News

Sunstone Partners has made an investment in ProgenyHealth, which is focused exclusively on neonatal intensive care unit. No financial terms were disclosed.

PRESS RELEASE

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Feb. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — ProgenyHealth, the only national company focused exclusively on neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) utilization and case management, announced today that it has received a significant growth investment from Sunstone Partners, a private equity firm that invests in technology enabled services and software companies. Sunstone, which has wide experience in the health care information technology space, will help the company expand its platform and provide strategic advice to guide Progeny through its next stage of growth.

Ellie Stang, MD, ProgenyHealth’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said that this is the first time that her company has received an outside investment since she founded it in 2003.”Our management team has been evaluating various ways to accelerate our growth and decided the time was right to bring on a growth partner. Neonatal care management is a strong growth segment and one which requires a level of clinical expertise not typically found within payers. We offer comprehensive solutions that have very low upfront costs and have been able to achieve significant improvements in health outcomes. Our leadership team wanted to capitalize on the growth opportunity before us, and we decided that the best solution was to partner with a healthcare-focused firm that has significant experience with high-growth, tech-enabled healthcare services companies.”

“Sunstone has a strong healthcare background, a great reputation, and a strong understanding of health IT,” she added. “We’re impressed by their passion for our vision of healthcare, which is doing well by doing good. With our proprietary technology system, our expanding database of tens of thousands of NICU cases and our specialized staff of NICU trained clinicians, we drive better outcomes at a lower cost, while working collaboratively with providers and achieving high levels of member satisfaction. We know there’s a big opportunity to help more families and work with more providers, and Sunstone can help us reach that broader market.”

Arneek Multani, Managing Director of Sunstone Partners, said, “ProgenyHealth fits the profile of companies we invest in well: it is a category leader with a demonstrable value proposition driven by a unique technology. The market for utilization and case management services for this population continues to grow each year, due to the national opioid epidemic, advances in fertility technology and more women having babies later in life. We believe Progeny is the leader in this important and growing market, and we look forward to helping the company build on its current service offering and add complementary capabilities over time. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Ellie and her team in the company’s next phase of growth.”

ProgenyHealth, which works with both commercial and Medicaid health plans, improves the outcomes of premature and medically complex newborns through provider collaboration and parental engagement. Its team of neonatologists, pediatricians and NICU nurses advise families, not only in the NICU, but for the first year of each infant’s life. Its Baby Trax electronic health record and an associated mobile app connect families and providers to the ProgenyHealth team. The company’s superb NICU care management program reduces length of stay per case while also reducing readmission rates through a strong program of parental support and connectivity. Babies go home healthier and sooner, and the entire package of case management support through inpatient care and post-discharge followup care significantly increases member satisfaction.

About ProgenyHealth
ProgenyHealth is the market leader and the only national company focused exclusively on medically complex newborns admitted to a NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) or special care nursery after birth. Our team takes a holistic approach to working with plans, providers, and families throughout the NICU baby’s first year of life. ProgenyHealth’s neonatologists, NICU nurses, pediatric nurses, and social workers, work collaboratively with providers to ensure health care services follow evidence-based best practices and are medically necessary. Families become active participants in the health care decision making process by working closely with the ProgenyHealth clinical team.

ProgenyHealth has successfully managed thousands of NICU infants and delivered positive results to all of our health plan partners. Working with over 1,300 hospitals and 6,000 providers nationwide, we are measurably improving health outcomes for premature and medically complex newborns. For more information on our programs and services, please visit www.progenyhealth.com.

About Sunstone Partners
Sunstone Partners is a growth equity firm focused on minority and majority investments in technology-enabled services and software businesses. The firm seeks to partner with exceptional management teams, often as their first institutional capital partner, to help accelerate growth, fund acquisitions, and provide shareholder liquidity. Principals at Sunstone Partners have invested in 49 technology businesses over the past 20 years. Notable investments in the healthcare IT market include: Acclaris (sold to Willis Towers Watson), AdvancedICU Care, ArroHealth (sold to CIOX Health), Resolution Health (sold to Anthem) and Teladoc (publicly traded on the NYSE). The firm is currently investing out of Sunstone Partners I, a $310 million fund. For more information visit www.sunstonepartners.com.