Virtual care startup Hims & Hers is teaming up with Carbon Health to offer patients in California with direct access to providers for in-person medical appointments at clinics.
The collaboration will provide easy and comprehensive access to a broader range of care options through the Hims & Hers platform, company executives said.
Carbon Health is a primary care provider combining brick-and-mortar clinics with virtual services. The company operates 100 clinics in 16 states, along with Reno, Nevada, Seattle, Washington, New York City and several cities in California, including San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego and Los Angeles. Carbon Health provides virtual care in 35 states plus Washington, DC.
The deal adds a seventh U.S. state to the Hims & Hers provider network and marks another way that Hims & Hers is integrating its spectrum of telehealth-based healthcare services across in-person and virtual care, company executives said.
Melissa Baird, Hims & Hers chief operating officer, told Fierce Healthcare that the partnership will start in California but the companies have plans to expand into other states where Carbon Health operates.
Hims & Hers, which combines telehealth and medication delivery, provides access to treatments for conditions including sexual health, hair loss, dermatology, mental health and primary care.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hims & Hers fast-tracked an expansion of its telehealth services to offer access to primary care and also rolled out online mental health services. The company has extended its virtual reach to all 50 states.
The new partnership enables licensed medical professionals on the Hims & Hers platform to direct patients to Carbon Health if they require additional primary care follow-up or evaluation, due to complex medical histories, symptoms, or risk factors for conditions for which Hims & Hers does not currently offer treatment.
"At Hims & Hers, we're building a patient-first, high-quality, low-friction medical experience. As part of that, many times we are seeing patients for the very first time for those conditions and sometimes people are just not candidates to be treated on the platform, as maybe there's something concerning and the doctor wants them to run a test or to see someone in person," Melissa Baird, Hims & Hers chief operating officer, told Fierce Healthcare.
"The Carbon partnership allows us to give a really warm handoff to an in-person provider, to a trusted source that will treat that patient the way we would treat the patient. Carbon Health takes an approach that is very service-oriented. Instead of requiring patients to step out of their lives in order to get treated, they integrate more into people's lives," she said.
Recognizing that not all healthcare services can be offered virtually, Hims & Hers has a growing network of provider relationships, which now spans seven states and the District of Columbia. The company currently partners with Oschner in Louisiana, Mount Sinai Health System in New York City and Privia in the District of Columbia, Georgia, Maryland, Texas and Virginia.
Partnering with Hims & Hers will enable patients in California to receive more integrated and continuous care across a greater spectrum of health conditions, Carbon Health Chief Growth Officer Nita Sommers told Fierce Healthcare.
"Many Americans must cross multiple barriers and information silos when navigating today’s healthcare system. At Carbon Health, we believe in breaking down these barriers and making quality healthcare hassle-free. Partnering with Hims&Hers allows us to simplify the process for when their patients need access to high-quality primary care services. We believe investing in these coordination partnerships is essential to simplifying healthcare for consumers," she said.
Baird said Hims & Hers wants to build a "one-stop shop for a new generation of consumers" that are demanding a healthcare delivery system that is "modern, simple-to-use, and enables access to high-quality care at the touch of a button."
"The reason Hims & Hers is growing fast is that people are looking for a different experience. And, at the same time, we know that we can't operate entirely outside of the existing system. So it's important to us that we have partnerships with existing establishments so we're not adding to care fragmentation, but instead enabling them to have a more consistent journey across different parts of the system," she said.
Both companies are seeing rapid growth. San Francisco-based Carbon Health meets patients across numerous channels to reduce friction and keep them engaged in their care. Alongside access points like its chain of retail clinics and pop-up sites, this strategy extends to app-based virtual care and—as of its June acquisition of Steady Health—device-driven chronic disease management.
Last year, Carbon Health bought two separate clinic chains—Southern Arizona Urgent Care’s nine clinics in Tucson, Arizona, and Med7 Urgent Care’s four clinics in Sacramento, California—to bring its total to 83 clinics across 12 states. The six-year-old provider has raised $522 million to date and has a reported valuation of $3.3 billion following its most recent funding round.
Carbon Health said that its patient volume has increased 129% since its $100 million raise in November 2020. The primary care startup now has its sights set on opening a total of 1,500 clinics by 2025. The startup banked a hefty $350 million funding round in July 2021 and plans to use the cash to target nationwide expansion.
Founded in 2017, Hims & Hers went public in a $1.6 billion special purpose acquisition company merger in January 2021. The company reported 2021 revenue that grew by 83% year-over-year to $272 million, and subscriptions up by 95% year-over-year to more than 600,000 in the fourth quarter.
The company is looking to expand into new health conditions including sleep, fertility and chronic conditions like diabetes and high cholesterol, according to a recent presentation to investors (PDF).
Hims & Hers is projecting 2022 revenue to grow 34% to 405 year-over-year to be in the range of $365 million to $380 million, according to executives.