Joseph Kitonga, a 24-year-old from Delaware County, aims to reinvent a way to provide primary care to uninsured hourly workers.
His primary care service, Vitable LLC, is highly regarded by employers and workers in child care, restaurants and home care for its high quality and convenience. The company has already registered 10,000 people in its current markets in southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Elaine Green, a kindergarten teacher at Somerset Academy in Philadelphia, says, “I really don’t want to go anywhere when I’m sick, so it’s best for them to come to you.” ..
Kitonga, who emigrated from Kenya to the United States with his family at the age of 13, founded primary care provider Vitable LLC in 2019 while studying computer engineering at Pennsylvania State University, praising technology and a number from investors. Has won a million.
Last year, Vitable passed the prestigious Silicon Valley technology startup accelerator Y Combinator, and Kitonga won a fellowship from the Foundation of Billionaire Technology Investor Peter Thiel. Fellowships include $ 100,000 over two years for young entrepreneurs who skip college or drop out to build a business.
Forbes recently nominated Kitonga as one of the 30 entrepreneurs under the age of 30 to note in 2022.
Headquartered in Woodlin and with a second office in Northern Liberties, Vitable sells virtual and face-to-face primary and emergency care services to small hourly workers, per employee. I am charging about $ 50 a month. The company aims to build a foothold in highly competitive areas and join tech giants such as Amazon.com to eliminate the inefficiencies and inconveniences of basic care.
Kitonga’s business has a human focus on all technology praise, inspired by the health care hardships of employees of Hosana Home Healthcare, a company in Delaware County that parents started in 2012. increase.
“In small businesses, hourly workers were too many to qualify for Medicaid and too few to pay comprehensive health insurance, so they were stuck uninsured and overused ER.” Kitonga said. “Vitable is built to be an affordable and accessible primary care plan.”
Vitable was a hit at Somerset Academy, a child care center and kindergarten on West Girard Avenue near Ace Street.
“You don’t want to go to the doctor’s office. Green, a veteran kindergarten teacher who has worked at Somerset for two years, explained that he doesn’t want to bother when he’s sick.” That’s what I like. .. Whenever I have a problem or problem, they are always quick, always call and even check later. I like that. “
On December 17, Vicky Tubens-Lowa, a nurse practitioner who works at Vitable about eight hours a week, was at Somerset to do the annual physical examinations needed by Green and other staff. Somerset uses 22.
“We love Vitable,” said Somerset director Tiffany Chavous, recalling how Vitable came to her house to check for streptococcal pharyngitis. Chavous also received her physics from Tubens-Lowa on the 17th.
Vitable’s approach attracted $ 1.6 million in investment led by SoftBank’s Opportunity Fund earlier this year, and Vitable announced in October that it had received $ 7.2 million in venture capital to expand. The next market will be Baltimore in February, according to Kitonga.
Philadelphia’s First Round Capital contributed more than 80% of its latest investment in Vitable. It employs 22 people and uses about 50 nurse practitioners such as Tubens-Lowa as independent contractors to provide a lot of care. Vitable does not disclose annual revenue or profitability.
Josh Kopelman, a first-round partner who chairs The Inquirer’s board of directors, said it’s important for startup founders to have a deeper understanding of the problems the company is trying to solve. In many cases, access to affordable health care is inadequate.
“Joseph is connected to this on so many levels,” Kopelman said. “This is not the one who won the competition for business plans with random ideas. This is the one who is deeply involved in the problem.”
But Vitable isn’t the only one working on primary care. Over the past decade, there has been a flood of investments in primary care and telemedicine by start-ups and giants such as CVS Health Corp., which plans primary care Health Hubs in stores across the country. Plymouth Meeting praise has begun to help large corporate employees navigate their healthcare providers, and this year’s online primary care provider, Plush Care Inc. Paid $ 380 million.
“Within primary care, what’s happening today is that all big tech companies like Amazon and many digital first startups are in primary care because risk pricing and demographic management are relatively safe. That’s it, “said Paddy Padmanabhan, CEO of Damo Consulting near Chicago, which specializes in digital healthcare. He said primary care could be very beneficial under these new models, depending on the health of the target population.
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Padmanabhan said Vitable’s approach to primary care (small employers) is on the other side of the market from Amazon Care, which is trying to enroll large employers in a hybrid of virtual and face-to-face primary care. .. Face-to-face visits are only available in some markets.
Kitonga and Kopelman said most primary care start-ups are already designed for the convenience of employees of large companies with good access to healthcare services.
“It’s clearly the most profitable segment of the market, but they weren’t fully servicing the market’s long tail, small businesses, and hourly workers,” Kitonga said of the industry as a whole. .. “For me, I was interested in it and wanted to build this service for my parents and their employees. I think that’s where the problem hasn’t been resolved yet.”
Vitable’s backbone is a software system built by Kitonga and its employees that gives companies control over the “end-to-end experience,” including apps for members, electronic medical records of visits, and dashboards for employers. It is something to do. Leaving Pennsylvania in January 2020, Microsoft Corp. Declined the job as a software engineer and focused on Vitable.
Consumers can access Vitable via phone, email, or smartphone app. After that initial contact, Vitable’s algorithm routes the patient to the most appropriate care setting, whether it’s a quick virtual visit or a home visit, which allows members to visit on the same day. “Mr. Kitonga said. According to Vitable, Medicare rules do not allow people over the age of 65 to use this service.
Nurse practitioners such as Tubens-Lowa, who also work in an emergency medical center, notify Vitable that they are available in a two-week block. “It gives you a lot of flexibility. I can give them as much or as little time as I can,” she said.
Olive Baimba, President of Elite Care & Staffing LLC in Upper Darby, was excited to learn about Vitable in September 2020. Get the annual physical examination required to work as a caregiver.
The elite director of human resources learned about Vitable when the company’s nurse practitioner came to an office building and had a physical examination at another home care company based there. The elite immediately signed up for the service and now has a three-year contract covering 150 full timers, Vineba said. The elite employs more than 300 people in total.
“When we signed up, it blew my heart away. The quality of their service was excellent,” Baimba said.
Some employers see Vitable as an additional benefit that helps them retain and attract workers in times of widespread labor shortages.
That’s why Jon Myerow, the founder and partner of Tria, which has three restaurants in Center City, purchases services for 65 employees. Tria also offers traditional health insurance, and he said he will gradually pay a higher percentage of the premium as the employee’s tenure increases.
“Vitable is suitable for both people with and without health insurance,” says Myerow. “We provide non-deductible health care. It’s also very convenient because we have a nurse practitioner who goes to employees’ homes and workplaces and provides telemedicine. Convenience alone makes Cadillac planning I saw a person standing up. “
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