Health Integrated takes another million in venture debt financing

Health-focused big data company Health Integrated has borrowed another million from its backer, Western Technology Investment (WTI).

Health insurance companies and risk-bearing health providers use Health Integrated’s software to understand and more profitably manage demand for health services among specific patient populations — people with chronic illnesses, for example.

The company takes surveys of at-risk patient groups and learns which patient types might be most likely to miss office appointments or fail to take their medications. It then provides health insurers with that information and provide advice on ways to reach out to those populations. The goal is to keep patients from getting re-admitted to that hospital or visiting the emergency room because they didn’t follow doctors’ orders. Readmissions and ER visits cost the health plan money, and they’d like to prevent as many of them as possible.

Health Integrated has now taken a total of $4 million in venture debt financing from WTI. The startup says it will use the money to further develop its health data analytics platform.

“WTI has backed disruptive innovators like Facebook and Google, and they have been tremendous partners to us as we’ve scaled our data-enabled services in a period of high demand,” said Shan Padda, CEO of Health Integrated. “The health plans and other stakeholders we serve are rapidly adopting our targeted population and relationship-driven model of holistic care management that is enabled by our sophisticated data strategies. The results on our clients’ medical benefit ratios and operating income have been compelling.”

Venture debt funding is often taken by startups that already have plenty of venture money or significant revenues. The lender doesn’t get equity in the company but often takes up to 5 percent interest over the prime rate on the loan.

The funding is part of WTI’s 14th fund in its 34 year history. WTI has made some good bets over the years, investing in such names as Facebook, Google, Infoseek, Juniper Networks, Postini, and others.