Blue Cross Blue Defend Massachusetts launches Well being Fairness Enterprise Accelerator
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Blue Cross Blue Defend Massachusetts launches Well being Fairness Enterprise Accelerator

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Photograph: FG Commerce/Getty Pictures

In 2020, fewer than 3% of enterprise capital funding went to corporations with Black or Latinx founders, in keeping with  Blue Cross Blue Defend of Massachusetts.

In an try to handle these disparities, the insurer has launched a Well being Fairness Enterprise Accelerator, a program meant to lend monetary, strategic and mentorship help to founders of colour.

This system can be centered on “creating equitable healthcare companies and options,” in keeping with Blue Cross.

Accelerator participation features a $150,000 funding, in addition to 9 months of tailor-made programming delivered along with companions similar to The Capital Community and Healthbox to assist speed up progress and foster innovation.

Michele Courton Brown, Blue Cross’ vp of enterprise improvement and managing director of Zaffre Investments, stated the objective “is to assist incubate new concepts that may advance healthcare and higher serve customers, together with our members.”

WHAT’S THE IMPACT

This system is being piloted with a small preliminary cohort of corporations nominated by the broader healthcare and enterprise capital communities.

Amongst them is Bloomer Tech, which is targeted on fixing main ladies’s international well being points, beginning by tailoring cardiovascular healthcare to ladies utilizing superior materials expertise and machine studying. Additionally on board is MedHaul, a cloud-based administration platform for non-emergency affected person transportation with a mission to innovate entry and enhance the standard of care in susceptible communities.

One other firm, High quality Interactions, focuses on cultural competency options to enhance well being outcomes and has educated greater than 250,000 healthcare professionals on the nation’s largest hospitals, well being plans and medical colleges.

Rounding out the cohort is SoHookd, a digital wellness platform providing wellness-centric rewards, occasions and challenges to well being plans and employers; and TQIntelligence, which makes use of validated diagnostic instruments, AI and voice recognition expertise to allow therapists to make sooner and extra correct diagnoses.

Blue Cross and Healthbox – an Accelerator accomplice serving as enterprise advisor to the cohort – will sponsor two Pitch Day occasions to extend the visibility of taking part startups with potential prospects and traders. The primary Pitch Day, deliberate for Might 19, will supply cohort corporations a possibility for business publicity and networking. Advisors will help the startups in elevating consciousness of their choices and creating long-term promotion methods.

Blue Cross stated it intends to make use of the nine-month program as a joint studying expertise, and is exploring methods to advance and broaden this system sooner or later.

THE LARGER TREND

Blue Cross Blue Defend Massachusetts signaled its deal with fairness in 2021 when it made a variety of investments, together with: a grant program to help nonprofits led by Black, Indigenous and different folks of colour (BIPOC); a first-to-market method to gathering race and ethnicity information to handle inequities within the care members obtain; increasing advertising and marketing efforts to higher attain a extra various viewers, with messages centered on addressing gaps in care and bettering general well being; and new investments and help for minority-owned companies.

These efforts have been enabled by $350,000 Racial Fairness and Justice Grants that help BIPOC-led not-for-profit organizations centered on addressing racial injustice in Massachusetts communities.

ON THE RECORD

“This isn’t a philanthropic act – it is a good funding and enterprise determination,” stated Andrew Dreyfus, president and CEO at Blue Cross. “By investing in these various start-ups, we’re in a position to assist help the expansion of companies which can be centering fairness of their work and making advances in expertise and companies that may result in improved well being outcomes.”
 

Twitter: @JELagasse
Electronic mail the author: jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com



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