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Best of Care diversifies offerings through latest acquisition
The Boston-based Best of Care is the latest home care provider to diversify its offerings through acquisition.
Last month, the company announced that it acquired Moving Mentor, which is a “management, organization and consulting company.” Broadly, Moving Mentor helps families strategize and plan moves. It specifically tailors its services to older adults.
Best of Care provides personal home care to about 1,500 clients per week via its more than 400 caregivers. In 2018, it also began providing concierge-level care management. The Moving Mentor addition will help Best of Care stand out among its competitors, President Kevin Smith believes.
“Moving Mentor’s services will expand our reach into more homes, communities and geographies where we can provide in-home care, life-care management and planning and move management and organizing services to individuals wherever they are on the journey of aging,” Smith said in a statement.
With care management, moving logistics and in-home care capabilities, Best of Care also has the opportunity to meet potential clients further upstream. It will also continue to partner with assisted living companies, elder law attorneys, independent living communities and others, according to a press release.
“Moving is a process, not an event,” Barbara Z. Perman, the founder and president of Moving Mentor, said in a statement. “The work is not just about moving possessions but about removing burdens, easing the way to a renewed life. As part of Best of Care’s expanded services, Moving Mentor will continue helping clients and their families organize, reorganize and think through strategies that enable older adults to remain in their homes or in their preferred community.”
Home-based care startup raises $5.7M in series A
The St. Louis Park-based home-based care startup HealtheMed recently scored $5.7 million in a Series A.
The fundraising round was led by the Atlanta-based Panoramic Ventures and the Chicago-based OCA Ventures. Both also contributed to the company’s seed funding round.
Panoramic Ventures is very active in the post-acute care space, having participated in the recent and significant funding rounds of both ShiftMed and Trella Health. On its end, OCA Ventures backs a slew of digital health companies.
HealtheMed is a digital platform as well. Its core offering is Clinic@Home, which helps facilitate health care services in patients’ homes. Clinic@Home helps patients with medication reminders, vitals monitoring and access to both doctors and nurses.
The company is currently focused on Medicaid patients that are eligible for home-based care services. Right now, its network includes 180 clients, and it is hoping to increase that number to over 1,000 in the near-term future, according to COO Steve Pontius. Likewise, while the company employs 27 people now, it hopes to expand that to over 50.
“We’ve proven concept, and now it’s time to grow,” Pontius told Twin Cities Business. “We’ll see our install base of clients in the state of Minnesota grow substantially this year, and then we will start to look for other states to expand into.”
The company has raised nearly $9 million to date.
Home-based care startup gets $5.4M in seed funding
Porter, a Miami-based home care startup, has raised $5.4m in seed funding. The company primarily provides care navigation and support.
The funding round was led by Grit Capital Partners, Old Line Capital and JLC Family Office.
As part of its offerings, Porter offers in-home assessments. It delivers “a comprehensive care visit that addresses quality, risk and care gaps for at-risk Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, Commercial and ACO Members,” according to its website.
John Criswell, the founder and CEO of Porter, started the company after his own recovery journey from an injury was much tougher than he expected.
“I struggled,” he told Refresh Miami. “I was challenged with understanding speed to recovery, understanding the right treatment plan, understanding what my insurance company would support and not support. … I just said, ‘This can be solved through technology and through those clinical and non-clinical resources to help that transition to care in the home.’”
Right now, Porter is partnering with health plans to reach members in the home.
AlerisLife acquired for $44M
“Porter’s approach and innovative model really caught our attention, especially since the company achieved its early growth on a small amount of capital,” Paul Palmieri, managing partner at Grit Capital Partners, said in a statement. “Porter’s combination of care coordination, with strong data analytics and coverage insights, gives the company massive credibility with members.”
AlerisLife (Nasdaq: ALR) is being sold and becoming a private company.
The buyer is a firm majority owned and controlled by Adam Portnoy, who is also CEO of the RMR Group.
“Adam and I agree that being a privately owned rather than a publicly traded company will allow us to enhance our focus on operational excellence and put us in the best position to successfully deliver on our business and mission,” AlerisLife CEO Jeff Leer said in a letter to employees, which was included in an SEC filing related to the announcement.
The news is of note because of AlerisLife’s commitment to expanding into home-based care services. The company secured a $95 million loan in January 2022 to execute on its new strategy.
The company had also partnered with the in-home, high-acuity care enabler DispatchHealth in December of 2021.
VillageMD finalizes Summit Health-CityMD acquisition
In early January, VillageMD finalized its acquisition of Summit Health-CityMD, which was worth nearly $9 billion.
The deal was initially announced in November.
VillageMD is a value-based primary care provider. Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA) has invested over $6 billion into the company. On its end, Summit Health-CityMD is a provider of primary, specialty and urgent care.
VillageMD also has a large primary care at home unit, Village Medical at Home.
“Our new organization will continue to be patient-centered, physician-led and committed to transforming the way healthcare is delivered in the United States,” VillageMD CEO Tim Barry said in a statement. “As we combine forces, our workforce of 20,000 people will have even more expertise, tools and resources to provide the best care for our patients – whenever and wherever care is needed.”
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