GuideWell and Highmark Ventures Lead $35 Million Funding Round in Kidney Health Leader Healthmap Solutions

TAMPA, Fla., May 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GuideWell and Highmark Ventures lead a $35 million funding round for kidney health leader Healthmap Solutions (Healthmap), a leading NCQA accredited kidney population health management company. Previous investors Windrose, DCHP, Shulman Ventures, and management also participated.

GuideWell is the parent of Florida Blue and Triple-S Management, the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans of Florida and Puerto Rico, while Highmark and its Blue-branded affiliates cover members in Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, and New York. This investment from two prominent Blue affiliated plans casts a spotlight on a growing public health imperative, to more effectively identify and care for the 40 million people living with kidney disease in the U.S.

“Caring for members who have kidney disease is complex and costly,” said Eric Reimer, Healthmap Chief Executive Officer. “For this reason, Healthmap has built a Kidney Health Management solution to be used with our clients to deliver clinical, financial, and operational excellence.”

Reimer explained that health plans and health systems across the country are searching for a kidney solution partner because of the massive size and scale of the problem, which has been accelerated in recent years by the federal CURES Act and the “Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative” Executive Order.

Reimer added that GuideWell and Highmark Inc., who are both customers of Healthmap, conducted a comprehensive review of the kidney management market before selecting Healthmap as a partner, and later chose to invest in Healthmap. “We are honored to be selected by these distinguished health plans and receive their support of our end-to-end solution providing a unique approach for early identification and management. The entire Healthmap team looks forward to a long-term partnership that positively impacts member cost and outcomes.”

Highmark Health’s CFO, Saurabh Tripathi, said, “This partnership draws on natural synergies between Highmark and Healthmap, as we are both committed to revolutionizing healthcare delivery in the U.S. Our goal is to improve kidney care and reduce costs with new approaches to care. We are excited to work with Healthmap’s proprietary artificial intelligence to build individualized care plans at scale and partner with our network providers to enable them to be more effective and efficient in caring for these complex patients.”

Florida Blue Medicare President Kathy Feeny said, “After a year as a Healthmap client, we’ve developed a high level of confidence in their executive team and experienced first-hand, Healthmap’s early execution and ability to deliver on patient engagement, providing positive impact on clinical outcomes. Healthmap’s unique approach to kidney disease management engages with earlier stage kidney disease members and proactively partners with our provider network, helping us to make a measurable difference for our kidney disease members.”

Healthmap will use the additional investment to fuel what has been explosive growth over the past couple of years, going from 60 employees in the summer of 2020 to over 500 by the end of this year. By then, Healthmap will have more than ~150,000 members under contract across Commercial, Medicare and Medicaid lines of business. Healthmap will also continue to fund R&D initiatives that provide innovative solutions to improve CKD.

About Healthmap Solutions
Healthmap Solutions is an NCQA accredited kidney population health management company serving health plans, health systems, accountable care organizations (ACOs), and provider groups seeking a value-based solution to improve the lives of millions of Americans living with kidney disease. Using its advanced technology, predictive analytics, and clinical expertise Healthmap detects kidney disease early and recommends clinically proven interventions to delay or slow disease progression. Healthmap’s Care Navigation team works with patients and a full spectrum of providers (primary care, nephrologists, cardiologists, endocrinologists, and dialysis providers), to deliver personalized whole-person care. Our approach is to proactively plan care transitions, and optimize renal replacement therapy, with a focus on in-home dialysis treatment and transplant. This approach results in improved care, outcomes, and experience for the person living with kidney disease, while lowering total medical costs for health plans and provider groups.

About GuideWell
GuideWell Mutual Holding Corporation (GuideWell) is a not-for-profit mutual holding company and the parent to a family of forward-thinking companies focused on transforming health care. The GuideWell organization includes Florida Blue, the leading health insurance company in Florida; Triple-S Management, a leading health care services company in Puerto Rico; GuideWell Health, a portfolio of clinical delivery organizations; GuideWell Venture Group, a portfolio of companies including Onlife Health and PopHealthCare focused on creating human-first and innovative health solutions for health plans; GuideWell Source, a provider of administrative services to state and federal health care programs; and WebTPA, a market leading administrator of self-funded employer health plans. In total, GuideWell and its affiliated companies serve more than 46 million people in 45 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information, visit www.guidewell.com.

About Highmark Health
Highmark Health, a Pittsburgh, PA-based enterprise that employs more than 37,000 people who serve millions of Americans across the country, is the parent company of Highmark Inc., Allegheny Health Network, and HM Health Solutions. Highmark Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates provide health insurance to approximately 6.8 million members in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, and New York as well as dental insurance, and related health products through a national network of diversified businesses. Allegheny Health Network is an integrated delivery network comprised of 14 hospitals, more than 2,500 affiliated physicians, ambulatory surgery centers, an employed physician organization, home and community-based health services, a research institute, a group purchasing organization, and health and wellness pavilions in western Pennsylvania. Highmark Health Solutions is focused on meeting the information technology platform and other business needs of the Highmark Health enterprise as well as unaffiliated health insurance plans by providing proven business processes, expert knowledge, and integrated cloud-based platforms. To learn more, visit www.highmarkhealth.org.