Force Therapeutics eyes capital raise

Force Therapeutics, an episode-based digital care management platform, is eyeing a fundraise as early as Q4 of this year, CEO Bronwyn Spira tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: Force's platform complies with new CMS reimbursement guidelines for virtual physical therapy and remote monitoring, which requires health care providers to use software that is deemed a medical device.

Details: Spira declined to disclose the amount Force may target. The company last raised $21 million in 2018 from Insight Venture Partners.

• "We are well capitalized and have a very efficient business model," she said. "We are getting close to being profitable."
• "Additional funds will be deployed as Force Therapeutics expands into remote therapeutic monitoring and extends its product more deeply into musculoskeletal care and adjacent verticals."
• The company has raised $26.26 million to date, which includes the seed and A rounds, per PitchBook.

How it works: The New York City-based company currently has over 700,000 patients on its platform.

• "Our super users are between 74-80 years old," Spira says, with the average age of users being around 67.
• The company's platform is used for preparing patients for surgery through pre-operative education and virtual physical therapy, as well as educating, connecting, and monitoring patients post-operatively throughout their recovery journeys.
• Force leverages video chat and multi-modal messaging including SMS text, email, push notifications, in-app messaging and phone calls.
• The digital platform also collects patient-reported outcomes and responses to provider-prescribed outcome forms.

What they're saying: “Force Therapeutics' clinical data analysis offering is designed to give providers a 360-degree view of the patient, all within the context of the patient’s care journey," says Spira.

• "The Force Therapeutics platform provides benchmarks for outcome data so that providers can measure their patients’ progress against a validated data set and can use the data to analyze and improve their care program offerings," she said.
• The CMS' new RTM codes are "a validation of the value of remote care when implemented responsibly and comprehensively," Spira adds.
• "By enabling virtual workflows, RTM reimbursement will drive more efficient behaviors for providers and care teams, while also enabling significant cost- and time-savings for patients," she says.

The big picture: While remote monitoring has gained traction in recent years, weak reimbursement and slow health system buy-in have stymied growth.

• However, stakeholders are increasingly focusing on leveraging RPM to get sharper insights into a patient's long-term medical data.