Baxter, Cardinal Health Join Mayo, Kaiser With $110 Million Stake In ‘Hospital Care At Home’ Venture

Baxter International, Cardinal Health and Global Medical Response are leading a $110 million investment into the technology company Medically Home to advance a new healthcare delivery model that delivers “advanced care” typically available inside a hospital into patient homes.

Baxter, a large maker of medical treatments and medication delivery devices, Cardinal, a global distributor of health products, and Global Medical, a provider of mobile healthcare, are the latest to invest in Medically Home. The three will get seats on Medically Home’s board and join the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente, which invested in this round and previously invested $100 million into Medically Home.

The investments help support a growing need for “flexible hospital capacity, evolving patient preferences and continued shift toward hospital care at home as hospital capacity pressures mount,” particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, the companies said Monday ahead of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

Mayo and Kaiser, which also invested an undisclosed share of the latest investment, have already providing the medical care or directing those that do provide the treatment for “high acuity patients” while Boston-based Medically Home has been providing “technology infrastructure.”

The investments come as medical care providers escalate their efforts to use the latest technology to center treatment around the patient, making sure healthcare is delivered in the right place, at the right time and in the right amount. These approaches to bring care typically available in hospital settings to provide more healthcare into patient homes took on greater meaning during the Covid-19 pandemic as cases of the virus surge and patients look for new safe and effective ways to get home-based care during the pandemic.

“The addition of these strategic national partners powerfully strengthens our logistics capability which our health system providers need to safely and reliably care for patients in their homes,” Medically Home chief executive officer Rami Karjian said. “The accelerating decentralization of high acuity care from hospitals and other institutional sites to an ever-increasing number of patient’s homes enabled by Medically Home, validates the importance of an ecosystem of health care partners working together on behalf of patients and the clinicians that care for them across the country.”

The addition of global healthcare giants like Baxter and Cardinal Health is a new wrinkle to the lineup of investors Medically Home has attracted in the last two years.

Baxter executive vice president and chief operating officer Giuseppe Accogli said the company’s investment helps advance the effort to “to transform healthcare by accelerating access to hospital-level care at home.”

“The Covid-19 pandemic reinforced the value of helping clinicians deliver the best possible care for patients at home, and we are thrilled to help Medically Home expand its unique care model while furthering innovation in digital health and monitoring technologies and solutions,” Accogli said.