ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., July 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RxLive, a provider of population health pharmacy solutions, today announced a $5 million Series A funding round. The digital health startup’s round was led by SpringTide, a healthtech-focused venture capital firm, with participation by Cardinal Health™ (NYSE: CAH), a distributor of pharmaceuticals, a global manufacturer and distributor of medical and laboratory products, and a provider of performance and data solutions in health care. RxLive has raised a total of $8 million to date.

The healthcare industry is undergoing three profound changes, each of which is pointing healthcare providers to RxLive’s medication management software, telepharmacy services, and population health pharmacy analytics platform.

• Value-Based Care: Public and private payers increasingly compensate healthcare providers on the outcomes they produce, not the services they provide. This shift is undeniable, but a major obstacle for providers’ performance is poor medication adherence by patients. In fact, research suggests that 50% of patients fail to take medications properly, leading to $500 billion of healthcare spending wasted annually and the deaths of 140,000 seniors.
• Rapid Adoption of Telemedicine: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply of and demand for telemedicine services have exploded. Among Medicare patients, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there was a 63-fold increase in telehealth utilization during the pandemic.
• Rising Pharmacy Costs: Pharmacy spend is growing as a percent of overall healthcare costs and this has payers pushing risk down to delivery organizations and is bringing congressional focus on pharmacy cost transparency.
  

RxLive, the first-ever comprehensive population health telepharmacy solution and network of pharmacists, addresses each of these trends with:

• A data analytics engine that identifies patients who are most at-risk for medication mismanagement.
• A telepharmacy platform that offers patients quick and convenient access to clinical pharmacists.
• A proprietary medical management platform that has been custom built for the needs and workflows of the population health pharmacist.
  

“For too long, the pharmacist has been seen simply as the person behind the drugstore counter where people pick up their prescriptions, not as a key piece of a patient’s care team,” said Dr. Kristen Engelen, PharmD, a clinical pharmacist and RxLive’s Co-founder and Chief Pharmacy Officer.

“But now, with the move to value-based care, the overnight adoption of telemedicine, and growing importance and emphasis on managing pharmacy spend, RxLive is putting clinical pharmacists back where they belong. We give patients the one-on-one medication expertise and attention they need to improve quality of life, and the technology and services healthcare organizations need to improve outcomes.”

Founded in 2018, RxLive serves a national customer base of healthcare providers. Below are some of the company’s demonstrated successes to date:

• Reduced patient drug costs by up to $400
• Reduced hospital admissions by 27%
• Reduced readmissions by 26%
• Improved HEDIS quality performance

“Medication mismanagement is a problem that is widely experienced, acutely felt, and poorly addressed by the market today,” said Brad Otto, Principal at SpringTide. “RxLive addresses this $500 billion opportunity in a completely unique way.”

More details about the impact of RxLive’s platform can be found in a recent peer-reviewed article in Telemedicine & e-Health, “Access to Telepharmacy Services May Reduce Hospital Admissions in Outpatient Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

“The importance of pharmacists in value-based care models is growing,” said Brent Stutz, SVP at Outcomes™, a Cardinal Health Company. “We’re impressed with RxLive’s focus on risk-bearing provider entities and their deep understanding of the clinic-based pharmacist, which complements our existing models.”

As value-based pharmacy care models expand beyond the retail pharmacy setting RxLive will use the funding to expand its engineering, analytics, and sales and marketing teams, with particular investment in the continuous improvement of its AI and the functionality of its medication management platform.

To learn more about RxLive, visit rxlive.com.

About RxLive

RxLive provides population health telepharmacy software and services powered by AI. To learn more about RxLive, visit rxlive.com.

About SpringTide

SpringTide is a venture capital firm that supports the world's best health tech founders. We seek to partner with teams using data innovation to improve human health. Founded in 2018, SpringTide has invested in 24 companies and realized 3 exits. Our team of experienced healthcare entrepreneurs has collectively founded five companies with aggregate exit value of more than $500 million. SpringTide is based in Boston, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. Information about SpringTide is available at springtide.com.

About Cardinal Health
Cardinal Health is a distributor of pharmaceuticals, a global manufacturer and distributor of medical and laboratory products, and a provider of performance and data solutions for health care facilities. With 50 years in business, operations in more than 30 countries and approximately 44,000 employees globally, Cardinal Health is essential to care. Information about Cardinal Health is available at cardinalhealth.com.

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