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

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.
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.
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.
CHCF Blog

Putting Prescription Refill Automation Tech to the Test in the Safety Net

April 17, 2019
Seth Emont
Investing in Innovation
The average physician receives 10 to 25 prescription refill requests per day, contributing to a growing administrative burden — especially in under-resourced safety-net institutions. A tech solution helped two California health centers.
Project

Primed: A Roundtable Series on Tech-Enabled Innovation in Medicaid

Investing in Innovation
The Primed Roundtable Series was a unique effort to foster constructive conversations about the opportunities and challenges facing those implementing, funding, and scaling solutions in their states’ Medicaid delivery systems.
Project

Opportunities for Emerging Technologies in the Medicaid Market

Medi-Cal, Telehealth
Despite being the nation's largest health insurer, Medicaid remains largely overlooked by investors and entrepreneurs. Learn more about the myriad opportunities for innovation within this market.

The Portfolio of CHCF Health Innovation Fund

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

RubiconMD

CHCF invests in RubiconMD, which connects primary care providers to specialists via electronic consultations, enabling timely, expert clinic advice. Specialty care is in short supply throughout California, and statewide data show that Medi-Cal enrollees are twice as likely as those with employer-based health insurance to report difficulty seeing a specialist. Barriers to accessing specialty care…
$750,000.00
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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