World Class Health Secures $8M in Seed Funding to Expand Concierge Health Benefit with the largest Global Centers of Excellence network

World Class Health's pioneering benefit has achieved a stellar 1.6% readmission rate and delivered a 90+ NPS from nearly 4,000 patients over 10 years, with clinical prices up to 50-70% below carrier rates for costly procedures like musculoskeletal, cardiac, cancer, IVF, and gender affirmation.

NEW YORK, Nov. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- World Class Health, the largest Global Centers of Excellence (COE) and Concierge Health benefit that provides employees and their families access to the top 1 percent of hospitals and doctors worldwide, today announced an $8M seed round led by AlleyCorp with participation from LifeX, Joyance, Cooley & Co, City Light, Vivek Garipalli (Founder and Executive Chairperson of Clover Health), and Munjal Shah (Co-Founder & CEO of HippocraticAI.com). The company's unique benefit offers top-tier surgical care at a fraction of the cost.

Employers bear the responsibility for providing access to high-quality, cost-effective healthcare to all their employees, but there are major cost, quality and access barriers for their employees within the US and around the world.

1. On Costs, US employers spend approximately $800 billion annually on healthcare but are paying US hospitals nearly three times Medicare rates for the same services, with a 7.7 percent increase in 2025, and regional variations over 100 percent. When hospital prices increase by 5%, it causes hundreds of job losses at each company. The majority of employees have to pay co-insurance of about 20 percent, which can mean $5,000 to $10,000, resulting in 40 percent of employees deferring care, causing worsening of the condition, absenteeism, productivity drops, and disability claims.
2. On Quality, employers currently struggle to secure clinical outcome data from their commercial insurance carriers, with readmission rates upwards of 20 percent for bottom decile hospitals and surgeons. Additionally, medical errors are estimated to cause over 250,000 deaths and result in 795,000 cases of permanent disability or death annually in the US.
3. On Access, there is a looming shortage of up to 30,200 surgeons forecast by 2034 out of 150,000 current surgeons in the US, and nearly 1 million nurses out of 5 million expected to exit the workforce by 2027. Similarly, Europe faces a projected shortfall of 4.1 million healthcare workers, including nurses and physicians, by 2030 out of an estimated 18 million currently employed. Hospital monopolies and deserts restrict access and increase wait times across countries in which large employers have significant populations: in the UK, 1.75 million had waited over 6 months and 300,000 patients had waited over a year for a hospital procedure. Beyond the US and Europe, many global populations of the world's largest companies do not have equitable access to experienced surgeons, IVF treatments, advanced cancer therapeutics like CAR-T, and gender affirmation care.

"I've cared for patients for more than 20 years. Too often, I've heard that healthcare is unaffordable, difficult and confusing to access, and doesn't result in the expected clinical outcomes," said Kumar Dharmarajan, MD, Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, World Class Health. "I believe in a world where patients can get access to the best doctors without having to jump through hoops and get this care without having to pay a single cent out of pocket. I know this is possible because we've already helped nearly 4,000 patients do just that, and we've generated exceptional clinical outcomes and dropped 30-day readmission rates to 1.6% versus the national average of 4.5%"

To tackle these challenges, employers and insurers in the US have increasingly embraced COEs over the past decade. World Class Health enhances this model by tailoring its approach to the specific needs of employers that have a global supply chain and employee base. Through its holistic approach, World Class Health's benefit can deliver up to 50 percent hard savings on surgeries and specialty pharmaceuticals and can guarantee a 5 percent overall decrease in a large employer's medical expenses with no co-pays for employees¹. With concierge-level patient navigation services that exceed the standard offerings of traditional insurance carriers, World Class Health has successfully coordinated cross-border care for nearly 4,000 patients, delivering a 90+ NPS and 90+ percent CSAT experience.

"Our vision is to make the world's best doctors accessible to employees at the world's best companies as a Global Concierge Health Benefit", said Sid Nambiar, Founder and CEO, World Class Health "We make it simple and easy for employees to navigate to the best provider for them and their families, at a location of their choice with the largest global network. We want World Class health to be such good value with regard to clinical quality, employee NPS and prices, that it would be irresponsible for employers not to offer this benefit.". 

