Medicare Plan Issuer Closes on $750M in Funding: Finance

Health insurers have announced more than $860 million in financing deals recently, and a physician performance tracking firm and a digital support service for life insurance agents have raised more than $22 million in additional funding.

Bright Health, a Minneapolis-based health insurer with shares that trade on the New York Stock Exchange, led the group.

Bright Health has closed on $750 million in funding.

The company raised the cash by selling perpetual preferred stock to subsidiaries of Cigna Corp. and affiliates of New Enterprise Associates. New Enterprise Associates is an investment company.

The new preferred shares will pay a 5% dividend. The holders of the new shares can convert them into common stock at an initial conversion price of $4.55 per share, or 25% more than the price the shares were selling for before the preferred share offering was announced.

Bright Health provides health care through its NeueHealth unit and commercial and Medicare plan coverage for 720,000 people through its Bright HealthCare unit.

Stride

Stride Health has raised $47 million from a group of investors that includes King River Capital, an investment firm.

The investor group also includes MasterCard and Allstate.

Stride is a San Francisco-based company with an app that helps the independent contractors who work with Uber, DoorDash, Instacart and other companies track mileage, expenses and taxes.

Companies such as Uber can use the app to help steer part-time workers and independent contractors toward the Affordable Care Act public exchange system, and toward a website that offers other benefits and services aimed at gig workers.

The Stride app has 2.7 million users.

Stride says it hopes to use the new financing to expand app users’ access to products such as major medical insurance, vision insurance and dental insurance.

Zing

Zing Health — a Chicago-based company that sells Medicare Advantage plans aimed at low-income people — has raised $25 million from Town Hall Ventures and Leavitt Equity Partners.

Zing focuses on providing health coverage for low-income Medicare plan enrollees who may need help with the “social determinants of health,” such as food, housing and transportation.

Zing says it will use the money it has raised to accelerate its growth and develop new business partnerships that support its mission.

Embold Health

Embold Health — a Nashville, Tennessee-based company that develops strategies for rating physicians’ performance — has raised $20 million from Echo Health Ventures.

Embold asserts that creating objective clinical performance measures is critical to reducing the cost and improving the quality of health care.

Plum Life

Plum Life — a Warren, New Jersey-based company that helps life insurance agents sell life insurance online — has raised $2.45 million from Sonostar Ventures.

Plum Life says it will use the cash to improve its platform and serve more agents.

The firm notes that many other companies are trying to sell life insurance online, but that it’s trying to help agents and advisors offer clients a combination of live-human advice and the convenience of doing business through a website or mobile app.

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