Herndon, VA, Dec. 10, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) today announced that CIT GAP Funds has invested in McLean, Va.-based KinergyCare, a technology-enabled health care services company that provides a community-based care coaching and coordination solution for providers. KinergyCare believes that people play an important role in care coordination, and goes beyond just being a technology platform to offer a highly personal approach to care coordination with local community resources. KinergyCare plans to use the investment from GAP Funds to help scale distribution in Virginia and the surrounding region, as well as build out artificial intelligence (AI) and automated management aspects of the platform.

Hospitals and primary care providers excel at delivering care within their facilities, but once patients leave, many do not follow their care plan or take their medicine. This leads to complications, readmissions, and other avoidable costs for the patient. Hospitals and primary care providers want to offer care coaching and coordination, but they are unable to scale cost effectively. Medicare has defined a new reimbursement program where as many as 32 million patients are now qualified to receive continuous monthly care coordination via a fully reimbursed Community Health Worker, creating a potential $27B market. KinergyCare addresses this unmet need by combining a low-cost resource with a platform built to better track and manage patients across acute, ambulatory, and home care settings. Their human capital management platform service guides a non-clinical Community Health Worker at every step, enabling a cost-effective and scalable solution.

“The burden of managing chronic conditions and interactions with the health system falls mostly on the patient or their family caregivers. Care providers know they need to be doing more to coach and coordinate care, but are unable to effectively scale costs to deliver such a service,” said Art Spivy, CEO at KinergyCare. “At KinergyCare, we are a turn-key solution that extends the care providers’ outreach in helping patients better manage their daily health and advocate for their care, which will ultimately help avoid unnecessary doctor visits and costs. We are grateful to CIT GAP Funds for their support, which will help us bring our mission of empowering all members of the health care team including the patient and family caregivers to life.”

KinergyCare is the first platform to sufficiently lower the cost and improve ease of use to justify the wide deployment of care coordination. KinergyCare’s Community Health Workers coach patients and coordinate their care to reduce the complications and costs associated with managing patients. By utilizing a low-cost resource – non-clinical, untapped workers that only require 30 hours of online training – and engaging them as a contractor, KinergyCare is able to scale costs effectively. KinergyCare‘s smart platform analyzes patient data and then expertly guides the Community Health Worker in their patient interaction, ensuring sufficient service quality and enabling large scale deployment. The platform continues to get smarter and more efficient over time as KinergyCare utilizes AI-based analytics to personalize and automate both the patient interaction and management of the Community Health Worker.

“KinergyCare is a forward-thinking company with innovative goals that have the potential to impact a large portion of our society,” said Thomas Weithman, Managing Director of CIT GAP Funds and Virginia Founders Fund. “Their leadership team’s firsthand and deeply personal experience working with doctors, nurses, home care and long-term care facilities instils great confidence in CIT that this company will be able to establish a new standard for collaborative, patient-centric care coordination. CIT looks forward to supporting KinergyCare on their journey.”

About KinergyCare

KinergyCare is a technology-enabled health care services company providing a community-based care coaching and coordination service to care providers. KinergyCare facilitates cost-effective and efficient care through a combination of trained Community Health Workers and a smart platform that helps guide and manage the process, resulting in improved outcomes and patient satisfaction and lower costs. KinergyCare envisions a model where better health comes through collaboration and empowerment of all members of the health care team including the patient and family caregivers. For more information, please visit: http://kinergycare.com/.

About CIT GAP Funds

CIT GAP Funds makes seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology, clean tech and life science companies with a high potential for achieving rapid growth and generating significant economic return for entrepreneurs, co-investors and the Commonwealth of Virginia. CIT GAP Funds’ investments are overseen by the CIT GAP Funds Investment Advisory Board (IAB). This independent, third-party panel consists of leading regional entrepreneurs, angel and strategic investors, and venture capital firms such as New Enterprise Associates, Grotech Ventures, Valhalla Partners, Harbert Venture Partners HIG Ventures, Edison Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Intersouth Partners, SJF Ventures, Carilion Health Systems, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, and Alpha Natural Resources. For more information, please visit www.citgapfunds.org.

About the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT)

Investing for Commonwealth Growth | CIT concentrates on the early commercialization and seed funding stages of innovation, helping innovators and tech entrepreneurs launch and grow new companies, create high paying jobs and accelerate economic growth throughout the entire state of Virginia. Founded in 1985, CIT accelerates next generation technologies and technology companies through commercialization, capital formation, market development initiatives, and expansion of broadband throughout Virginia. Our programs include | CIT GAP Funds | Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) | Virginia Founders Fund | Broadband/Rural Broadband | Smart Communities | Cybersecurity | Unmanned Systems | SBIR/STTR Support (Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) & Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs) | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement. CIT’s CAGE Code is 1UP71. Contact: 2214 Rock Hill Road #600, Herndon, VA 20170 | 703.689.3000 | www.cit.org

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