If you look through the human life, you are likely to find many different patterns, but one that sticks out the best revolves around our ability to improve on a rather consistent basis. You see, no matter how far we progress, human beings will always have a shot at scaling up even further. Now, when you have such a growth-oriented setup running the show, it’s natural to also expect some notable by-products along the way. While we will end up witnessing plenty, none would turn out to be as significant as technology. Technology was a clear anomaly from the get-go because of its unprecedented skill-set. However, an even bigger reason was its reach. Unlike all the other ideas that we had stumbled upon before, technology was effectively able to impact our entire spectrum. This, of course, included an integral sector like the one of healthcare. Technology’s foray into healthcare notably came at the perfect time, as it literally saved the sphere from falling apart on the back of its obsolete methods. In fact, the link-up was so effective that it went on to upgrade the healthcare picture well beyond recognition, and one recent funding should only add to this revolution.
A San Diego-based startup, Turquoise Health has successfully secured over $20 million in Series A financing. Led by Andreessen Horowitz, the round saw further participation coming from various other names like Bessemer, Box Group, Tiger Global, and more. As a part of the agreed arrangement, a16z General Partner, Julie Yoo will also join Turquoise Health’s board of directors. Talk about how the company plans to use the newly-raised funds, it will dedicate them towards making healthcare pricing more transparent. On a granular level, this translates to an investment in its search engine software, which offers you a detailed lowdown on all the charges that are contributing to the final cost. While Turquoise’s pursuit for transparency was very much required to begin with, it is set to become even more important in the light of new price disclosure obligations that are going into effect around July 2022.
“We’re committed to a vision of the new ‘pre-revenue cycle’ where patients and payers know the costs upfront and providers become accustomed to real-time payment for shoppable services,” said Chris Severn, co-founder and CEO at Turquoise Health. “By creating a clean, easy-to-use direct contracting platform, Turquoise Health is shifting the industry’s focus towards complete financial certainty prior to care ultimately resulting in less friction between patients, providers and payers.”