As a pioneer of the first Global Concierge Health Services benefit with Global Centers of Excellence, its benefits include:

• The largest Global Excellence Network: Employers and their employees can access the largest global network of the top 1% providers in the world, including several members of the Newsweek World's Best Hospitals. The vast majority are accredited by Joint Commission International recognized for surpassing industry quality benchmarks for patient safety. The network includes highly experienced and credentialed providers across specialities like Musculoskeletal, Bariatric, Cancer, Cardiac, Cell & Gene Therapy, Fertility, and Gender Affirmation. The network already has Centers of Excellence contracted across North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia.
• Prices across the World Class Health network are typically at Medicare level or lower. For example, there are over a million hip and knee replacements in the US each year, with the clinical costs for the top 10 percent priced around $80,000, the average around $40,000, and World Class Health comparable clinical costs at $12,000. The company commit to savings of $2MM for 10,000 employees.
• High-touch Care Navigation and Recovery: Employees receive personalized care navigation with a dedicated coordinator who guides patients from diagnosis to recovery with hours of personalized support from a dedicated nurse. Employees also get a 7-day recovery package with their support person at a hotel next door to the hospital, enabling nurse and physiotherapy visits to maximize rest and recovery.
• Travel Concierge Services: World Class Health handles everything from flights and accommodations to transportation and onsite coordination, so traveling globally is simplified.

"Global Healthcare Centers of Excellence (COEs) offer a value-driven solution to help employees and their families access high-quality and affordable care," explains Rob Andrews, CEO of the Health Transformation Alliance (HTA). HTA is focused on solving healthcare and benefit issues for over 60 global employer partners, representing more than 5 million employee lives. "Transparent and predictable costs, combined with comprehensive clinical and administrative patient support, ensure patients receive excellent value and health outcomes."

Employers can sign up at www.WorldClassHealth.com and within 30 days, launch the Global Concierge benefit at any time during the year, as it extends their network and doesn't require a change in benefit design. Employees are given access to a portal where they can learn more about the benefit, including procedures, doctors and prices, and speak with a dedicated nurse navigator who will stay with them throughout their episode of care, helping coordinate with the care team including the Surgeon and Concierge.

"World Class Health has the potential to help millions of people worldwide access better and more affordable healthcare," said Dr. Omar Njie, M.D., Principal at AlleyCorp. "By scaling high-quality, cross-border healthcare solutions, and making them more readily available for global organizations, World Class Health is able to better address the complex needs of patients and employers alike."

World Class Health's leadership team consists of senior leaders from the Healthcare industry. Sid Nambiar, CEO, previously held a number of senior roles over a decade at Amazon including Director - International Health. Dr Kumar Dharmarajan, Chief Medical Officer, was Chief Scientific Officer at Clover Health and Professor at Yale University. Peter Doumas, Chief Revenue Officer, was previously VP - National Key Accounts at Progyny and Anthem. Nikia Glapa, SVP - Network was previously Director of Provider Networks at UnitedHealth's Optum. Dr Wendy Smith, SVP - Consultant Relations was previously SVP - Aon Health Solutions. World Class Health was CoFounded by Dave Guilmette, CEO Alight and CEO Aon Health, Dr Kumar Dharmarajan and Siddharth Nambiar.

For more information, visit https://worldclasshealth.com/ 

ABOUT WORLD CLASS HEALTH:
World Class Health is a leading provider of innovative healthcare solutions for self-funded employers and their employees. Through a global network of top-tier providers representing the top 1% worldwide, we provide accessible, high-quality care focused on improving outcomes, enhancing patient experience, and ensuring cost transparency. Our Global Concierge Health Services provides access to elite providers, comprehensive care navigation, and full-scale travel concierge services, ensuring world-class care anytime, anywhere. Learn more at worldclasshealth.com.

SOURCE World Class Health