Independent Health announces a new Medicare Advantage transportation benefit for 2020 through a strategic partnership with SafeRide Health, a non-emergency medical transportation technology and services leader dedicated to driving healthier lives. Through this new collaboration, Independent Health is leading the way in Western New York offering an innovative, technology-forward benefit for Medicare enrollees looking for plans that make quality healthcare easier to obtain.

Mr. Frank, the chief executive of SonderMind, is a founder of the company, which was established in 2014 and runs a network of therapists. As the start-up environment shifted, he said, he moved his fund-raising plans up and lowered his company’s burn rate.

A Colorado-based company, SonderMind, seeks to take on the financial risk associated with reimbursement for mental healthcare so that therapists will be more willing to see patients using their insurance coverage.

GoCheckKids, the creators of an FDA-registered and CE certified iPhone app that screens for amblyopia in pre-verbal children used by over 4,500 pediatricians announced it has raised $6M in Series B funding led by FCA Venture Partners with participation from Dioko Ventures. The investment will be used to add artificial intelligence capabilities with Apple’s CoreML and ARKit and accelerate further electronic health record (EHR) integrations.

SonderMind Inc., a company dedicated to making behavioral health more accessible, approachable and utilized, today announced the successful completion of a $3 million Series A financing. The round was led by Diōko Ventures (managed by FCA Venture Partners), which invests in fast-growing healthcare companies and included other new investors Jonathan Bush, Crawley Ventures, Notley Ventures and Preview Ventures. In addition, existing investors Kickstart Seed Fund, Lanoha Ventures and other shareholders also participated in the Series A.

But companies like SafeRide Health, a medical transportation startup, which received a recent investment from Fresenius Medical Care, could reduce hospital admission rates among dialysis patients by preventing regular treatment from being interrupted by a lack of transportation, he said.

Based on the successful results of the pilot, CHCN expanded the eConsult service to all 500 PCPs in the network. RubiconMD charges CHCN a per-patient rate based on all the patients assigned to receive care at CHCN clinics, and PCPs may use the service as often as they wish. (The cost of the service represents less than 0.5% of CHCN’s budget for specialty services.)

Currently, CHCN providers submit an average of 100 to 125 eConsult requests per week, with dermatology being the most-requested specialty. Adoption varies widely among PCPs, and CHCN is currently focusing on accelerating adoption through a deeper integration of RubiconMD into its electronic health record system.

The fund announced today that Tim Rice, CEO Emeritus of the Moses Cone Health System, and Angela Yochem, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of Novant Health will join Diōko Ventures Advisory Board effective immediately.

Diōko Ventures announced the completion of fundraising for its first fund, Diōko Health Ventures I, L.P., on April 27, 2018. The Fund closed with $17M of committed capital and has already made investments in six portfolio companies. The fund is led by partners Matthew King, Todd Johnson and Tom Hearn. Diōko Ventures is co-managed by Nashville, TN-based FCA Venture Partners.

SafeRide Health is focused on redesigning the non emergency medical transportation experience to reduce patient risk and streamline care coordination. In this podcast interview, co-founders (and brothers) Robbins and Whit Schrader talk about how losing a friend to DUI in their teenage years got them started down the entrepreneurial path to what became Saferide.