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.

New & Noteworthy

Publication

Evaluation of Provider Experiences with eConsults

October 2019
John Snow Inc.
Telehealth, Investing in Innovation
Community Health Center Network offers its providers the option to use RubiconMD's platform to request a virtual consultation from a specialist, which can prevent both unnecessary visits and delays in patient access to specialty care. Outside evaluators documented providers' experiences and satisfaction with the platform.
CHCF Blog

Can Behavioral Health Entrepreneurs Finally Break Through?

September 20, 2019
Rachel Lee
Investing in Innovation, Behavioral Health
In 2018, health tech start-ups raised nearly $400 million in funding for technology investments related to behavioral health. In what areas are innovators making genuine progress?
Investment

Unite Us

Investing in Innovation, Data Exchange
Unite Us links providers of medical care with providers of social services, enabling communities to coordinate and collectively address patients' nonclinical needs.
Publication

Innovation Landscape: Telehealth MAT

June 2019
ST Advisors
Telehealth, Investing in Innovation, Behavioral Health
This brief provides an overview of the developing but nascent landscape of organizations using telehealth to deliver medication-assisted treatment.
Publication

Infographic: Tech-Enabled Innovation in Medicaid

July 2019
Investing in Innovation
This interactive infographic highlights the areas within Medicaid where technology-enabled solutions can have the greatest impact, according to the more than 100 stakeholders that CHCF convened through its Primed Roundtable Series.
CHCF Blog

Why CHCF Is Investing to Improve Data Exchange — Again

March 5, 2019
Hong Truong
Data Exchange, Investing in Innovation
Compiling a patient’s complete health record still requires a herculean effort involving multiple web portals, reams of data files, and, yes, fax machines. As new means of data-sharing begin to change that, the safety net should not be left behind.
Investment

Nomad Health

Investing in Innovation, Workforce
Nomad Health's online marketplace directly connects clinicians and medical employers, making recruiting and hiring less expensive and more efficient and transparent.
Investment

Verato

Investing in Innovation, Data Exchange
Verato helps health care organizations reconcile fragmented and duplicate records to create a comprehensive view of every patient’s health and history.
Publication

Promise and Pitfalls: A Look at California’s Regional Health Information Organizations

January 2019
Walter Sujansky
Investing in Innovation, Data Exchange
This report examines the various types of health information exchange resources available to provider organizations in California. It focuses on the role of nonprofit regional health information organizations and profiles the largest nine currently operating in the state.
Publication

To Switch or Not to Switch: A Guide for Community Clinics Considering Changing EHRs

May 2019
Walter Sujansky
Data Exchange, Providers
This guide will help community health center (CHC) leaders weigh the costs and benefits of remaining with their current electronic health record system (EHR) or switching to a different one. Many CHCs are considering this decision, as a shifting health care landscape requires EHRs, and the organizations that manage them, to meet increasingly robust requirements.

The Portfolio of CHCF Health Innovation Fund

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…

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

Quartet

More than two-thirds of people with mental illness also have at least one medical condition. Yet those two health issues are typically treated in separate, siloed systems that are difficult for patients to navigate and often result in fragmented care delivery. This challenge disproportionately affects Medicaid enrollees, who are more than twice as likely as…
$700,000.00

Groups

CHCF is investing in the medication-assisted treatment company Groups to provide opioid addiction treatment to rural communities in California. Access to effective addiction treatment is severely limited or nonexistent in many areas of California, particularly in rural communities with high rates of overdose deaths. Groups provides buprenorphine — an effective medication for opioid use disorder…
$1,200,000.00
View Full Portfolio

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
Tom Rodgers
SVP and Managing Director, McKesson Ventures

Team

Melissa Buckley
Director, Innovation Fund
Hong Truong
Senior Program Investment Officer
Leslie Walker
Communications Consultant, Innovation Fund
Apryl Rhinehart
Program Associate