Maven Clinic

• Maven's value proposition is to be "the leading women’s and family healthcare company, providing end-to-end coverage for all paths to parenthood. We partner with employers and health plans to improve maternal outcomes, lower costs, and attract and retain more parents in the workforce."
• Maven offers comprehensive services like pre-conception, pregnancy, fertility, adoption, return-to-work, and pediatrics.
• The company markets its services to health plans and employers. 
• Maven Clinic partnered with Protective Life Insurance, a life and annuities insurance company that takes care of families through its insurance plans.
• The partnership was to help the company take care of their female employees, and the company is classified as a win-win for the company and its employees.
• In addition to the support that Protective Life employees received from the partnership with Maven, they also had access to Maven Milk, Maven's breast milk shipping program.

Wildflower Health

Services

Partnerships

LifeMap Assurance Company

• Wildflower partnered with LifeMap Assurance Company to launch the LifeMap Due Date Plus pregnancy app for expectant parents with short-term disability coverage.
• The app helps in providing LifeMap members with helpful resources, health tips, pregnancy milestone tracking, symptoms monitoring, financial reminders.

Regence

• Regence partnered with Wildflower Health to launch the BabyWise pregnancy and parenting app.
• The app provides clinical health milestones, vital maternity resources, health trackers, and reminders for prenatal appointments for Regence members.

BabyScripts

• Babyscripts is the leading virtual care platform for managing obstetrics. It is the only doctor-administered digital health resource that strengthens the relationship between doctor and patient outside of the clinic's four walls during routine, low-risk maternity treatment.
• "Babyscripts leverages the full power of technology to elevate the standard of prenatal care".

• Babyscripts is "the only company that offers a toolkit for tech-enabled prenatal and postpartum care".

Services

• BabyScript specializes in women healthcare by providing health tools to give providers access to patient data in real-time.

Partnerships

Aetna Better Health of PA

• BabyScripts partnered with Aetna Better Health of PA in its efforts to expand into the Medicaid market.
• Through the partnership, participating WellSpan Health members can have access to pregnancy care solutions like remote monitoring and virtual care for high-risk conditions such as postpartum depression, and high blood pressure.

Cone Health

• Cone Health partnered with BabyScripts to improve access to high-quality pregnancy care solutions by developing new modules.
• The partnership will provide prenatal care, detection of pregnancy-induced hypertension, gestational diabetes monitoring.

Research Strategy

What to Expect

• What to Expect's value proposition is the following: "What To Expect is the world’s best-known, most trusted pregnancy and parenting brand, helping every parent know what to expect, every step of the way. The What To Expect brand mission drives everything we do, and it's as simple as it is powerful: 'Support happy, healthy pregnancies and happy, healthy babies.'"

• As a content provider, What to Expect offers information and resources for parents in the areas of pregnancy, first year, toddler, family, baby products, and baby registries. What to Expect offers comprehensive services.

• What to Expect markets its services direct to consumer.

• The one, recent news headline we found involving the company from within the past year was titled "Here are all the winners of the 2019 Webby Awards." That article from April 2019 announced that What to Expect won a Webby Award for its "Pregnancy Due Date Calculator, Shine."

BabyCenter

• BabyCenter's value proposition is as follows: "BabyCenter is the world's number one digital parenting resource, with content that reaches more than 100 million people monthly. In the United States, 7 in 10 new and expectant moms online use BabyCenter. Around the globe, BabyCenter content is available in nine different languages, and more than 50 million parents visit BabyCenter's 11 websites every month."
• As a content provider, BabyCenter offers information and resources for parents in the areas of pregnancy, baby, toddler, preschooler, big kid, health, and gear/products. BabyCenter offers comprehensive services.
• BabyCenter markets its services direct to consumer.
• The first, recent news headline we found about the company was titled "Everyday Health Group Acquires BabyCenter, the Leading Global Digital Parenting Resource."
• The second, recent news headline we found about the company was titled "BabyCenter® Reveals Top Baby Names Of 2019."
• The third, recent news headline we found about the company was titled "The Most Popular Baby Names In Australia For 2019 Have Been Revealed."

Gennev

• Gennev's value proposition is the following: "Gennev is the first-of-its-kind online clinic for menopause. Our mission is to help women take control of their health in the second half of life."

• The services Gennev offers are telemedicine, an online menopause assessment, subscription health memberships (which provide access to a registered dietitian and "a menopause health coach"), and the sale of branded menopause healthcare products.

•  Gennev specializes in the area of menopause.

• Gennev markets its services direct to consumer.

