Credit Suisse https://www.credit-suisse.com recently hosted Julia Hu, Co-Founder & CEO of Lark Health http://www.lark.com at a virtual meeting with a small group of investors.
By way of background, Lark Health combines AI, behavior change design, and connected smart devices to deliver solutions in diabetes, prediabetes, hypertension, and behavioral health areas.
Lark Health works with three of the top seven national payers (13 in total), +300 employers, and nearly 2 min people have used the Lark Platform. After 8 years of R&D, Lark created an entire programming language and AI platform to automate what nearly 15K nurses accomplish on a daily basis.
Similar to Omada Health, Lark started with prediabetes (a/k/a diabetes prevention program, or DPP) and is now the second largest DPP provider in the U.S-trailing only Omada. Lark has since scaled their platform to include diabetes care/management, hypertension, and multiple preventative areas including weight loss, behavioral health, tobacco cessation, and general health/wellness. In terms of financials, Ms. Hu shared that Lark has been scaling very quickly with growth ~400%.
Lark Health primarily offers their solutions through health plan channels and has a relatively smaller presence in the direct-to employer space. As for enrollment on the direct-to-employer side, when the employer is supportive and allows Lark to conduct marketing efforts, enrollment rates have been as high as 42% for the diabetes management program.
Ms. Hu noted that while going through a health plan can result in lower average enrollment rates, the offset comes through the significantly higher addressable member populations that can be offered the chronic care platform.
Lark offers several contract structures to their customers, including on a Per-Participant-Per-Month (PPPM) basis in addition to a SaaS/Per-Member-Per-Month (PMPM) model. In the latter approach, Lark receives a small PMPM fee based on the entire population where the company essentially offers unlimited services at a fixed fee (i.e., fees are not based on enrollment of members, but rather on the PMPM x # of total members).
As part of Lark’s DPP claims-based billing service, Lark is an at risk provider where the company does not get paid unless members enroll in the program and achieve outcomes such as sustained engagement and 5% body weight loss.
While a PPPM model has its benefits, Ms. Hu believes that the PMPM model provides an easier way for customers to scale with Lark in addition to offering the ability for health plans to embed Lark as part of their own care management products at a lower price point and in a bundled fashion.
For more information, ask questions, or to provide feedback, or want to provide news, email Jailendra Singh at jailendra.singh@credit-suisse.com or call 212-325-8121.