NEW YORK, Oct. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oshi Health, the virtual specialty care company transforming gastrointestinal (GI) health outcomes and economics, today announced a $23 million Series A funding round from leading healthcare venture capital funds and individual investors who are trailblazing the next frontier of modern healthcare.
The funds will be used to rapidly scale Oshi Health’s groundbreaking virtual-first, integrated approach to GI care delivery. Oshi Health’s evidence-based, whole-person care protocols can diagnose patients and provide treatment, including often-neglected dietary and psychosocial interventions. The company’s virtual, continuous care model is improving medical outcomes and quality of life for members, while lowering costs for employers and healthcare consumers.
Flare Capital Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Frist Cressey Ventures co-led the round with a strategic investment from CVS Health Ventures. Takeda Digital Ventures, which has funded the company since its inception, participated in the round along with several noteworthy health industry veterans, including author and athenahealth cofounder Jonathan Bush, Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg of Operator Partners and Flatiron Health, serial healthcare entrepreneur and IBD patient advocate Eric M. Stone, and Russell Glass the CEO of Headspace Health.
“Stigmatized GI conditions affect tens of millions of people, causing unnecessary suffering and billions of dollars in avoidable spending,” said Oshi Health CEO Sam Holliday. “We have completely redesigned GI care delivery with our integrated, virtual-first model to address two core tenets: increasing access to the care that solves the patients’ needs and lowering the total cost of care for patients and purchasers. We are thrilled to join forces with this stellar group of healthcare investors to aggressively scale delivery of our life-changing, value-based care.”
New Model for Delivering Care
Oshi Health has redesigned GI care for the modern world, filling the significant gaps in diagnosis and evidence-based therapies that traditional GI practices are not structured or incentivized to provide.
In a transformational and high-touch 3- to 6-month program, an integrated Oshi Health care team will diagnose symptoms, identify triggers and guide patients to achieve lasting symptom relief. Long-term, Oshi Health remains a first line of support when questions arise or symptoms flare, helping avoid ER visits and expensive escalations in medication, testing and procedures.
“Americans deserve powerful virtual care solutions like Oshi Health that can augment traditional healthcare approaches for chronic conditions,” said Senator Bill Frist, co-founder and partner at Frist Cressey Ventures. “We are energized and inspired by their mission, and believe their team and approach are primed to constructively shape the future of GI health and of medical care broadly.”
GI Health: The Silent Epidemic
Digestive health issues are shockingly prevalent with one in five working-age adults suffering from a diagnosed GI condition, and many more living with undiagnosed or untreated illness.
“GI is a massive and woefully underserved patient population, and a category marked by enormous spending and unsatisfactory care. Payers are seeing GI as a top-three specialty care cost category, and employers continue to pay more each year for GI care with little evidence of improved outcomes,” said Michael Greeley, co-founder and general partner, Flare Capital Partners. “We were drawn to Sam and the Oshi Health team and its redesigned GI care model. There is great urgency to address this market opportunity and unmet need. Oshi Health is poised to become the center of excellence for GI care.”
“One of the largest cost drivers in healthcare is spend associated with gastrointestinal disorders. It manifests through specialty drug spend, repeated ER visits, unnecessary scopes, and lower workplace productivity and impairment. As a result, health plans and employers are starting to look for care options,” said Steve Kraus, partner, Bessemer Venture Partners. “Oshi Health offers an integrative model to support GI patients across every step of their journey, whereas before, it was such a disparate and dissatisfying experience.”
Oshi Health’s proven approach to diagnosing and treating these disorders is guided by a GI-specialized, multidisciplinary care team that includes a gastroenterologist, GI provider, registered dietitian, GI specialized psychologist and a health coach. Care is coordinated, continuous and convenient for the patient -- with high-touch support that leads to significant and sustainable symptom improvement and control, and a care experience that patients love.
Read more from Oshi Health’s full lineup of investors on the future of healthcare and the need to improve medical and economic outcomes for GI health in this blog post: https://oshihealth.com/blog/2021/10/09/investor-viewpoints/.
About Oshi Health Inc.
Oshi Health is a completely redesigned gastrointestinal care experience. Its virtual, patient-centered care delivery model is built to provide diagnosis and multidisciplinary care for GI conditions, and to empower people to gain significant and lasting control of their symptoms and improve their quality of life. Oshi Health works with innovative employers and health insurance partners to scale access to their employees and members as a covered benefit, in turn, reducing overall healthcare cost and improving productivity in life and at work. Oshi Heath was launched in 2020 to improve the lives of people with gastrointestinal diseases. For more information, visit www.oshihealth.com.
Media Contact
Stephanie Hicks
Cosmo Public Relations, Inc for Oshi Health
805/295-9455
stephanie@cosmo-pr.com
