Hint Health, a healthcare software company, has raised $45 million to help support direct primary care providers and virtual-first care models.
The investment was led by Banneker Partners and Frist Cressey Ventures, bringing the company’s total raised to date to $60 million. The funding will be used to expand Hint’s tech and customer support as well as to build or buy other innovative products, the company told Fierce Healthcare.
Hint argues the existing fee-for-service payment model is broken, crippled by a lack of price transparency and administrative overhead. To tackle these issues, its platform, HintOS, is intended to help direct primary care (DPC) providers run a membership-based, cash-only model including enrollment, membership management and billing. Many work directly with self-funded employers or uninsured patients and offer their services for a fixed monthly fee, at an average of $75 a month, which includes unlimited access to primary care, telemedicine and urgent care, according to Hint. It currently works with more than 2,400 providers.
“With Hint Health, providers can deliver premium and affordable care to all without dealing with the hassle and costs associated with the insurance middlemen, meaning providers can put the focus back on their patients,” Hint Health CEO Zak Holdsworth said in a press release. “For patients, this means the high-touch care they need, but at an affordable price that makes healthcare accessible and realigns payment incentives toward value.”
The company argues this model fosters a practice where incentives are aligned with providing the best care to patients. “We believe the free market should dictate their prices,” Holdsworth told Fierce Healthcare. According to the company's own research (PDF), DPC membership has increased 241% over the past several years. And practices that join a network have seen 548% growth in members.
Though covering DPC may be more costly than employers might expect, “underinvesting in primary care drives all the costs downstream," according to company executives.
In addition to expanding its core OS offering with the latest influx of cash, Hint plans to focus more on its national DPC network called Hint Connect, a free resource that connects providers to potential partners like employers interested in integrating primary care. “There’s no exclusivity or Draconian contracts that will prohibit providers if they wanted to leave Hint Connect for any reason,” Holdsworth said.
Though value-based care is a “valiant effort,” initiatives tend to build on top of the existing “broken” system, which Holdsworth sees as problematic. The path forward, he argues, is simplifying the model and cutting away excess costs: “It’s really just changing the rules of the game.”
Next week, the company will host a conference for DPC stakeholders. It also offers free training to Hint clients on how to grow a successful DPC practice.