NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nashville-based 180 Health Partners announced today that it raised an $8 million Series B financing round led by Spring Mountain Capital to accelerate its plans for national expansion. 180 Health Partners is a hybrid provider company that provides immediate and realistic accessibility to medical and behavioral health care with comprehensive social determinants of health stabilization to pregnant mothers caught up in the nation’s opioid crisis. The company provides comprehensive services to these mothers to stabilize their lives and give birth to healthy babies. Existing investors Frist Cressey Ventures, Resolute Venture Partners and Altitude Ventures, also participated in the round.
The opioid epidemic has risen to unprecedented levels in the United States. Though some regulatory actions have been taken to manage the crisis, the number of Americans dependent on a substance is staggering. According to the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, more than 20.5 million Americans were living with a substance use disorder in 2015.
The rise of the opioid crisis is accompanied by an increase in the rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a costly post-natal condition where newborns who were exposed to opioids during pregnancy experience painful withdrawal symptoms, including central nervous and gastrointestinal issues as well as increased long-term behavioral and medical risks. According to the National Institutes of Health in 2012, a baby is born with NAS nearly every 25 minutes in the United States.
Several states are also reporting more children being diagnosed with NAS than with autism and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 80 percent of American babies born with NAS are covered by Medicaid. 180 Health Partners works with health plans to provide opioid dependent mothers with a comprehensive care team to resolve the socio-economic, behavioral and medical challenges these mothers face. Through 180 Health Partners, opioid dependent mothers have access to a peer advocate, an addiction counselor and social worker, a nurse, and a resource advocate. The company’s solution meaningfully reduces the incidence, or severity, of opioid dependent births and significantly reduces the overall cost of care.
“180 Health Partners is providing an essential solution to this difficult-to-serve population,” said Jamie Weston, Managing Director at Spring Mountain Capital. “They have developed a care model addressing an unmet need that is enthusiastically embraced by patients, providers and insurance plans. We are excited to partner with 180 Health Partners to accelerate its path to market and help fulfill its mission.”
180 Health Partners has primarily served patients throughout Tennessee and is currently contracted with all the Medicaid health plans in the state. With this round of funding, the company will launch its program in other states with similar critical need.
“We chose to partner with Spring Mountain Capital after a competitive fundraising process because they are a proven value-add investor,” said Justin Lanning, CEO of 180 Health Partners. “This new capital will accelerate the launch of our care model nationwide, and the addition of Jamie Weston to our board of directors will further strengthen our leadership team.”
Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D., who serves on the 180 Health Partners board, added, “By providing comprehensive care to opioid-dependent expecting mothers, with each patient we touch we not only change one life but two. This funding will provide widespread access to the program, giving us the ability to impact many more lives.”
About 180 Health Partners
Nashville-based 180 Health Partners deploys teams of experienced counselors, social workers, nurses, and peer support specialists who partner with qualified providers, health plans and their expecting mothers to stabilize all aspects of their lives and support their goals for themselves and their babies. 180’s cross-functional care teams provide personalized engagement and care plans for expecting mothers to simplify the complex balance of their medical, addiction, behavioral, environmental and lifestyle needs by directly filling the gaps in care while also matching members with the best team of resources for each member’s specific journey. 180 is focused on preventing the occurrence of and/or drastically reducing the severity of NAS while also establishing a stabilized social framework for the mother’s long-term success in sobriety and motherhood.
http://www.180healthpartners.com
About Spring Mountain Capital
Founded in 2001 by John L. ("Launny") Steffens and located in New York City, Spring Mountain Capital, LP ("SMC") is a private investment management firm that focuses on alternative asset investing. SMC's Growth Equity Group provides expansion stage capital to lower middle market companies that are capitalizing on breakthrough innovations, paradigm shifts, or fundamental market or behavioral changes. The Growth Equity Group at SMC focuses on two sectors of the U.S. economy undergoing the most change and with the highest growth potential: technology-enabled and healthcare businesses. Within these high growth areas, it seeks to make value investments by capitalizing on market dislocations, information asymmetry illiquidity and complexity. For more information, visit:
http://www.springmountaincapital.com/
