Fellows at Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics recently investigated the role of venture capital-backed startups in improving maternal healthcare.
The team, led by LDI postdoctoral fellow Madeline Perry, <a href="https://ldi.upenn.edu/our-work/research-updates/can-venture-capital-help-solve-americas-maternal-health-crisis/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>analyzed 172 pregnancy care-focused startups that raised almost $1 billion in capital over an eight-year period. In an interview, Perry discussed the project’s contribution to the study of startups in the maternal healthcare space.
Perry’s interest in maternal health startups stemmed from a desire to find “innovative solutions to problems” in healthcare. People who fall into different medical and social needs categories might need different types of healthcare and support throughout the pregnancy process, she added.
The United States has “one of the highest rates of maternal mortality” relative to other high-income countries there are additional “big disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality,” including that the rate of maternal mortality for Black women is three times that of white women in the U.S
Many startups “are trying to solve problems that we have in healthcare in ways that are not even just thinking outside of the box, but kind of ignoring the box completely.”
These companies are particularly suited to addressing gaps in maternal healthcare offerings because they offer “in-between care” which could “potentially address some issues that we know exist in the pregnancy space,” she added.
Perry characterized these startups as offering “virtual and hybrid wraparound care,” which does not replace visits to a medical professional, but supplements them.
She noted, however, that startups alone cannot address all issues with American maternal health.
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For example, less than half of the startups the team considered accepted insurance, and only 34% accepted Medicaid, according to the LDI release.
Perry explained that in order for a startup to be covered by insurance, they must come to an agreement with each individual provider.
“It’s something that they really have to invest in doing,” she said.
Health inequality poses an additional challenge that startups alone will not be able to address, Perry added, saying that “a lot of systems-level changes” need to be made to address these disparities.
Looking forward, she expressed hope that she will see more research investigating startups’ patient outcomes.
“It’s important that we know which startups are actually improving outcomes, because those are the ones that we really need to be expanding access to,” Perry said.
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