OODA Health, a new company focused on removing waste and inefficiency from healthcare administration, today announced that it has completed a $40.5 million round of Series A funding, led by Oak HC/FT and DFJ.

The company's strategic partners include Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Blue Shield of California, Zaffre Investments, a subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Dignity Health, and Hill Physicians.

OODA Health was founded by a visionary team with a proven track record in healthcare and technology. OODA Health will transform the healthcare payment system by enabling collaborative, real-time interactions between providers (physicians, hospitals), payers (insurance companies), and members (patients). The company will use the capital to further develop its product platform, expand its team, and deepen and grow its payer and provider relationships.

"We co-founded OODA Health with this amazing team because, having worked with them before, we knew they were the right entrepreneurs to bring groundbreaking innovation to healthcare payments," said Annie Lamont, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Oak HC/FT. "We could not be more thrilled to be backing this mission, company and team." Annie Lamont is also on OODA Health's board of directors.

Emily Melton, DFJ partner and OODA Health board member, commented, "OODA is taking a fresh, collaborative approach to some of the industry's most complex problems. The opportunity for impact is enormous."

The OODA Health executive team has more than 100 years of combined healthcare and technology experience, including:

Giovanni Colella, MD - Co-founder and CEO, previously co-founder and CEO of Castlight Health (NYSE: CSLT). He was also founder, president, and CEO of RelayHealth (acquired by McKesson in 2006).
Seth Cohen - Co-founder, President, and COO, previously Vice President of Sales & Alliances at Castlight Health, where he currently serves as a board member.
Usama Fayyad, PhD - Co-founder and CTO, formerly Global Chief Data Officer at Barclays and Chief Data Officer at Yahoo!. He has also served as CEO and founder of several start-up companies.
"I am proud to have co-founded OODA with a team that shares a passion for tackling healthcare's biggest challenges," said Seth Cohen, Co-Founder, President and COO, OODA Health. "And, I'm particularly proud of our team's decision to raise money only from venture firms with at least one female partner."

Cohen added, "As consumers, we are accustomed to easy, near-instant transactions. But in healthcare, administration is time-consuming and expensive. OODA brings the digital DNA and technological capabilities to enable payers and providers to collaborate and mutually benefit from the efficiencies of a faster, more dynamic healthcare payment system."

"OODA Health will simplify and automate claims processing to create a real-time payment model," said Giovanni Colella, MD, Co-Founder and CEO, OODA Health. "This will give providers more time to focus on delivering quality care, rather than payment administration and financial management."

Currently, legacy processes and technologies prevail in healthcare administration, creating friction and animosity between payers, providers, and members. This system is inefficient and incurs high costs. Payers and providers realize that the status quo is unsustainable and it's time to give members a simplified retail experience in healthcare to match their everyday consumer interactions. They're partnering with OODA to make this vision a reality.

Partner Commentary

"Our collaboration with OODA Health and payer partners will be a game-changer in healthcare by removing administration that can be a friction point in delivering care," said Lloyd Dean, President and CEO, Dignity Health. "As we carry out Dignity Health's mission to provide quality, affordable healthcare to all, OODA Health's digital platform will help us bring down costs, allow patients to focus on their health, and enable physicians and nurses to focus on patient care."

"As we pursue our commitment to make healthcare more affordable and simplify the healthcare experience for our members, we are looking to partner with an innovative leader to help us further strengthen our collaboration with physicians and hospitals," said Andrew Dreyfus, President and CEO, Blue Cross Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. "Our investment in OODA Health is an opportunity to improve our relationship with hospitals and physicians while helping our members better navigate a complicated health care system."

"At Anthem, we are committed to creating a better healthcare experience for consumers and care provider partners," said Peter Haytaian, Executive Vice President and President, Commercial and Specialty Business Division, Anthem. "We are pleased to work with OODA as they launch this innovative new model which will reduce the burden of current healthcare administration and improve collaboration between payers, providers, and consumers."

"Doctors go into the profession to care for patients, and right now they spend more than 10% of their time on administrative work. Nurses spend over 30%. We're partnering with OODA to give this time back to doctors and to patients, and to simplify the patient experience into one that's consumer-friendly and easy to understand," said David Joyner, CEO of Hill Physicians Medical Group, and OODA advisor.

"Our partnership with OODA Health is about tackling two of the most significant industry challenges: affordability and complexity. BCBSAZ is excited to be innovating with OODA Health to drive positive change in Arizona to address these complicated issues," said Pam Kehaly, President and CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield Arizona.

"Our partnership with OODA is a great example of how Blue Shield is innovating to create a healthcare system that is worthy of our family and friends and sustainably affordable," said Paul Markovich, President and CEO, Blue Shield of California. "Our members and providers deserve a seamless, real-time billing experience, so they can focus on what really matters, getting and staying healthy. We're working with OODA to make this a reality."

Additional Resources

Dr. Colella and Markovich recently discussed their vision for changing the healthcare payment system during a presentation at the HLTH Conference. The full video is available here.

About OODA Health

OODA Health was founded by a team of seasoned healthcare entrepreneurs who envision a healthcare system freed from an estimated $400 billion in waste. The company's mission is to transform healthcare administration by enabling real-time interactions between providers, payers and members. Using a collaborative and innovative approach, the company enables stakeholders to eliminate billions of dollars in waste and dramatically improve the payment experience for members. For more information about OODA Health, please visit www.ooda-health.com.