Essence Group Holdings Raises $71 Million For Population Health Management Services

Essence Group Holdings Corp., the parent company of health management services provider Lumeris, has raised $71 million in a round of financing announced today.

In all, the company has raised some $141 million as it seeks to sell services to health care organizations still struggling with the regulatory shifts wrought by the Affordable Care Act.

Chiefly, the government has forced insurance providers to move from a system that charges for treatments to one that charges for results. In practice, that means insurers aren’t paying out for the treatments a healthcare provider bills for, but rather the results those healthcare providers achieve.

This emphasis on results requires healthcare providers to monitor patients after their treatments and track what’s happening across a network of millions of patients and former patients.

St. Louis-based Essence Group Holdings, raised its latest round from previous investors including Sandbox Industries, BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Camden Partners, and undisclosed new investors, according to a statement.

Money from the round will be used to expand the company’s Lumeris operations in additional markets, growing from eight to twenty.

Lumeris sells technology and services to ease the transition from treatment-based, or fee-for-service, healthcare to one that involves more distributed responsibilities for patient care and payments.

“The health care industry is undergoing a major revolution in accountability and shared responsibility for delivering better clinical outcomes for all Americans at more affordable costs by shifting from volume to value,” said W. Michael Long, chairman and chief executive of EGHC and Lumeris, in a statement.

“By expanding into an additional 12 markets by the end of 2015, Lumeris expects to partner with organizations representing more than 50 million lives,” Long said.