By Tina Reed Staff Reporter-Washington Business Journal
Arlington-based Privia Health LLC is getting a $400 million infusion to expand nationally, the company announced Tuesday morning. An investor group led by an affiliate of Goldman Sachs & Co. is funding the expansion.
Privia, which markets itself as a platform for physicians to stay in private practice while becoming part of a larger network, will grow from Greater Washington to New York, Georgia, Florida and Texas — all areas with a significant numbers of independent physicians and strong potential health plan partners.
“This is giving us the rocket fuel to expand,” said Jeff Butler, Privia’s founder and CEO. He and Privia President Dave Rothenbergwill continue to lead the company.
Stamford, Connecticut-based holding company Brighton Health Group, led by an affiliate of Goldman Sachs, was joined in the round by Pamplona Capital Management, Cardinal Partners and existing Privia investors Health Enterprise Partners and Morgan Noble Healthcare Partners. Health Enterprise Partners led a 2012 Series B round that allowed Privia to add business development staff in Washington, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco and Phoenix, as well as yet-to-be named additional markets.
Privia has 300 physicians in its accountable care organization Privia Quality Network, as well as 220 physicians in its physician practice Privia Medical Group. Its network comprises 65 percent primary care physicians and 35 percent specialists in chronic care fields such as those treating diabetes, heart disease and asthma.
After becoming Privia members, doctors and patients can access Web-based medical records and communicate via secure email with each other and a team of nurses, nutritionists, health coaches and other consultants. The support team handles all of the duties crucial to maintaining health but not usually covered by insurance: following up on the doctors’ advice, ensuring patients stay on medications, checking on specialist referrals and accountability for weight-loss or other goals set by the doctor.
“What’s really been important is that this offers an alternative,” Butler said. “They don’t have to sell their practice out to a health system or hospital. They can remain in private practice while also gaining access to these sophisticated tools.”
Butler declined to release revenue figures but said Privia has experienced at least 1,000 percent revenue growth over the past 18 months. “It has been a very rapid growth story for us. I’d say, we’ve become one of the fastest growing medical groups in the country,” Butler said.
The company is trying to reverse the trend of private practice physicians feeling forced to become employees, Butler said.
“We think it would be a real shame if there isn’t a thriving private-practice community,” Butler said. “They should be leaders in health care transformation and sadly, that hasn’t been the case over the last two to three decades. We want to restore the leadership role we feel they should have in health care.”
