Healthcare prices are rising within the U.S. In 2023, the common premium for household protection was practically $24,000 per yr, a 47% improve from 2013, in response to KFF.
Sounder Advantages goals to handle this drawback. The corporate launched final week with $7.5 million in funding and was constructed at Redesign Well being, an innovation platform.
The Boise, Idaho-based firm targets employers with lower than 1,000 staff. It pairs AI-driven insights with strategic advantages advisory companies to assist employers design their well being profit plans. The corporate helps employers create a three-year profit roadmap and helps them in transitioning to level-funded and self-funded plans (which regularly present extra financial savings). It additionally affords help for human assets groups year-round.
Leveraging worker well being knowledge, Sounder Advantages additionally identifies when staff have a selected well being want, like most cancers help, after which directs them to the answer they want, like most cancers care firm Jasper Well being. For every specialty, Sounder Advantages selects one or two corporations to contract with and provides Sounder’s prospects entry to these options.
“We wish to have the ability to determine that member on the time that they’ve a problem as a result of that’s once they’re most receptive to intervention,” mentioned Brian Ancell, CEO and co-founder of Sounder Advantages, in an interview. “By connecting with them at the moment, we get them instantly right into a program that advantages their wants. After all, it’s all the time the members in cost. The member will get to determine. It’s their expertise. We’re merely making it easier and simpler for them to have the most effective expertise.”
Sounder Advantages receives income for its companies on a per-member-per-month foundation. It’s licensed to function in all 50 states. Whereas it formally launched final week, the corporate had already been available in the market testing its product for about 90 days, Ancell mentioned.
There are a number of different corporations that help employers with their well being advantages, equivalent to Quantum Well being and Accolade. Nonetheless, many corporations within the area are primarily centered on bigger employers. Whereas Ancell didn’t title these corporations as opponents, he mentioned Sounder Advantages differentiates itself from others within the area by serving small and mid-sized employers.
“Everybody needs to focus on the massive corporations and assist them … however these mid-sized corporations will not be getting that focus, and for an worker that works for an below 1,000-life firm, their typical deductible is 65% larger than for a big firm. So taking that $24,000 [family premium], it’s not even shopping for that a lot protection for folk in these below 1,000-life corporations. We see that as a big unmet want in that market.”
Sounder Advantages has $7.5 million in seed funding in partnership with Redesign Well being. Ancell mentioned the corporate plans to make use of the funding for 3 important areas: constructing out its govt management crew and advisory crew, investing in its expertise and figuring out new companions (together with well being tech options, care navigators, care suppliers and threat administration corporations).
In the end, Sounder Advantages goals to offer mid-sized employers “the experience like they might have at a Fortune 50 firm,” Ancell mentioned.
Photograph: Nuthawut Somsuk, Getty Photographs
