Former CoverMyMeds co-founder and CEO Matt Scantland is working on a new venture in healthtech. Yesterday, AndHealth emerged from stealth mode after the closure of more than $57 million in financing by leading technology investor Francisco Partners, with participation from the American Medical Association’s venture capital arm Health 2047, Kirkland & Ellis and Twofold Ventures.
AndHealth is led by Scantland and the team that helped grow CoverMyMeds from inception to its $1.4 billion acquisition by McKesson in 2017.
Matt Scantland, Founder & CEO, courtesy AndHealth
CoverMyMeds was one of Ohio's first and biggest startup successes. Founded in 2008 in Columbus, the healthcare software company went on to be one of the fastest growing startups in the region and became Central Ohio’s first $1B+ exit.
Now the entrepreneurial ripple effect is in full swing as the CoverMyMeds team brings AndHealth — and its mission — to life.
Virtual Centers of Excellence to Reverse Migraine and Autoimmune Diseases
As a digital health company, AndHealth is on a mission to reverse migraine and autoimmune diseases.
To do that, the company is offering a Virtual Center of Excellence (VCOE) for the reversal of migraine. Soon, AndHealth will launch an additional VCOE for autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s.
Debilitating, costly, and widely prevalent, these diseases affect around 30 million working-age people, the majority of whom are women and have suffered from a lack of good treatment options. AndHealth believes it's the first large-scale digital health company to provide medical care at the root cause for these illnesses.
“While migraine has been concealed among claims data because of its lack of accessible treatment options, it is probably the single most important lynchpin in a personalized disease reversal strategy,” Dr. Robert Sheeler said in a press release.
Dr. Sheeler is an expert in the field: he's a certified subspecialist in headache medicine and clinical leader with over 20 years at Mayo Clinic; a former migraine sufferer; and a pioneer behind a system of migraine root cause identification and reversal.
“It is considerably more prevalent than diabetes among people under 65. It is often co-morbid and therefore shares common root causes with many other high-cost chronic conditions, including diabetes. The patient’s high motivation to invest effort in reversing their migraine condition contributes to solving other chronic illnesses they face," he said.
Helping Employers Reduce Health Costs, Unlock Productivity, and Achieve DEI Objectives
The number one cause of short-term disability for most employers is migraine, causing significant loss of productivity and engagement in workforces.
“Just like the best employers recognized with mental health beginning five or so years ago, there is a growing consensus that it is now time to destigmatize migraine and improve access to care so that people can reclaim their lives from this disease,” said AndHealth CEO, Matt Scantland.
That's why AndHealth is partnering with employers and benefits brokers to offer these disease reversal programs as an employer-sponsored benefit.
A leading broker said in a press release, “Migraine is one of the most prevalent, debilitating, and poorly addressed chronic conditions. It also disproportionately impacts women and people of color in the prime of their working years. It is exciting to see AndHealth addressing this widespread problem at scale using its unique approach to personalize health interventions based on an individual’s root causes. We’re thrilled to be an early partner with AndHealth to launch their migraine reversal program with our employees.”
But AndHealth's approach isn't like the other digital health companies. Instead of focusing on digital primary care or disease management, AndHealth is built to reverse it. It's all about helping people reclaim their lives, while helping employers lower healthcare costs that are driven up by plan members with multiple chronic conditions.
In order to target reversal, the approach requires patients to participate more actively in addressing the root cause of their illness. Instead of episodic, onsite visits, AndHealth offers a continuous and virtual approach with a precision behavioral design that increases participant engagement.
Matt Scantland and the AndHealth team, courtesy AndHealth
And this approach is backed by research. A study at the University of Maryland ran a trial with chronic migraine patients who had suffered for 15 years or more. After using AndHealth's Migraine Reversal Program, 60% of users experienced improvement significant enough that they no longer met the ICHD-3 diagnostic criteria for migraine. This was a huge signal of hope for sufferers who hadn't had access to adequate treatment options.
Douglass Given, Managing Partner of Health2047 Capital Partners said, “We are delighted to participate alongside Francisco Partners in funding AndHealth. We see enormous potential in exploring new models of tech-enabled primary care delivery that increase patient access, place more emphasis on outcomes, and improve overall healthcare value.”
And that's exactly what AndHealth is all about: a commitment to whole-person healthcare and working alongside the existing healthcare system, not to disrupt it, but to transform it.