1. Article Headlines Within the Past Year

• "Women’s health startup Gennev lands $4M to grow telemedicine service for menopause"
• "Gennev Reveals Menopause Zeitgeist: Social Taboos, Symptoms, and Surprising Gaps in Support"
• "New Partnership Alert: MiraKind & Gennev"
• "Hello Menopause: Why Femtech Will Be a Game Changer for 1 Billion Women"
• "Online health clinic creates community around menopause"
• "Jill Angelo: Founder of Telemedicine Platform, Gennev"
• "Menopause health has 'few specialists and a lot of myths' — can tech change that?"
• "Femtech in 2020: Investors Share Trends And Opportunities In Women’s Health Technology"
• "‘Menopause tech’ is the hot new niche in femtech"

Research Strategy

Selected Findings

• Progyny uses “cutting-edge science and the largest high-quality network of fertility specialists” in the United States to empower people to achieve their dreams of being parents.
• WINFertility has been delivering the “most effective fertility treatments and family-building solutions” for over 20 years.
• WINFertility’s health insurance partners include Anthem and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island.
• Carrot provides flexible coverage that meets the growing demands for fertility benefits of employees located in 40 countries.
• Carrot has published content on its website, podcast, and social media pages such as Twitter and Facebook to markets its services to employers.

Research Strategy

Prelude Fertility

• Prelude targets two different personas at the same time with a single value proposition. Prelude promises ladies a world where their choices to have children will not be limited to their biological clocks. It also promises to give family to women and men who are limited by infertility.
• Prelude offers comprehensive services in egg-freezing, egg storage, genetic testing, IVF, and donor egg services. They also offer male factor infertility, surrogacy, and mail-order fertility pharmacy services.

• Prelude markets directly to their customer through customer-specific ads on their websites and social media sites. Prelude has a significant social media presence with 1,014 Facebook followers, 1,233 LinkedIn followers, 368 Twitter followers, and 658 Instagram followers. Prelude also markets through its national strategy through its affiliates, including Lee Equity Partners, RBA, MyEggBank, and Vivere Health.
• To reach a broad market population, Prelude sponsors the Dr. OZ Show, hosted by Dr.Mehmet Oz who sits on Prelude's board of directors. Prelude also pitches its services through radio and print media.
• On 8th March 2019, Prelude Fertility made headlines in MarketWatch and biospace for collaborating with Inception to provide comprehensive fertility services.

UnIVFy

• The predictive machine learning and fintech platform of UnIVFy that provide its fertility patients with personalized probabilities of IVF success, allowing them to come up to more confident treatment planning decisions is its first value proposition. UnIVFy’s proprietary technology lowers the financial cost to help increase access and affordability to individuals and couples affected by infertility. Univfy PreIVF Report and Univfy-Powered Refund Program also give individuals and couples the ability to afford multiple treatments so they can realize their goal of starting a family.
• UnIVFy offers specialized services in "customized analysis and prediction tests for women In Vitro Fertilization". UnIVFy uses machine learning and AI to advise women of their personalized chance of having a baby with In Vitro Fertilization, and offers customized fertility analytic from personalized counseling, enabling women to get an "instant personalized probability report on their IVF success".
• UnIVFy leverages interactive ads and posts to market directly to its customers through its website and social media platforms. It has a significant social media presence with a following of 1,530 on Twitter and 13,913 on Facebook.
• UnIVFy, in the past 12 months, has made headlines in Forbes, MIT Technology Review, CISION PR Newswire, and the American Banker.
• UnIVFy partners with BBVA USA to offer financial loan programs to their customers at a rate starting at 0% APR (up to 18.99%). 

Modern Fertility

• Modern Fertility value propositions are its fertility testing based on individual birth control, specialized fertility testing incorporating the latest research in modern fertility, and 24/7 customer support system on their platform to respond to any reproductive-health related questions from customers, with a modern interactive community.
• Modern Fertility conducts fertility testing and offers information about fertility to women.
•  Modern Fertility leverages infographics, interactive posts, chatbots, and print ads to market to its customers. It has a significant digital presence with 1,715 followers on Twitter, 8,608 on Facebook, and 38,400 followers on Instagram.
• Modern Fertility has recently made headlines on Forbes, C/Net, and Inc.

Research Strategy:

Progeny

• Progeny provides comprehensive, evidence-based neonatal care management services for premature and medically complex newborns. Its value proposition includes securing social determinants of health, optimizing savings levers, and ensuring payment integrity.

