Dive Brief:
- General Catalyst has added 10 new health system partners for health tech development and testing, including major hospital operator Universal Health Services, bringing the venture capital firm’s total roster of hospital partners to 15.
- In the partnerships, General Catalyst connects health systems to health tech startups, allowing the hospitals to try out and develop new technologies and scale existing products in exchange for the startups testing their products on the ground.
- General Catalyst’s health system partnerships now encapsulate 10% of the U.S. population, according to the VC firm. General Catalyst told Healthcare Dive it could add a few more partners before the end of the year, but will stick with that cohort until it has tangible outcomes to extend to other health systems.
Dive Insight:
General Catalyst says its goal with the partnerships is to work directly with health systems and startups to find solutions to the biggest pain points in care delivery, administration and more. The new collaborations come as hospitals continue to weather significant headwinds, like high staffing costs and volatile admissions.
General Catalyst’s new additions cover a wide variety of geographies and patient mixes, which should help it address a range of health needs, and apply that learning widely, the VC firm said in its release.
General Catalyst has added UHS, MetroHealth, UC Davis, UCI Health, Health First, Banner Health, Hackensack, The Medical University of South Carolina, OhioHealth and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
General Catalyst announced its first partnership with HCA Healthcare, the biggest for-profit hospital operator in the U.S., in August 2021. In the past year, it added Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health, Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health and Pennsylvania-based WellSpan Health, as well as its first international partnership with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, the largest academic hospital system in the U.K.
No money changes hands in the partnerships.
In the release, UHS CEO Marc Miller said UHS was “particularly focused on innovation that has the potential to enhance operations, care delivery and patient experience in both behavioral health and acute care settings.” The Pennslyvania-based operator has been looking for areas to ink joint ventures, especially around behavioral health, to drive efficiencies as expenses have skyrocketed.
In July — a little over a year after it closed its first $600 million healthcare fund — General Catalyst raised another $670 million for its healthcare fund. The VC firm’s raise comes as digital health funding cools off from pandemic highs. The downturn has contributed to a spate of layoffs at digital health companies this year.
General Catalyst’s healthcare investments include value-based provider Cityblock Health, automation company Olive, musculoskeletal care provider Sword Health, insurtech Oscar Health and chronic disease manager Livongo.
Along with building out its hospital partners, it also has a history of nabbing talent from the industry: Marc Harrison, former CEO of Intermountain, left the system this fall to run one of General Catalyst’s healthcare platform businesses.
