Enabling the future of sustainable primary care: patient-centric, longitudinal and preventative
For us, a sustainable health system is one that delivers universal access to good health outcomes at an affordable cost. Effective primary care sits at the heart of any sustainable healthcare system:
● Access: Most care episodes begin with primary care. The low cost and local nature of traditional primary care make it both a critical triage layer, and a familiar “front-door”, for patients. Yet, access is a challenge: 25% of Americans don’t have a primary care physician, and the waiting time to see one stretches into weeks or months
● Outcomes: Primary care can be proactive, dependable and personal in a way that acute episodic care is not. Increased spending on primary care is also associated with fewer emergency department visits, reduced total hospitalisations and fewer specialty interventions for chronic conditions.
● Cost: Primary care is one of the few areas in healthcare where a dollar spent upfront leads to material return on investment in avoided costs downstream: studies suggest as much as $13 in healthcare costs can be avoided through $1 spent in primary care.
Despite primary care being the “gatekeeper” for further medical spending, primary care itself is under-invested: the US spends a mere 7% of healthcare dollars directly on primary care — half the OECD average of 14%.
Independent primary care physicians provide essential community care. But, they often lack effective technology. They are also business-owners, facing complex reimbursement procedures. This status quo leads to physician burn-out, access issues and poor patient outcomes.
It’s no surprise that, today, primary care is often reactive and periodic. This is a far cry from the full potential of longitudinal, empathetic care that employs preventive and lifestyle-based treatments and help to manage co-morbidities, targeting behavioural as well as physical well-being.
Fulfilling primary care’s potential is a tall order, and we believe fit-for-purpose technology is a prerequisite for provider success.
It’s for that reason we are excited to announce our lead investment in Elation Health’s $40 million Series C.
Elation Health was founded in 2010 after siblings Kyna and Conan Fong struggled to help their father transition his solo primary care practice from paper charts to a digital system.
Primary care providers (PCPs) spend 10+ hours per day working with electronic health record (“EHR”) software. Yet, half of office-based PCPs think using an EHR actually detracts from their clinical effectiveness; 71% agree that EHRs greatly contribute to physician burnout, and 59% think EHRs need a complete overhaul.
Elation Health provides the core EHR to independent PCPs in the US. Unlike many EHRs, Elation was built specifically to support the clinical workflow. Elation’s relentless focus on independent primary care has resulted in customer Net Promoter Score of customer NPS of >60and a best-in-KLAS rating for its target segment.
Today, Elation powers 14,000 independent clinicians across the US, serving more than seven million patients across the country.
Elation is uniquely positioned to help independent providers thrive in a value-based care world and will, we believe, help them bend the cost curve while improving patient outcomes.
As well as serving thousands of small practices, Elation has partnered with primary care innovators such as Crossover Health and Cityblock Health to provide a clinical platform for technology-enabled, team-based care. Elation’s APIs and data exchange tools enable organizations to transform the patient and provider experience, and implement their own outcomes-based models of value-based care.
Impact is core to Elation’s mission. Generation believes that long-term commercial opportunity is synonymous with sustainable outcomes. We are honoured to be part of the next stage of growth for Elation Health, and look forward to partnering with Kyna, Conan and the broader Elation team.
