Bluebird Kids Health, a value-based pediatric primary care provider, has closed its series A round with $31.5 million.
The round was co-led by F Prime and .406 Ventures with participation from Juxtapose and AIF. The capital was used to acquire another pediatrics practice, to scale locations and to make tech and staff investments.
Bluebird launched in 2024 to address pediatric care deserts, particularly acute for children enrolled in Medicaid. The practice aims to address the physical, mental and social needs of children. It operates several clinics in Florida today, with 20,000 active patients and plans to expand. It accepts both commercially insured and Medicaid patients.
“One of the areas that are often overlooked in healthcare are our children,” Bluebird CEO and founder Chris Johnson told Fierce Healthcare. “I’m very focused on where are there underserved patient communities, where getting better primary care models to them can dramatically improve outcomes.”
About half of U.S. children are enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, yet millions of these insured children still struggle to access pediatric primary care. Even though federally qualified health centers, health systems and private practices serve kids, “there’s still unmet demand for these services,” Johnson said. As a last resort, children might end up in the emergency department for care.
These gaps, Johnson said, exist in part due to low fee-for-service Medicaid reimbursement rates, which force traditional pediatrics practices to limit how many Medicaid patients they can serve. The typical patient panel distribution Johnson has seen is between 15% to 25% of kids on Medicaid, with the rest on commercial plans. Bluebird aims to have a commercial-Medicaid breakdown of 50-50.
"After nearly 20 years of backing innovative companies providing full-risk primary care for Medicare populations, we are thrilled to partner with Bluebird Kids Health as they apply this proven approach to pediatric care,” Kathryn Taylor Reddy, a principal at .406 Ventures, said in a statement.
Prior to founding Bluebird, Johnson served as CEO of Landmark Health, a value-based operator of in-home primary care for seniors. The company was acquired by Optum in 2021.
Bluebird has value-based contracts with most local managed care organizations and is actively seeking to move into more risk-bearing arrangements with its commercial payer partners. By being held accountable to outcomes, Bluebird hopes to drive cost savings and quality improvements for kids. Children served by Bluebird experience a 42% reduction in emergency room visits and a 69% reduction in in-patient admissions compared to the market average, the company claims based on a payer partner’s analysis.
Though telehealth is an option, many Bluebird appointments still happen in person because of the nature of pediatrics. Visits often involve immunizations, developmental screens or a physical exam, Johnson noted.
Bluebird is recognized by the National Committee for Quality Assurance as a patient-centered medical home, an evaluation program that recognizes more than 10,000 practices. Research shows this model of care, which puts patients at the center of care, improves quality and the patient experience while increasing staff satisfaction and reducing healthcare costs.
In 2024, Bluebird acquired a pediatric primary care practice, Palm Beach Pediatrics, in Palm Beach County. The practice was already exhibiting best practices on many aspects of Bluebird’s model, Johnson said. Since the acquisition, the two companies have worked together to build out their clinical model and scale locations.
As Bluebird scales, it hopes to become a pillar in its communities. “The goal over time is to say we want to meet all of the excess demand that exists in that market,” Johnson said. In the future, Bluebird hopes to expand to urgent care and specialty care offerings.
Because many value-based care enablers today are not focused on the pediatric population, Bluebird is building most of its tools in-house, including to manage patient enrollment, eligibility, quality gap closures and population health. Its tech platform uses AI to assess patient risk, help determine the right care pathway and inform clinical teams. This can look like ensuring patients are scheduled to see their provider at a certain cadence or actively outreaching to patients about symptom triggers and mitigation.
Today, Bluebird’s clinics are in Palm Beach County, with plans to expand to Broward County and Jacksonville this year.