Data Automation Startup Veda Receives $ 45 Million Boost to Help Lower Healthcare Overhead Costs

Data automation firm veda closed $ 45 million in new funding just in time to develop new capabilities to coincide with the No Surprises Act mandates.

Funding, which will allow veda to take important action as it works on solutions to ease the costly administrative burden on healthcare providers and health plans, was led by Oak HC / FT.

The funding also equates to a seal of approval from the leading healthcare funding hub, Meghan Gaffney, co-founder and CEO of veda, told Fierce Healthcare.

“We have this big vision and Oak is investing in big visionary companies that will change the way healthcare works,” she said. “Get their approval and support in the market to say, ‘Yes, we believe in this technology. We believe in this business. We will make sure that capital is not a problem for their growth. Think about the kind of catalytic moment not just for us, but for AI and healthcare. “

“It’s really a statement from Oak that this is an emerging market and they’re going to be ahead,” she said.

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Oak is a leading growth venture capital fund investing in healthcare information and services and financial services technology. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based company has $ 3.3 billion in assets and offices in Boston and San Francisco.

The funding increase follows a year of rapid growth. Gaffney has reported a 20-fold increase in revenue in the past 18 months, and the company expects its health plan, provider and partner customer base to grow seven-fold by the year. fourth quarter 2022.

The company aims to achieve 1 billion hours of automation by 2025 to streamline healthcare administration.

The funding will allow veda to increase marketing and improve its offerings while continuing to research how artificial intelligence can help solve problems and inefficiencies in the administrative functions of healthcare, help patients achieve a better access and increase results.

Gaffney said the Madison, Wisconsin-based company would double its workforce to 90 in several areas, including research, customer success and marketing.

“We needed the capital to be able to invest in different modules for our platform to solve additional issues and help create additional efficiencies,” said Gaffney. “We have a pretty strong customer success team that we continue to develop. “

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It will also allow veda to respond quickly to regulatory requirements of the No Surprises Act, bipartisan legislation that limits excessive charges to consumers for surprise billing and balance billing, according to a press release announcing the new funds. As of January 1, 2022, the law will require that all updates to the supplier directory be processed within 48 hours.

Veda offers the only AI platform where payers can transform and ingest vendor lists quickly, reducing lead times from weeks to hours, according to the company.

The company’s technology “will fundamentally change the way the healthcare system works by automating processes, increasing accuracy and reducing costs that have been around for decades,” said Andrew Adams, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Oak HC / FT, who will join the board of directors of veda.

Getting the word out, Gaffney said, is the key to success.

“We need to let people know that this system is there,” she said. “This has been very important to us, and it’s not a story we’ve had the opportunity to sell from a capital perspective and tell in our own words until now. We’re really excited to have the opportunity to have this in the conversation.

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Veda has supported the nation’s largest health insurance companies in their efforts to automate administrative processes and, in 2021, will save 500,000 hours for health plans processing provider data.

For a Mid-Atlantic Blue Cross health plan, veda increased the quality of its Medicare provider directory data from 43% to nearly 90% within six weeks of implementing the system after an audit of Medicare. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) found the clinic’s data to be inaccurate, Gaffney said.

They should have hired between 25 and 50 employees to fix the problem and “they couldn’t afford it,” she said.

“They were also able to avoid any new hires altogether,” Gaffney said.

Artificial intelligence, she said, “is a tool like any other tool we have.”

“I think the aspect of health care in 10 years will be totally different from what we are experiencing today,” she said.