• The company markets itself directly to customers (the families of infants), healthcare providers, insurance companies, employers, consultancies and third-party administrators (TPA).
• It has partnered with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Virginia Premier. The services included in both these partnerships include NICU utilization management and case management.
• Progeny was featured in Smart Business Dealmakers as it entered its 16th year of business in 2019. The article also mentioned Progeny forming a partnership with PE firm Sunstone Partners.

Keriton

• Keriton Kare is a fully automated lactation management system which is available as a mobile app for both Android and iOS. The company specializes in feeding management, lactation analytics and patient engagement for neonatal ICUs.
• The product is marketed directly to customers (nursing mothers), NICU nurses, lactation consultants, nurse managers, and IT/IS staff. Its value proposition is the improvement in process efficiency and safety for users and the improved experience for patients and nurses.
• While Keriton has not published the names of companies that it works with, it has mentioned that two additional hospitals in Philadelphia have partnered with Keriton to train and go-live using its breast milk, donor milk, and formula feeding management platform. The company does not market itself to insurance providers.
• Recent news coverage include Keriton being featured among the key players in the "IoT Healthcare Market" published by Brige Market Research (News Parent), and winning first place at the inaugural "Improving the patient experience" pitch competition hosted by Ipsos and 1776 DC (Technically).

Research Strategy

Selected Findings

• LactApp solves breastfeeding and maternity doubts in an individualized way.
• LactApp offers "expert, confidential, and customized advice" on breastfeeding and maternity to mothers. The company exclusively focuses on breastfeeding and maternity.
• LactApp markets itself directly to customers (mothers), healthcare providers, and companies.
• Milk Stork promises to "make shipping breast milk easy" so that mothers can take care of other businesses. The company also promises to handle shipments with care.
• Milk Stork offers shipping of breast milk for breastfeeding mothers on business trips. The company helps mothers get their breast milk home safely and quickly. It exclusively focuses on shipping of breast milk.
• Milk Stork markets itself direct to customers (breastfeeding mothers) and employers.

Research Strategy

Startup Capital

• Startup capital is critical for any company entering the women's health plan industry. It entails the funding required to get the business going, which can come from personal savings, loans from family and friends or investments from venture capitalists (VCs). However, starting a company in the women's health plan industry usually requires the latter because of the size of the money involved.
• The lack of adequate startup capital will incapacitate the competitiveness and growth of entrants into the industry that can't scale through this barrier. For instance, it was after Advantia Health secured a $45 million investment funding that it could grow its network system, fortify its technology services, and open a flagship medical center in Washington.
•  Mahmee is a startup in the women's health plan industry and it overcame this barrier by presenting to investors the bigger picture of a larger responsibility accompanying the objectives of the company. One of the focal objectives of the company is to tackle the life-threatening gaps in maternal care. It was because of this that the company could secure a $3 million funding from investors that included the likes of Serena Williams and Mark Cuban.

Coverage and Affordability

• The lack of insurance coverage and affordability for women's health services plan by the target market is a barrier to entry for companies entering the women's health plan industry. Health insurance coverage is essential in the accessibility and affordability of healthcare to women. However, according to the Society for Reproductive Medicine in the US, the cost is a significant barrier for women to enjoy fertility treatment, as 80% of individuals marked for this treatment are not covered and they are indebted.
• For entrants into the industry, this barrier will have significant negative impacts on their offerings as there would be a shortfall in sales because the affordability of their services remains a challenge for many women.
• Carrot Fertility overcame this barrier through its Visa Carrot Card. This debit card is the first of its kind in the fertility sector and it makes it convenient for employees to afford women's health plans like IVF, egg freezing, and among other services.
• Another startup that overcame this barrier is Future Family, which offers free fertility testing and personalized financing plan through a subscription payment model.

Tech-Enabled Knowledge Base

• Tech-enabled health services is now a growing trend in the women’s health plan industry, and this is a significant barrier to entry for companies without the requisite tech-enabled knowledge base. Competitors in the women’s health plan industry are now harnessing tech-enabled, scalable personalization to improve health service delivery to their patients. Companies are deploying artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and cloud-based informatics to personalize women’s health service plans at scale.
• The impact of this barrier on entrants into the industry is that they will quickly fizzle out in a highly competitive industry where tech-savvy companies, like Univfy and Jessie Health, will continuously outdo them.
• A startup company, Advantia Health, received $45 million investment funding from BlueMountain. The latter was drawn to the former because it prioritized the integration of care and technology.
• Extend Fertility also received Series A funding of $15 million after a total rebrand, which was a digital relaunch. Part of the total rebrand was to leverage its medical center in New York City on the latest technological advances.

