguna’s total raise of funding to date to over $21 million. And the company will use the funding for deepening its AI capabilities in the care management context and expand its go-to-market.
There are 35 million Americans are hospitalized annually with at least two-thirds discharged to self-care at home. And to recover, these patients typically receive paper instructions and minimal ongoing clinical oversight. Even if a recovering patient has been assigned a care manager, the patient’s medical records rarely reflect their own life context, their caregiver’s life context, or the emotional drivers that may hinder their recovery journey.
The individual life circumstances, which go beyond SDOH, are 7 times more costly than medical errors. Plus arthritic fingers or poor vision might prevent an older patient from taking insulin as directed. A mother with career and family obligations may delay calling her physician about nausea and lethargy, and end up being readmitted to the hospital with sepsis. Single-parenting a toddler could also be why a father does not adhere to “no-lifting” instructions.
So care transitions such as inpatient or acute outpatient hospital admissions are woefully underserved. And care managers are further hampered by chronic staffing shortages and overwhelming caseloads. Built on a proven contextual care model, Laguna’s AI engine integrates medical care plans with social, emotional, and cultural factors to help care managers better support members’ recovery and ongoing care. Armed with care plans personalized to patients’ unique life contexts, care managers are empowered to help members overcome recovery barriers. For a mother with family and career obligations, Laguna’s natural language processing will identify her anxiety over her recovery and competing life priorities, and offer digital and human interventions, such as personalized content in the app and virtual support with a care manager.
A tougher economy — combined with with rising healthcare costs — has shifted employer healthcare priorities from ‘nice to have’ employee benefits and perks to managing double digit healthcare cost growth. Offered through health plans and requiring no change in employer health plan design, Laguna’s ability in driving down complex and acute population spend delivers exceptional return on employer investment.
KEY QUOTES:
“As employers continue to deal with skyrocketing overall healthcare spend, it’s imperative to address chronically high-cost complex and acute patient populations. The Laguna team understands that employers and health plans require solutions that not only improve patient outcomes, but are easy to integrate, require no plan change and deliver immediate ROI.”
— Robby Peters, Co-Founder, SemperVirens
“Driving both impact and scale is usually a painful tradeoff for health plans, post-acute providers and home health providers. Laguna has proven that AI powered contextual care is both effective and scalable, positioning it as the next-generation care management platform of choice for employers, health plans and integrated delivery networks.”
— Richard Lungen, General Partner, HC9 Ventures
“We are thrilled to partner with SemperVirens and HC9 Ventures to further the growth of Laguna Health. Their leadership, experience and relationships will help drive accelerated employer and health plan adoption – giving Laguna the potential to make a difference in millions of members’ lives.”
— Yoni Shtein, CEO and Co-Founder, Laguna Health
