Quartet Health Inc. raised $60 million in a funding round that was led by the Philadelphia-based insurance company Independence Health Group.
The New York City-based behavioral health technology company announced Thursday that existing investors GV and Oak HC/FT also joined the round, which brings the total amount raised to $222 million since 2014.
The new funding is intended to help Quartet Health expand its capabilities, according to a news release. It presently works with insurance plans and health care systems in 14 states and by the end of 2022, hopes to provide connections to behavioral health in 30 states, according to a representative of the company.
Quartet Health employs about 250 people and seeks to act as the virtual front door to behavioral health. Specifically, it uses technology to help patients and referring primary care providers get connected to behavioral health providers.
This technology includes “SmartMatch” capabilities that are enabled by data and analytics to help patients find behavioral health care that matches their needs and preferences. It also tracks the patient’s care experience.
Independence Health Group CEO and President Gregory Deavens will join the Quartet Health board of directors as a result of the investment.
The investment round is a continuation of Quartet Health’s collaboration with Independence Health Group, which is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
In February the companies announced that Independence would help Quartet launch in Southeastern Pennsylvania and better connect primary care and behavioral health.
That partnership has seen 1,100 mental health and primary care clinicians in Southeastern Pennsylvania sign up for the Quartet platform and more than 2,500 members connect to Quartet.
In a blog penned on Medium, Quartet Health CEO Puneet Singh said the company has connected with 300,000 patients across Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and commercial insurance plans as they seek mental health care.
He said the company’s “future path” will focus on four areas:
First, the company will seek to enhance its ability to proactively identify those with untreated mental illness and add additional means of engaging with those patients through case managers, specialists and direct patient sign-up.
Second, Quartet Health will enhance the speed of connecting patients to mental health by improving its ability to aggregate mental health providers across care and insurance types. It will also continue to improve and invest in “SmartMatch.” Also, Quartet will invest in expanding Independent Health Group’s mental health care provider network, according to the news release.
Third, the company will continue to identify and track the treatment of people with unaddressed conditions to improve the Quartet algorithms and enable value-based care payment models.
Fourth, Quartet will expand its ability to serve additional conditions and additional populations such as pediatrics and young adults.
“We know that by working as an integrated part of the mental health care industry and by supporting patients longitudinally across the care journey, patients will experience improved speed to mental health care, a more streamlined experience, better outcomes, and lower costs,” Singh said in the blog post.