It’s hard to ignore the harrowing statistics on the deteriorating state of mental health across the country. With over 40M Americans from all walks of life struggling from addiction and serious mental illness and only 1 in 10 people seeking treatment, this crisis is more than numbers in a headline – it touches us all (1). At General Catalyst we believe there is a tremendous opportunity to humanize these illnesses and show that recovery is possible with compassionate, evidence-based care. For this reason, we are pleased to announce our Series C investment in Eleanor Health, a provider specializing in addressing the unique complexities of individuals and populations with addiction and severe mental illness.
Eleanor delivers in-person and virtual care in a deeply personalized and humane manner, rooted in harm-reduction. By meeting people where they are, Eleanor’s approach opens the door for people to receive care who otherwise wouldn’t seek help or respond well to traditional methods of treatment. The trusted relationships Eleanor forms with its members uniquely positions them to coordinate integrated care and address all drivers of health: physical, social and mental. This is all underpinned by value-based payment models and proprietary technology and data-driven insights, which allow Eleanor to drive sustainable outcomes and total cost of care reduction across large populations.
Eleanor’s approach is a much needed departure from more traditional residential and outpatient recovery programs that are largely fee-for-service, short-term and abstinence based. These treatment modalities can be notoriously costly and ineffective with relapse rates as high as ~85% and cost upwards of $30k for a 30-day stay (2). People cycle in and out of these programs without connection to longitudinal care, resulting in only a small percentage achieving sustainable outcomes while driving enormous spend.
By transforming the way care is delivered and paid for, Eleanor has been able to demonstrate remarkable results: 87% reduction in ED / IP utilization, 70% of individuals served reporting improvement in anxiety and depression, and 84% reporting improvement in substance use. Moreover, the appetite from payers to partner with Eleanor continues to accelerate. Today the company has population-based contracts with five payers across all six, soon to be seven markets, including 3 national plans. By the end of 2022, Eleanor will be managing over 60,000 members across 8 markets.
For years, behavioral health and substance use have been viewed as problems without solutions. With our health assurance thesis, General Catalyst aims to take on the most difficult issues plaguing the traditional healthcare ecosystem. We are working with innovative partners to deliver distributed, data-driven and preventative care that forms the basis of a new twenty first century model. Working with Eleanor allows us to address the broken, expensive and inequitable history of behavioral health and substance use diagnosis and treatment. Eleanor’s model gives patients hope in a rare quadfecta of increasing access, improving quality, reducing cost and transforming the user experience.
This financing will provide the capital to scale Eleanor’s clinical, technology and leadership teams to support the successful execution of population health contracts in existing and new markets. We are thrilled to join Eleanor on this journey and welcome the company to our Health Assurance network of portfolio companies.
(1)https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt35325/NSDUHFFRPDFWHTMLFiles2020/2020NSDUHFFR1PDFW102121.pdf
(2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674771/#R2
