If you or a loved one has ever had a health question or concern, you know how frustrating it can be to find a doctor to help. Even if you have insurance and know what you’re looking for, the seemingly basic task of finding the right doctor, figuring out how to contact them, and getting an appointment can be a nightmare — and can lead to delayed treatment and even higher medical bills later on. It’s a huge problem in this country, and it’s costing the healthcare system more than $2 billion every year.
Enter Ribbon Health, a NYC-based tech startup that is working to pull together all the disparate data of the medical system to help patients find the right in-network care. The company announced this week that it closed on a $43.5 million Series B round to further close what it calls the “doctor data gap,” as well as expand its already rapidly growing team. General Catalyst led the investment, along with familiar faces like Andreessen Horowitz, BoxGroup and Rock Health.
Ribbon’s API-driven platform houses provider, insurance, condition, cost and various other data points that other healthcare companies can use for their own consumer-facing services. So, for example, if a doctor has a patient experiencing joint pain and they need to refer them to a specialist for an MRI, they can use Ribbon Health to make sure they are sending them to the right place. And since it is continuously expanding and enhancing its data, Ribbon’s quality will improve over time.
“Currently, more than half the data on medical providers is incorrect. Better infrastructure powered by relevant data is a necessary foundation of next-generation healthcare solutions,” co-founder and CEO Nate Maslak wrote in a recent blog post, citing a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “Ultimately, Ribbon will become the connective tissue that allows patients to find the care they need across any touchpoint in the healthcare system.”
While important, this certainly isn’t the sexiest area of healthtech — especially when you consider the other kinds of startups this rockstar group of investors have backed recently. However, the data Ribbon is working with is often the most critical part of providing quality care at a lower cost, which is what everyone wants. And the startup has been busy as a result, growing its customer base to more than 30 healthcare organizations.
Looking ahead, Holly Maloney, a managing director at General Catalyst who will be joining Ribbon Health’s board of directors, says this company is poised to turn healthcare into a “powerful, connected ecosystem.”
“Ribbon is on a path to power the next generation of care navigation for both patients and referring clinicians,” she said in a statement. “What Ribbon Health has built is not only a leading healthcare data platform that solves the decades-old issue of not being able to easily find the highest quality and most affordable clinician, but a mission-driven culture that has set them up to scale and succeed.”
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