Brave Health, a virtual-first behavioral health provider focused on serving Medicaid populations, is rapidly scaling since launching two years ago.
The startup nabbed $10 million in series B funding to fuel its growth and expand to 10 states.
Since launching with health plans in Florida in 2019, Brave Health now serves 65 million covered lives across 113 health plans and operates in North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, Illinois, Texas, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Alabama, along with Florida.
The funding was led by City Light Capital, Union Square Ventures and Able Partners, bringing its total funding to $20.75 million.
Today, access to basic behavioral health services for the nation’s most vulnerable populations is a public health crisis, said Anna Lindow, CEO, and co-founder of Brave Health. The percentage of psychiatrists accepting Medicaid has been cut in half in the past decade. With nearly 1 in 4 Americans now using Medicaid, this gap leaves many without access to the critical care they need.
And the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated the growing need for behavioral health services across the country. The gap between people who need services and those who are receiving services has continued to widen, especially for those with Medicaid,” Lindow said.
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Brave Health aims to “change the narrative about Medicaid-based innovation” and deliver sustainable solutions designed to improve behavioral health outcomes for millions of people, she said.
“The barrier of getting people connected to care is not trivial; it’s not as simple as, ‘If you build it they will come.’ There is complexity and nuance with how we engage people in care,” Lindow told Fierce Healthcare.
She added, “There are real and understandable hard and soft barriers that need to be taken into account and the solutions we use at Brave Health, it’s not just about delivering care, but also delivering engagement and wrap-around services. We go where patients have trust and build relationships with those entities, so we work with case managers at health plans, discharge planners at hospitals, who are helping to get people to the next stop, and then, of course, primary care and we integrate with physicians and other providers that have trust with the patient.”
Brave Health offers a virtual alternative to traditional outpatient services, such as therapy, psychiatry, case management and medication-assisted treatment, for mental health and addiction that have traditionally been hard to access in local communities. The company offers same-day assessments, reduces …….