Hopscotch Primary Care, a tech-enabled provider focused on rural regions, has clinched $53 million in a series D funding round.
The company plans to use the funds to expand beyond its current core market in Western North Carolina, likely to Tennessee and Georgia. The round was led by 8VC and Townhall Ventures, with participation from a slew of investors, including Citi Impact Fund, Alumni Ventures, K2 HealthVentures and the Autism Impact Fund.
Rural healthcare faces a number of challenges that complicate care access, from retiring doctors to closing hospitals to long travel distances for routine care. Hopscotch executives say the company focuses on a smooth and attentive patient experience while augmenting clinicians with technology.
“This is a problem that affects thousands of communities across the country with an aging population and a lot of migration into the Sun Belt,” Tim Gronniger, CEO of Hopscotch, told Fierce Healthcare in an advance interview. “This problem is going to get worse if not addressed.”
Across its dozen clinics, Hopscotch offers longer primary care appointments, between 20 and 40 minutes, and leverages ambient scribes to generate visit and patient instruction summaries. It also uses AI-driven clinical decision support tools to help clinicians manage complex patients. Telehealth is an option, with some encounters offered in-house and some outsourced to provider partners who offer virtual specialty care.
Given its rural focus, the company prioritizes hiring clinicians from the regions where it already operates. This helps to recruit and retain talent, per Gronniger, as does an attractive compensation package. Hopscotch may offer relocation bonuses and aims to make a compelling case for career development for doctors, like giving them the opportunity to evolve the Hopscotch care model over time.
“Working with a company that is ambitious enough to take big swings … and deliver outsize outcomes and outsize patient improvement is exciting for a lot of really motivated physicians and practitioners,” Gronniger said.
Hopscotch also looks into public resources like loan forgiveness and government subsidies for its providers. It may apply for Rural Health Transformation Program funds where relevant. And its team-based model also allows docs not to constantly be on call.
“All these small incremental innovations stack up and make this a very attractive place to work for our teams,” Gronniger said.
When it comes to patients, Hopscotch often sees complex seniors, which is why it focuses on advanced primary care. It accepts Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and commercial plans. Hopscotch helps patients navigate insurance and other benefits, including social services. It also has a 24/7 nurse line that can escalate patient concerns to their care team, which "has been impactful in diverting inpatient utilization … and connecting patients to care quickly,” Gronniger noted.
Despite its tech advances, Hopscotch believes tech should augment care, not replace it. Its high-tech, high-touch approach is about combining clinical teams with tools to make care smarter.
“Patients expect their PCP to be someone that is credible, credentialed and someone that they can have a long-term relationship with over years—not a virtual agent at a local retailer that they don’t know and that they don’t trust,” Gronniger said.
The company was founded in 2021 and has served over 15,000 patients to date. It says it drives reductions in inpatient utilization, the total cost of care and improves MLR by over 25 percentage points.