Inbound Health, a hospital-at-home enablement platform that has raised over $50 million, closed down on Monday after failing to secure necessary funding.
The company laid off its employees and is seeking “strategic alternatives” while working to support its customers with transition planning, Inbound confirmed to Home Health Care News.
The news, originally reported by Axios, comes three years after the company’s launch.
“This was largely due to regulatory uncertainty as demonstrated by the recent government closure and the lack of a long-term extension of the [Acute Hospital Care at Home] (AHCAH) Waiver Program,” the company told HHCN in an email. “That uncertainty made it impossible for Inbound to secure additional capital to continue normal operations. We are grateful to all of our employees, customers, and partners for their trust in Inbound and supporting our work over the last four years.”
Inbound Health’s platform helps health systems and health plans develop hospital-at-home and skilled nursing facility- (SNF) at-home programs. Originally part of the health system Allina Health, Inbound spun off and became a separate entity in 2022.
The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company launched with $20 million in capital from Flare Capital Partners. In 2023, Inbound locked down another $30 million in a round led by HealthQuest Capital, with participation from Flare Capital Partners and McKesson Ventures.
Inbound’s CEO Dave Kerwar previously told HHCN that he saw few barriers for the company’s growth – though he did note that he was keeping a close eye on the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver.
“We’re looking forward to this type of the benefit, where advanced care can be delivered in the home, being part of a more permanent benefit structure that’s offered to Americans that are on fee-for-service Medicare,” Kerwar said in 2023.
A permanent benefit failed to materialize, and the hospital-at-home waiver remained in place through a series of short-term extensions, which have made some organizations wary of becoming involved with the hospital-at-home model. The recent government shutdown also halted the waiver program, though supporters have emphasized that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle support the program.
On the same day that Inbound closed its doors, the House of Representatives passed the Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act, a bill that would allow hospitals to extend successful hospital-at-home programs for an additional five years.
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