Patina Aims to Profoundly Improve the Healthcare and Aging Experience for People 65+ by Reinventing Primary Care; Announces $50 Million Series A Financing
Patina’s personalized experience is built around the unique needs, values and preferences of older adults. To make care more convenient, accessible and highly scalable, the model will be home-based and virtual.
PHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER 26, 2021 — Patina Health Inc. (PatinaTM) came out of stealth today to announce its Series A financing and the creation of a new model of primary care, in collaboration with Patina Medical Group, to profoundly improve the healthcare and aging experience for adults 65 and older. Dedicated, multidisciplinary care teams will take the time to build trusted, ongoing relationships with older adults, supporting their unique and changing physical, emotional and social needs so that they can live their best lives and maintain independence. In-home and virtual primary care services will launch in early ’22, in partnership with select Medicare Advantage health plans, at no additional cost to participants.
“Older adults are often overlooked by a society that values ‘young over old,’” said Patina CEO Jack Stoddard. “As we become older, we all deserve a better care experience that sees us, understands us and accepts our role in guiding our own care so we can live our fullest lives. That kind of model doesn’t exist in healthcare today, so we’re building it. The current system is built around hospitals and clinics at the center, resulting in a production model of short, episodic and transactional office visits, which doesn’t meet the unique needs of older adults.
“That’s why we spent the last year-and-a-half conducting research and applying human centered design principles to build Patina directly from the perspective of older adults,” added Stoddard. “We’ve gathered invaluable feedback from hundreds of people over 65 and their loved ones to better understand their experiences, frustrations and underlying needs. We’ve assembled an amazing team of mission-driven people, designed the core processes and architected the underlying technology to enable this new care experience. We’ve also secured a great syndicate of investors backing our Series A financing so that we can begin serving people and prepare to scale our solution nationally.”
Led by a primary care physician, each person’s Patina Care Experience Team also includes a nurse practitioner, a health champion and other specialized team members, including behavioral health, pharmacists, geriatricians, chronic condition specialists, logistics specialists and others as needed. This interdisciplinary team works closely together to build trusted relationships with the individuals served, understand their goals and help coordinate all aspects of care, including specialist care with existing or new providers. The same care team will also engage and support the individual’s trusted network of family, loved ones or caregivers.
“Our very name ‘Patina’ is the recognition of a certain beauty that emerges over time,” said Patina Chief Health Officer Neil Patel, M.D. “By starting over and reimagining primary care, we’re building an experience for people that recognizes their beauty and wisdom and cultivates their leadership in how they want to age and how they want to experience life. People light up when you truly listen to their stories and show them that you care about all aspects of their well-being, not just their physical health. We’re focused on establishing trusted, healing relationships with patients so they know we see and understand them, and that we will stay with them on their journeys over time.”
In a recent national study of nearly 1,000 older adults and caregivers, conducted by Deft Research, nearly 60 percent of older adults and 85 percent of caregivers said they found the Patina care experience appealing. Attributes of the Patina model rated highest across both groups of study participants included: a primary care team tailored to my health and wellness needs, a dedicated care team to advocate on my behalf and coordinate care, a team that takes the time to know me and the ease of having one place to go for all health needs. In addition, the convenience of care delivered in the home was ranked especially high among “caregiver” respondents.
“These research findings validate my own experience as both a primary care provider and a caregiver to my father,” added Dr. Patel. “All older adults deserve this kind of experience, but their adult children, spouses, relatives and friends are often the invisible backbone helping them to thrive in health or illness. Despite their importance, caregivers often go unrecognized as an integral part of the care team. Patina is built to recognize their value and serve their needs together with the patient.”
Patina will be focused on delivering a high-value experience that improves satisfaction, increases clinical quality and lowers the total cost of care. The company’s model is enabled by a technology and analytics platform purpose-built for supporting older adults, including a mobile app to facilitate real-time information sharing and virtual visits across the care team.
Patina has raised a total of $57 million from leading healthcare investors Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and GV (formerly Google Ventures), who co-led the Seed and Series A rounds, as well as F-Prime, Rock Springs Capital, Viking Global Investors and others.
“Integrating home-based and virtual care is a critical aspect of healthcare delivery that meets the needs of today’s patients,” said Dr. Krishna Yeshwant, Managing Partner at GV. “We’re thrilled to work with Jack and the entire Patina Health team as they work towards a vision of modern primary care for a maturing population.”
“We’re excited to be backing Jack and his incredible founding team as they bring to market a new kind of primary care for seniors,” added Julie Yoo, General Partner at a16z. “Patina is poised to take advantage of the rapidly growing opportunity set around virtual-first care models for those who prefer to age in place.”
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About Patina: Patina is reinventing primary care from the ground up to provide the healthcare and aging experience that older adults and their loved ones deserve. Each person we serve gets a dedicated care team built around them and comprised of primary care clinicians, a health champion and behavioral health and other specialists – all enabled by purpose-built technology and analytics. The team meets people on their terms, with comprehensive and convenient in-home and virtual care options that eliminate the frustration of rushed and transactional office visits. We take the time to see each individual, understand their values and preferences, build trusted relationships and stay with them over time as their needs change. As a value-based primary care model, we are focused on delivering a high-quality, high-value experience to the people we serve, not on the volume of patients served. We will share risk and accountability for outcomes with our strategic Medicare Advantage health plan partners.. The company is backed by leading investors Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), GV (formerly Google Ventures), F-Prime, Viking Global, Rock Springs Capital and others.
Note: Patina Medical Group, PC (“PMG”) is a virtual and home-based medical practice that provides clinical services to members of certain Medicare Advantage plans. PMG has a contract with Patina Health, Inc. (“Patina”), a Delaware corporation, to provide administrative and management services to handle PMG’s day-to-day business operations and provide non-clinical quality assurance assistance. In addition, Patina augments and supports the care PMG provides to its patients by providing PMG with advanced information technology, products and population health analytics. Patina does not exercise control of or influence PMG’s treatment of its patients; PMG has exclusive authority over its practice of medicine.
Contacts:
Betty Nelson
Patina
215.290.7823
Rob Cronin
120/80
917.414.5289