DexCare, a new digital health company developed by Providence, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round.

Define Ventures led the funding round, which also included Frist Cressey Ventures, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, SpringRock Ventures and Providence Ventures. DexCare is the third startup that Providence has incubated and spun out as a stand-alone company.

The startup offers an artificial intelligence-driven operating system for digital care, said Derek Streat, CEO at DexCare, in an email.

“Similar to the way you have many applications on your computer, there is an operating system that makes all the applications work together to provide the user with a simple experience,” he said. “DexCare is that operating system for health systems’ digital offerings.”

Specifically, the platform allows users to access healthcare, make appointments and receive follow-ups based on their needs, preferences and location. For example, patients can use the platform to schedule different types of care, including virtual, in-person or in-home care. Telehealth visits can also be conducted through the system via DexCare’s own telemedicine application.

The platform connects patients to clinics or providers that are best suited to manage their health needs. The operating system takes into account patients’ symptoms and connects them to providers that have high Net Promoter Scores for treating their condition. A Net Promoter Score is an index that measures the willingness of customers to recommend products or services to others.

Further, patients can use the platform to determine insurance eligibility, estimate out-of-pocket costs and make payments online.

The startup plans to use the money it raised in growing customers, developing its product further and hire more people, Streat said.

“Consumers interact with a unified experience from care discovery, to selection, booking and delivery, all powered by DexCare technologies,” he said. “Providers and clinic operators [can] access dashboards and analytics [through the system] to manage their patient flows.”

Developed by Providence, a 51-hospital system headquartered in Renton, Washington, DexCare’s operating platform was initially developed for the health system’s ambulatory care business, and Providence has been using it since 2016.

“DexCare was instrumental as we transformed our ambulatory care model to better meet the needs of patients over the past few years,” said Dr. Rod Hochman, president and CEO of Providence, in a news release.

In 2020, the health system scaled the DexCare platform to help respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, he said.

Concurrent with the funding round, DexCare was spun out as a separate company. It has secured six customers, including Indianapolis-based Community Health Network, Milwaukee-based Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin and Houston Methodist.

DexCare hopes to take advantage of two key patient demands as digital care soars amid the Covid-19 pandemic: Convenience and ease-of-access. In a survey conducted last August, nearly half (43%) of healthcare consumers ranked online scheduling as very or extremely important to them, and another 42% ranked virtual visits the same.

Providers are also looking for comprehensive solutions and this may work to DexCare’s advantage. The company is aiming to orchestrate the patient journey, from scheduling all the way to payment.

DexCare is the third technology company incubated by the Providence Digital Innovation Group. The first was Xealth, spun out in 2017, and the second was Circle, sold to Wildflower Health in 2018.

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