Hospital-At-Home Startups Medically Home And DispatchHealth To Merge

DispatchHealth and Medically Home – companies that work with health systems to provide hospital-level care at home – have agreed to merge, the firms announced Tuesday.

Financial terms of the definitive agreement weren’t disclosed though those involved said Boston-based Medically Home will become part of DispatchHealth, which is based in Denver, once the deal closes “mid-year” 2025.

The approaches of these two companies to bring high acuity care typically available in hospital settings to provide more healthcare into patient homes took on greater meaning during the Covid-19 pandemic as cases of the virus surged and patients looked for new safe and effective ways to get home-based care during the pandemic.

Now more traditional players in healthcare are realizing more care in the home is not only better for patients, but better for taxpayers, employers, governments and others picking up the tab for care. “The combined entity will extend care into the homes of patients across 50 major metropolitan areas in partnership with nearly 40 health systems, as well as most major health plans and value-based care entities,” the companies said in their statement.

“This merger unlocks a future where high-acuity care at home is the new standard,” said Dr. Mark Prather, DispatchHealth’s co-founder and executive chair of the board. “We’re combining decades of expertise to create a seamless, scalable model for hospital-level care at home—bringing the right care to the right place at the right time for more people.”

Both companies say they are growing. Medically Home, founded in 2016, said the company has “enabled hospital care at home” for more than 54,000 patients across 20 healthcare systems since 2017. Medically Home investing partners include the Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente and the Cleveland Clinic.

Last year, Medical Home said it had “more than 60% growth in in-patient admissions and fulfilled more than 205,000 physician orders for patients in a Medically Home-enabled hospital at home program.”

Meanwhile, DispatchHealth, which was founded in 2013, said it has treated more than 1.2 million people in more than 20 states “resulting in 58% emergency room avoidance; 8.5% 30-day hospital readmission rate; 98% patient satisfaction rating; and an estimated $1.5 billion in medical cost savings.”

“For many patients, the best hospital bed is the one at home,” said Medically Home CEO Graham Barnes. “By joining forces with DispatchHealth, we’re creating a stronger, more integrated model that will enable more patients, providers, and health systems to embrace high-acuity home-based care with confidence.”