Customer Cost of Switching

• The customer cost of switching is a barrier to entry for companies entering the women’s health plan industry because they have to tackle the challenge of convincing women to switch to them, away from their contemporary service providers. This barrier may entail fierce marketing campaigns and incentives to persuade customers, particularly in the women’s health plan industry where feminine health concerns are not properly addressed.
• This barrier would impact companies entering the women’s health plan industry in terms of financial cost surrounding the marketing campaigns they must engage in to get a sizable chunk of customers. Even if this was accomplished, there is no guarantee of this in the women’s health plan industry.
• Tia Clinic overcame this barrier by entering the industry with a holistic offering, integrating both physical and digital platforms. This changed the way women interact with the healthcare system and saw memberships for the company's plan sold out within the first few weeks, while the waitlist accounts for many more.

Research Strategy

Holistic Healthcare Model

• Companies in the women’s health service plan industry are migrating to a broader holistic healthcare plan. This trend aims to focus on patients as people instead of ordinary health records.
• A shift towards a more holistic healthcare plan aims to highlight connections between emotional, mental, and physical health. This trend seeks to correct the dysfunction of isolated health specialists, which are frustrating for many patients, and offer them comprehensive solutions that address the basic cause of their health problems.
• Fertility is one area that is witnessing this paradigm shift in the women’s health service plan industry. Recognizing that this area of medicine shouldn't be linear, medical treatment now comprises patient management as a supplement. For instance, companies like Norka Health introduce stress management, exercise, nutrition, and acupuncture to improve the patient experience.

Why It Is A Trend

• According to the Director of Research at HTD, entrepreneurs, service providers, and venture capitalists in the women’s health service plan industry identify these types of women’s health service plans as one trend that will define femtech services soon.
• Women's health service plan providers, like Norka Health, Tia Clinic, and Mayo Clinic, are adopting a paradigm shift from linear treatment to a more holistic healthcare plan for patients.
• Norka Health is using the holistic healthcare model to gain a competitive advantage by improving patients' experiences.
• The company also gains a competitive advantage through the application of this trend by making women's health service plans cost-effective for employers sponsoring healthcare. With this health plan, this category of employers can save money.
• Tia Clinic is incorporating both digital and physical health apparatus with a new medical center in New York City. The competitive advantage of this model for this company is that it can now combine wellness, gynecology, and primary care for its patients under one roof.
• The company used this trend to gain a competitive advantage by increasing its market share because its memberships sold out within the first few weeks of the opening of its New York City's center.

Tech-Enabled, Scalable Personalization

• Companies in the women’s health service plan industry are now harnessing tech-enabled, scalable personalization to improve health service delivery to their patients. This trend follows the upsurge of the holistic healthcare model.
• This trend seeks to understand behaviors and factors that guide each woman’s health outcomes by providing tailored, personalized solutions to each patient.
• Making use of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and cloud-based informatics, companies can personalize women’s health service plans at scale. This trend is also gaining momentum because of the advancement of digital tools, which healthcare providers are using to offer more personal and meaningful health experiences.
• One area in the industry that captures the use of this trend is in the early detection of feminine cancers through AI. Other areas include diagnostic and fertility-tracking app services.

Why It Is A Trend

• According to the Director of Research at HTD, entrepreneurs, service providers, and venture capitalists in the women’s health service plan industry identify these women’s health service plan as one trend that will define femtech services soon.
• Women's health service plan providers, like Jessie Health, Modern Fertility, Univfy, EverlyWell, Allbodies, Ritual, and Nurx are leveraging this trend to accumulate larger market shares.
• Jessie Health makes healthcare services, like at-home STD testing and sinus infection treatment, accessible to women based on personal data, such as digital preferences, risk factors, and locations.
• The company is also "developing tools to help empower users to track, manage, and predict health events for themselves, their children and their aging parents."
• Jessie Health is using this trend to gain a competitive advantage (increasing its market share) by meeting the needs of individuals with the most cost-effective and reputable solutions. This is because affordability and convenience are what modern consumers are demanding.
• Modern Fertility uses anonymous data it continuously collects to "contribute to women’s health research and product development." The company provides economical at-home hormone testing services for women.
• The company used this trend to gain a competitive advantage by attracting investments totaling $15 million to expand its women’s health service plan. It will also use this trend to gain a competitive advantage (increasing its market share), since affordability and convenience are what modern consumers are demanding.
• Univfy also uses personalized medical counseling through a combination of fintech, machine learning, and AI to help women attain their health objectives easily. Univfy uses this trend to gain a competitive advantage by providing patients with lower financial risks, improved experiences, and increased market share for the company.

