Harbor Well being, an Austin, Texas-based major and specialty care clinic group and medical insurance firm, has acquired dementia care platform Rippl.
Rippl’s dementia care platform is constructed to assist seniors residing with dementia stay at dwelling and out of the emergency division, hospital, and post-acute settings.
The acquisition advances Harbor Well being’s technique to develop its condition-focused care pathways and strengthen the corporate’s built-in mannequin, which mixes experience in persistent situation administration and entry to coordinated, inexpensive medical insurance.
Harbor stresses that providing care and protection mixed permits suppliers to take higher care of individuals by each step of the well being journey, higher aligning insurance coverage advantages with the proper care.
As a part of the deal for an undisclosed sum, Rippl’s buyers are making a brand new dedication to the mixed firm. Key buyers embody Kin Ventures, ARCH Enterprise Companions, Basic Catalyst, GV (Google Ventures), F-Prime Capital, JSL Well being, and Mass Basic Brigham Ventures.
Harbor Well being was co-founded by Clay Johnston, Ph.D., M.D., M.P.H., who beforehand served because the inaugural dean of the College of Texas at Austin Dell Medical Faculty. In a December 2024 interview with Healthcare Innovation, Johnston described his formidable objectives:
“What we’re making an attempt to do is create the entire working system. Presently, all the pieces works on charge for service, and there is the RVU system that form of drives clinician habits, and there are copays, coinsurance, deductibles,” he stated. “What we’re making an attempt to do is rebuild all of that stuff to alter the underlying incentive constructions and working system in order that it then can develop into extra simply exportable.”
In October 2024, Healthcare Innovation interviewed Rippl Co-founder and CEO Kris Engskov in regards to the alternative for value-based fashions in dementia care. On the time, the Seattle-based firm had lately raised $23 million in Collection A capital to fund its multi-state enlargement.
A former Starbucks govt, Engskov mentioned Rippl’s founding and participation within the CMS Innovation Middle Guiding an Improved Dementia Expertise (GUIDE) Mannequin, which has 390 taking part organizations constructing dementia care applications to serve a whole lot of hundreds of individuals with Medicare nationwide.
“We’ve all the time understood knowledgeable dementia care works greatest when it’s deeply built-in with major care, and we’re excited to see Harbor Well being scale this platform as a part of its broader effort to ship condition-focused care and higher outcomes whereas dramatically decreasing pointless prices,” Engskov stated in an announcement.
The acquisition additionally expands Harbor Well being’s providers into the Florida market. Following its 2025 acquisition of 32 VillageMD clinics, Harbor Well being stated it continues to develop its evidence-based care pathways. The dementia care program can be obtainable to individuals receiving care at Harbor Well being and VillageMD areas in Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and El Paso. As well as, Rippl providers will proceed to be offered to Medicare Benefit members in addition to seniors coated by conventional Medicare by CMS’ GUIDE program.
“Integrating Rippl’s dementia platform into our increasing library of condition-focused care pathways offers our well being groups one other highly effective device to handle advanced well being wants,” stated Tony Miller, Harbor Well being co-founder and CEO, in an announcement. “As our well being plan membership grows quickly, these pathways are important for maintaining protection extra inexpensive and taking higher care of individuals. That’s our precedence.”
