Could low cash prices motivate people to be healthier? Investors say yes

The American health system is good in awareness, but commitment is another story. A startup that seeks to change it collected millions of dollars on Thursday.

Digital Health App Welth closed a financing round of the C series of $ 36 million, bearing the total fundraising of the company based in Los Angeles at $ 76 million. The financing tour was led by Mercato Partners and participated in CD-Venture, Comcast Ventures, FCA Venture Partners, New York Life Ventures and Signalfire.

Currently, the health system is trying to “engage” with patients thanks to a series of unrevised and often boring awareness messages, noted the CEO of Wellth, Matt Loper.

“We are constantly told what to do by doctors and care teams, then we receive SMS reminding us of recovering our prescriptions at the pharmacy or paying our bills. Soon, we will be flooded by chatbots and IA care companions, we ask to connect.

This type of awareness does not motivate people to achieve their care goals or establish healthy habits, added Loper.

As a rule, people only interact with the health system when they feel sick or injured-this is how the country has ended up with a “disease care” system, he said. Interventions are too late, causing hundreds of billions of dollars into avoidable costs – as well as generalized human sufferings and premature death.

Wellth, which was founded in 2014, has developed a “daily care motivation platform” which gives users an enriching positive experience each day that encourages them to prioritize their health – instead of simply flooding them with awareness, said Loper.

The application motivates its members to build healthy daily habits by combining small financial incentives with personalized boost that resonates with their personal objectives. Wellth generally offers users of small cash rewards or gift cards to do things like confirming that they have taken their drugs or recording a vital sign.

These financial incentives act as an initial hook to help people regularly engage with their health, but the objective is not to pay forever users. Over time, while members form routines and know the advantages of healthier habits, external rewards are gradually offset by intrinsic motivations like feeling better or wanting to stay healthy for the family.

Wellth’s application is designed to provide daily dopamine, added Loper.

“We all know the feeling of waking up in the morning and checking Instagram or Tiktok – or search 8 hours of Netflix and think:” Where did the time go? ” The main reason why these digital experiences are so addictive is that they give us a ton of dopamine whenever we use them.

This allows Wellth to have 91% engagement rate per day – even from members of Medicare, Medicaid and non -adherent admissible doubles, said Loper. The platform has initiated more than 100,000 members to date, with more than 50 million daily behavior completed by users.

Following this sticky daily commitment, Wellth can help health plans and suppliers improve final measures. For example, Loper said that the platform has measured statistically significant reductions in hospitalization costs, emergency and global services, as well as improvement in quality key measures such as Advantage Medicare Star levels and closing rates for care differences.

Wellth is associated with health plans and risk suppliers who have a financial risk at the cost of care and quality results, he said.

“We help quantify the profitability analysis in advance of the quantity of savings and the quality that we can conduct according to their real measures. We identify exactly the cohorts of the members whose cohorts need to change their behavior to carry out the profitability analysis. Then we put our costs in danger for the conduct of this behavior and the end of the king, ”said Loper.

Investors seem to believe that the company’s dopamine model can provide healthier patients – and healthier margins.

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