Valendo Health

Diabetes is among the biggest human healthcare challenges facing America today. Over 38 million people in our country suffer from diabetes, with more than 1.4 million newly diagnosed patients every year. These broad statistics lead to millions of debilitating and unnecessary cases of blindness, kidney & heart disease, and limb amputations every year; along with daily stress and confusion about how best to manage diet, blood sugar and an array of medications. Diabetes is also among our top financial healthcare challenges, with over $306 billion in annual spending that is growing by 7% per year. At Valendo Health people on our team experience these issues personally and within our families, and it’s our view that it doesn’t need to be this way.

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Our Vision and Mission

The vision of Valendo Health is a world where every individual with diabetes receives the personalized level of care they need to thrive. And our mission is to empower endocrinologists to be in charge of diabetes care and reward them for taking on that role. We’re focused on partnering with endocrinologists because the data is clear - when people with diabetes are consistently cared for by an endocrinologist they do better, which means lower hemoglobin A1C metrics, more Time-in-Range, fewer surgeries and life changing complications, and less time in emergency rooms and hospital beds. These benefits lead to happier, healthier lives and as much as $3,500 less spending per year for people with diabetes.

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Unfortunately, there is not nearly enough capacity in today’s endocrinology community to meet the growing and increasingly complex needs of the diabetes population. In 2022 there were over 12 million Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes, but less than 1 million of these folks saw an endocrinologist. The median time to the next available appointment with an endocrinologist is over 3 months, and retirements outpace fellows entering endocrinology training programs. This dynamic represents a clear break down in the basic supply and demand rules of economics - endocrinologists create significant human and financial value, there is growing demand for their services, but supply is shrinking. The reason for this broken market is that we pay endocrinologists wrong - despite delivering great care and creating significant value, endocrinologists are among the lowest paid physician specialists in the US.

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Valendo Health was created to improve the economics of endocrinology practices and increase access to the best care for people with diabetes. Our ultimate goal is to create value-based specialty care arrangements that better align incentives and reward endocrinologists for what they do better than anyone else – improve care and reduce costs for the diabetes population. To accomplish this, we’re building Valendo Health in three phases.

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Phase 1

In Phase 1 we work with practices to increase clinical capacity and enhance patient services through the delivery of telehealth and remote patient monitoring services, which have been proven to improve health outcomes for people with diabetes, and create opportunities for practices to grow. To deliver these services with the highest quality and impact possible, Valendo Health has established an exclusive partnership with Cecelia Health, one of the most experienced virtual diabetes care providers in the US.

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Phase 2

Phase 2 of our program is designed to smooth practice operations, reduce overhead costs, and prepare for value-based care. We do this by working to centralize select administrative and clinical services, and by aggregating clinical and administrative data with the goal of improving practice operating margins and gaining the benefits of scale while remaining independent.

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Phase 3

In Phase 3 we will design, negotiate, execute, and manage value-based care contracts with payers and at-risk provider groups. As a team we have significant experience developing and managing these types of arrangements in cardiology, oncology, orthopedics, and other specialties, and we see similar opportunities in diabetes and endocrinology. We will discuss the structure and benefit of value-based endocrinology contracts in future blog posts.

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We’re just getting going, but we’re off to a great start. We’ve built a terrific team of healthcare entrepreneurs with years of experience working to improve care for people with diabetes, developing value-based specialty care arrangements, and partnering with physicians to improve care and reduce costs. We feel very lucky to have a unique partnership with Cecelia Health, the leading provider of virtual diabetes care, and our network of endocrinology partners is growing.

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Please reach out anytime you’d like to chat, we love learning from others who share our passion for making healthcare better for those who need it most.

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Thank you!

Dave Terry, CEO

‍dave@valendohealth.com

Introducing Valendo Health