Aligned Marketplace Launches to Make Advanced Primary Care More Accessible to Employers

The company closed a $8 million seed investment co-led by A* Capital and Maverick Ventures

PARK CITY, Utah, April 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Aligned Marketplace, a membership to a national network of value-based advanced primary care for employers, today announced it raised $8 million in a seed funding round led by A* Capital and Maverick Ventures, with participation from Box Group, EPIC Ventures, Liquid2 Ventures, SV Angel, and other angel operators.

Founded in 2023, Aligned Marketplace provides personalized primary care to America's workforce through a curated network of independent, advanced primary care providers across the U.S. The growing network includes a diverse set of in-person and virtual advanced primary care options, with over 3,000 advanced primary care clinics nationwide. The founding team is comprised of Patrick Nelli, Crystale Dunn Lapham, Taylor Larsen, Peter Monaco and Alex Wess. Collectively the founding team has decades of varied and complementary experience across value-based care, primary care, data & analytics, and employee engagement at respected organizations like Health Catalyst, Aledade, Premise Health, T-Mobile, and Liberty Mutual.

Over the last two decades, employees have lost their strongest ally in the healthcare system; their primary care provider.  Primary care relationships have been declining – a trend that has only been exasperated by COVID-19 – with only 8% of Americans participating in a preventative visit with the same primary care provider three years in a row⁽¹⁾. Aligned Marketplace helps the American workforce and their family members to find and form long-lasting, high-quality primary care relationships and lowers the cost for members to access these groups. Aligned Marketplace connects members with the advanced primary group that best suits their individual needs. Advanced primary care group recommendations are personalized to the individual member based on a number of factors including: location, patient reviews, culturally competent care, virtual support options, and mental health and physical therapy integration in the care model, among others.

"We are excited to bring members of employer health plans their strongest ally in the healthcare system: an accessible, aligned primary care provider who can be a trusted advocate for the member. We believe this relationship is key to increasing America's healthspan and lowering total medical costs for employers," said Patrick Nelli, CEO and Founder of Aligned Marketplace.

Advanced primary care has been proven to significantly increase the quality of care, enhance patient experience, and reduce employer total medical costs by 15%+⁽²⁾. Despite these outcomes, it has historically been difficult for employers to purchase advanced primary care given the geographic fragmentation and complexity of managing value-based payments. Aligned Marketplace solves these problems with its curated marketplace, providing one contract for employers to enable their employees to access numerous advanced primary care groups while only paying for advanced primary care if medical cost savings are generated through high-quality care. 

Aligned Marketplace has signed up multiple employers and recently went live with advanced primary care groups and a publicly-traded employer in the healthcare industry with several thousand plan members across the country. Dozens of advanced primary care groups are working to join the marketplace, with groups like Aledade, Carbon Health, knownwell, Marathon Health, Next Level Medical, Nice Healthcare, Rezilient Health, Spora Health, Visana, and Wellvana already onboard.

"Aledade and its partner practices have successfully driven $100's of millions of total cost-of-care savings through high-access and high-quality care for all types of patients. We are excited to partner with Aligned Marketplace so that America's workforce can better access the country's best independent advanced primary care groups," said Farzad Mostashari, MD, CEO and Co-Founder of Aledade. 

Jeff Wells, MD, CEO and Co-Founder of Marathon Health, noted: "Marathon Health has provided employers high-quality primary care for decades, and our new partnership with Aligned Marketplace supports our rapidly expanding national footprint of owned near-site employer health centers. This exciting opportunity will help us reach more geographically dispersed employees and improve health outcomes."

"We are big believers in the power of primary care to drive value to employers. Aligned Marketplace's model creates a win-win-win for employers, employees, and providers," said Ambar Bhattacharyya, Managing Director at Maverick Ventures. "Patrick and the leadership team have years of experience in healthcare and are uniquely positioned to connect employers to higher quality care."

For more information, please visit https://www.alignedmarketplace.com/

About Aligned Marketplace

Aligned Marketplace is dedicated to increasing America's healthspan. Our vision is to provide 100M+ American employees and their families with an affordable, accessible, and high-quality primary care experience. We offer self-insured employers access to a curated network of value-based, independent advanced primary care across all geographies in the US. By doing so, we aim to enhance healthcare quality, increase health equity, significantly improve patient satisfaction, and reduce overall healthcare costs. To learn more, visit us at: www.alignedmarketplace.com

(1) *Definitive Healthcare: How likely are patients to switch primary care providers?: https://www.definitivehc.com/resources/white-papers/switch-primary-care-providers
(2) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2765201

SOURCE Aligned Marketplace