Former Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services administrator Andy Slavitt is slated to head a new venture capital firm, Town Hall Ventures, which aims to invest in healthcare tech and service companies that look to help vulnerable populations.
The fund will look to invest in companies that improve care in Medicare, Medicaid, risk-based care, those that address complex conditions and the social determinants of health, according to a press release.
“As a nation we have significant health care infrastructure serving healthy populations while lower-income communities go underserved, leading to vastly poorer health outcomes. We are at the beginning of a wave of innovation serving Medicare and Medicaid populations. Town Hall is being formed to help lead this massive and necessary shift. The answers are not always traditional; they involve investments in underlying systemic issues as well as innovative approaches that improve people’s health and well-being,” Slavitt said in a press release.
Slavitt will be joined by Oxeon Holdings founder Trevor Price and Oxeon Ventures managing general partner David Whelan, the newly formed VC fund said in a press release.
“Identifying talented entrepreneurs and helping them through the painstaking process of building a great company is something we are passionate about. We believe we will see more entrepreneurs whose missions are to serve the tens of millions of people whose lives can be improved by innovations that allow them to receive the absolute best quality of care, whether being treated at home and/or in other comfortable and low-cost settings,” Price said in a prepared release.
“Our objective is to be a catalyst and investing partner to spur substantial investment and entrepreneurial commitment to the rapidly emerging opportunity to support real health care solutions for Americans all over the country. With Andy’s, Trevor’s and my personal involvement, we look forward to sparking a series of Town Hall companies over the next few years and supporting them to change health care for the better,” Whelan said in prepared remarks.
The group will also feature David Mishkin as its investment director, Natalie Davis as its ventures director and former senior advisor to CMS admin Slavitt Lauren Robb, who will act as an investment senior associate.
Town Hall Ventures announced its first investment recipients, including primary, behavioral health and human service provider Cityblock Health, chronic kidney care group Somatus, senior-care company Welbe Health and pharma analytics group Aetion.
“Without Town Hall and the resources and expertise they bring to bear, our goal of transforming care for urban and low-income populations would be moving far slower. In a short time, they have helped us roll out services in our first community, hire a first-class leadership team, and prepare ourselves for the daunting set of challenges that often substantially slow market entry in new health care organizations. As a first-time entrepreneur, Town Hall surrounded me with a group of experienced leaders and operators across regulatory, management, fundraising, and technology unparalleled in health care,” Cityblock Health CEO Iyah Romm said in a prepared statement.
