In addition to covering more people than any other insurer in the US, Medicaid also covers half of all births and one-quarter of all behavioral health spending. Improving Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, is one of the best investments we can make in the health of our state.

One of the most efficient ways to achieve this improvement is by helping market-based innovations succeed and scale in the health care safety net. The CHCF Health Innovation Fund invests in emerging technology and service companies that enable payers and providers to expand access, improve quality, and lower costs for patients — in Medicaid and beyond.

Advisers

Ambar Bhattacharyya
Managing Director, Maverick Ventures
Brian Chee
Managing Partner, Polaris Partners
Martin Felsenthal
Partner, Health Velocity Capital
Chris Grant
Senior Vice President, Kaiser Permanente & KP Ventures
Anna Haghgooie
Managing Director, Sandbox Industries
Lynne Chou O’Keefe
Founder and Managing Partner, Define Ventures

Team

Melissa Buckley
Director, Innovation Fund
Hong Truong
Senior Program Investment Officer
Ella Schwartz
Senior Program Investment Officer
Hilda Martinez
Senior Communications Officer, Innovation Fund

New & Noteworthy

Publication

Technology Innovation in Medicaid: What to Expect in the Next Decade

February 2021
Manatt Health
Investing in Innovation
To learn what Medicaid innovation to expect over the next decade, Manatt Health surveyed and interviewed over 200 health care leaders across government, providers, plans, tech companies, community-based organizations, and investment firms. The paper explore the future for issues like telehealth, care coordination, social determinants of health, and behavioral health integration.
Press Release

CHCF Invests in Docent Health to Improve Maternity Care Coordination in Medi-Cal

Investing in Innovation, Maternal Health
CHCF's new program-related investment in Docent Health will help the company's technology-enabled maternity care coordination platform serve more birthing people enrolled in Medi-Cal.
Publication

Underinvested: Strategies for Supporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Health Care Venture Investment

December 2020
The West Coast Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ Innovation Studio
Investing in Innovation, Health Equity
This report outlines the latest data on the status and benefits of diversity in the venture ecosystem and summarizes existing initiatives working to increase the number of diverse funded founders and investors.
CHCF Blog

Dual Purpose: Opportunities for Technology to Help People Enrolled in Medicaid and Medicare

October 30, 2020
Melissa Buckley
Investing in Innovation
A conversation with Andrey Ostrovsky, MD, an angel investor and former chief medical officer of the federal Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services.
External Resource

Remote Patient Monitoring Innovation Challenge

The Remote Patient Monitoring Innovation Challenge sought to identify companies with scalable, effective, and culturally responsive remote patient monitoring solutions that meet the needs of safety-net patients and providers. The Challenge culminated in a virtual showcase event, where six companies presented their solutions to safety-net providers from across the country.
Publication

Innovation Landscape: Maternity Care in Medi-Cal

August 2020
Melora Simon
Investing in Innovation, Maternal Health
This paper examines the opportunities for technology-enabled innovations to improve the value and quality of the maternity care that Medi-Cal delivers.
CHCF Blog

New Federal Data Rules Loom Large

October 23, 2020
Hong Truong
Data Exchange
Many Medi-Cal plans and safety-net providers feel unprepared to comply with the new standards.
CHCF Blog

Technology’s Emerging Role in the COVID-19 Response

April 15, 2020
Melissa Buckley
Investing in Innovation, Medi-Cal, Telehealth, Workforce
Technology companies supported by the CHCF Health Innovation Fund are working on ways to harness their existing technologies to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
CHCF Blog

Concert Health Aims to Scale Collaborative Mental Health Care

January 30, 2020
Leslie Walker
Behavioral Health, Investing in Innovation, Telehealth, Workforce
Patients served by small and rural primary care physicians may benefit from a remote version of this increasingly popular model for providing mental health care.

The Portfolio of CHCF Health Innovation Fund

Docent Health

Although California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, covers one in three Californians, it pays for nearly one in two of the state’s 500,000 yearly births. Pregnant people* covered by Medi-Cal are less likely to receive timely prenatal care or comprehensive postpartum care relative to those covered by commercial insurance. They are also more diverse, with people of…
$800,000.00

Concert Health

Two in five Californians with low incomes who seek behavioral health care do not receive it. And many of those who do are likely to receive it in a primary care setting, where providers often lack the time and/or training to properly diagnose and manage mental health conditions. There are proven solutions for better integrating…
$1,000,000.00

Unite Us

Patients with unmet social needs, such as food insecurity, housing instability, and lack of transportation, tend to have worse health outcomes. As new payment models shift more responsibility for those outcomes onto payers and providers, they have become more invested in addressing patients’ social needs. However, it can be challenging for time-strapped providers to identify…
$1,000,000.00

Verato

In order to provide high-value, coordinated patient care, health care organizations must have a comprehensive and accurate view of their patients. Missing or incorrect information can result in wasted spending on duplicated tests, or worse — cause patients serious harm. A key source of incomplete patient records is poor patient identity management, the process by…
$1,000,000.00

Nomad Health

Like many states, California faces critical health workforce shortages. Employers in the safety net and in rural areas are especially hard pressed to hire talent with the diversity and skills to meet the needs of the patients they serve. They have a disadvantage from the start, because they lack the recruiting resources that large private…
$1,000,000.00

Collective Medical

CHCF is investing in Collective Medical to help providers serving Medicaid patients with complex needs to better share and act on data about those patients in real time. Successfully coordinating a patient’s care, especially if it is complex and involves numerous providers both inside and outside of the health care system, requires effective data sharing.…
$1,000,000.00
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