Research Strategy

Advancing Medical Technology

•  New technology development is most frequently viewed as the biggest contributor to the growth in the cost of women's healthcare services plans.
• The rate at which technology is developing and the introduction of new technologies is forcing companies to use more expensive technologies for the same clinical problems.
•  New health technologies improve the outcomes and leads to patient satisfaction but tend to cost more than existing ones.
•  Evidation Health's, Evidation Health’s technology powers a novel discovery engine for behavior-focused studies and a modern delivery platform that connects everyone who wants to participate in better health outcomes.

Population Needs for Care

• The aging of the women population also has a significant impact on the healthcare spending growth.

• The rising rates of chronic disease in women is also a factor in healthcare spending but it only accounts for a disproportionate percentage of overall health spending.
• Examples include iSonoHealth’s automated ultrasound and AI platform that detects early breast cancer.
•  KaNDy Therapeutics has developed drug therapies for female sex-hormone-related conditions that focus on menopause symptoms. The company raised a $32.2 million in a Series C funding round in August 2019.

Price and Intensity

• Women are charged more for their healthcare products and services, as there has been an increase in the amount of technically complex, advanced services to address care needs.
• Women pay higher prices for healthcare products and services in the US than any other country in the world.
•  Progyny partnered with employers to allow them to offer coverage for IVF, egg freezing, and other fertility services.
•  Vizient optimizes the supply operations to drive operational efficiency, lower supply costs and achieve clinically-integrated supply goals with strategic solutions that deliver industry-leading savings and value.

Examples of Service providers

• North Carolina’s Medicaid primary care case management program, the Pregnancy Medical Home program, is an example of a women's health plan service provider who has adopted the fee for risk/value-based model.
• The program provides reimbursement to the health care providers on the basis of quality and comprehensive postpartum. The postpartum visits take place between 14 to 42 days to make sure the mothers receive the recommended optimal care as they transition to primary care.
• Second example is Trinity Health. It consists of 92 hospitals across 22 states with 109 actively operational health care facilities. The women health care services they provide include gynecology, obstetrics, breast cancer and birth throughout their outpatient centers and home care agencies.
• According to Trinity Health's Clinical Integration senior vice president, Emily Brower, 24% of the service provider's system has adopted the value-based model serving approximately 1.6 million individuals. They anticipate this figure to increase to 75%.

Business Model Description

• The fee for risk also referred to as valued-based model is replacing the traditional fee-for-service model. This model seeks to reward efforts of service providers and enhance the quality of health care while at the same time reducing costs.

• This system consists of alternative payment models (APMs) that the payers use to provide incentives to the health service providers to administer high-value services, care, medications, and products. The model eliminates unwarranted variation in the delivery of services and advocates for quality over quantity. This is contrary to the fee-for-service model.
• Payers adopt four key strategies, one or several at the same time, for successful execution of the value-based model.
• The first strategy is the use of incentives to improve care processes. They do this by providing enhanced payments for specific processes and services with the aim of increasing level of quality or reducing costs. An example may include annual bonuses, extra payment for high-risk patients and reimbursements.
• The second strategy is the application of penalties for unwanted outcomes. This involves decreasing payments or no payments in the incident of unnecessary services or unwanted outcomes. This strategy aims at encouraging the provision of high-value health care services.
• The third strategy is shared accountability in payments. This strategy involves accountability sharing between the health care providers and payers to incentive high-value health care.
• The fourth strategy is consumer-directed models. Examples of these include value-based medication pricing and value-based insurance design programs. This strategy directly addresses the consumer of health care services to drive the value of healthcare.

Performance Indicators

•  According to John Kelly, Edifect's Principal business adviser, the key performance indicators of the value-based payment models in health care are dynamically evolving. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the players in the healthcare industry to ensure there is consistent and adequate data to propel the model to success.

• Healthcare value-based model performance indicators are determined through the applied quality measures by the payers. These include: structural measures such as the capacity of a hospital perform certain procedures and patient-to-staff ratios; Outcome measures such as readmission rates and mortality rates; patient experience measures collected through surveys; and process measures that determine desired outcomes.

Example of Model's Success

• According to a survey conducted by Definitive Healthcare, the respondents claimed that the value-based model is responsible for fewer medical errors, better outcomes, increased patient satisfaction, and reduced costs.
•  48% of the 1,090 healthcare leaders respondents said that the model decreased the number of medical errors hence better health services outcomes. 28.4% of the respondents accorded an increase in patient satisfaction to the model while 17.6% of the respondents said the model reduced costs.