Federally Certified Well being Facilities (FQHC) are essential to offering major care. They scale back the boundaries to healthcare for thousands and thousands of People in underserved communities by offering entry regardless of price, insurance coverage protection, language, and proximity. These neighborhood well being facilities are ruled by the federal authorities, qualify for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, and so they’ve been propelled by the Inexpensive Care and Restoration Acts. Yuvo Well being supplies the expertise and infrastructure to handle the executive and managed care capabilities of those FQHCs. There’s been a rising development in the direction of value-based care and with the platform, neighborhood well being facilities are capable of embrace this new mannequin by dealing with contracting with payors to ship preventative, moderately than reactive care. This finally results in higher affected person outcomes, elevated high quality of care, and optimized spending. FQHCs serve greater than 30M people per 12 months or just below 10% of the US inhabitants.
AlleyWatch caught up with Yuvo Well being CEO and Cofounder Cesar Herrera to study extra in regards to the enterprise, the corporate’s strategic plans, newest spherical of funding, which brings the whole funding raised to $27.5M, and far, way more…
Who had been your traders and the way a lot did you elevate?
We’ve raised an oversubscribed $20.2M Collection A spherical of financing. Led by Mastry Ventures, with participation from earlier traders together with AlleyCorp, AV8 Ventures, and New York Ventures, and new traders together with HLM Enterprise Companions, Route 66 Ventures, VamosVentures, and Social Innovation Fund.
Inform us in regards to the services or products that Yuvo Well being presents.
Yuvo Well being companions with well being facilities to leverage new fee methods, scalable infrastructure, and partnerships to supply a significant seat on the desk throughout the value-based care (VBC) ecosystem. In doing so, well being facilities achieve the liberty — and the incentives — to supply compassionate care for his or her whole neighborhood.
What impressed the beginning of Yuvo Well being?
Launched in January 2021, Yuvo Well being was based in New York Metropolis by a totally BIPOC group with shared first-hand experiences of the facility of high quality care, and a standard objective to carry truthful, high quality care to underserved communities. All the Yuvo Well being group is now on a mission to make sure each Group Well being Middle (CHC) can present compassionate care to their whole neighborhood.
How is Yuvo Well being completely different?
Yuvo Well being is particularly tailor-made for Federally Certified Well being Facilities (FQHCs) and their distinctive wants. And, in contrast to many different “value-based care enablement” options on the market, Yuvo Well being uniquely takes its mannequin a big step ahead by truly bearing the complete draw back danger for our FQHC companions.
What market does Yuvo Well being goal and the way huge is it?
Yuvo Well being helps CHCs and FQHCs that present major care to underserved communities within the U.S. The 1,400 FQHCs nationwide serve greater than 30 million sufferers yearly, representing greater than $30 billion in income. That mentioned, coverage studies have proven a chance for FQHCs to serve an extra 20 million who nonetheless don’t have entry to major care throughout the nation.
What’s what you are promoting mannequin?
Yuvo Well being acts as a risk-bearing entity for FQHCs. Once we companion with FQHCs, we comply with shoulder the draw back danger for them. We then contract immediately with well being insurers throughout all strains of enterprise (Medicaid, Medicare, Industrial) for varied danger preparations. By opening up this extra income stream, we not solely gasoline our personal development, however set up monetary development and stability for our FQHC companions, as properly.
How are you getting ready for a possible financial slowdown?
Healthcare, notably Medicaid and Medicare, is counter-cyclical to the economic system. This sometimes means extra enrollment in Medicaid, as an illustration, and elevated monetary stress on States to handle price. As such, there may be higher alternative for our FQHC companions to take part and show their worth on this ecosystem.
What was the funding course of like?
The funding course of undoubtedly took longer than our final one. Our seed spherical took a few month to shut, whereas our Collection A took round 5 months. FOMO wasn’t as a lot of an element for traders we had talked to, and as such, they had been spending additional time to be extra thorough of their diligence. It was definitely a double-edged sword: The extended interval meant extra time away from our firm’s day-to-day operations. Nevertheless, the due diligence additionally meant traders had been asking the best questions and took time to essentially perceive the enterprise. Moreover, I had extra time to vet traders and perceive the extra worth they may present. Because of this, I’m way more assured within the worth related to these on our cap desk, which is a good feeling.
What are the most important challenges that you simply confronted whereas elevating capital?
Frankly, we are attempting to unravel an extremely sophisticated drawback (value-based care) in a steadily forgotten phase (FQHCs) of a fancy, regulated market (healthcare). There are few corollaries to which traders can meaningfully evaluate us. Which means, we’re not the “Uber” or “Airbnb” of healthcare. On prime of that, we don’t have a predictable SaaS ARR income mannequin, which has been tough for traders to grapple with.
What elements about what you are promoting led your traders to write down the examine?
Primarily based on suggestions from our traders, essentially the most compelling elements had been a mixture of the next:
- Our sensible, pragmatic answer
- Plain market want. FQHCs would want to entry a selected and significant income stream (VBC) with out Yuvo Well being.
- Our gifted group. Now we have an unparalleled group, with a number of a long time of immediately related expertise on this house.
- Deep connection to our mission. Many people have direct, lived expertise being FQHC sufferers ourselves, and lots of others have expertise serving FQHCs and their sufferers. This isn’t only a enterprise for us, however moderately a deeply private mission to help FQHCs and their sufferers.
What are the milestones you intend to realize within the subsequent six months?
With this capital, we’re centered on constructing the expertise and population-health infrastructure to help our transition to world capitation.
What recommendation are you able to provide corporations in New York that wouldn’t have a recent injection of capital within the financial institution?
In case you are about to boost capital on this market and/or promote to clients, ensure you present that your product is a “need-to-have” versus a “good-to-have” to your viewers. Additionally, keep in mind that enterprise capital just isn’t the one car obtainable to fund your development and growth, so be artistic (e.g., enterprise debt, line of credit score, authorities applications wherever related).
The place do you see the corporate going now over the close to time period?
We’ll leverage this funding to develop from the New York market into Ohio (and past), whereas additionally transitioning to just accept full-risk preparations on behalf of our FQHC and CHC companions.
With a plethora of commuting choices within the metropolis, how do you sometimes get to work every day?
I’m blessed that our workplace is only some blocks away from my condominium. And on condition that I desire to be above floor, you’ll both see me strolling to work, taking the cross-town M23 bus, or counting on a reliable Citi Bike wherever I have to go, rain or shine or by the bitter chilly.
