About a year ago, Milwaukee health care startup Access HealthNet revealed it would move into a much larger office space and hire 50 employees in 2017.
At that point, the company had 22 employees and was based out of a 3,000-square-foot office at the Shops of Grand Avenue.
Credit: Lila Aryan
Today, Access is headquartered in a 14,000-square-foot space at 105 W. Michigan St. and while it didn’t meet its initial hiring timeline, has grown to about 40 employees. The company also raised a $3.5 million series A round in June and is already in the midst of completing a $3 million series B round with the help of some unnamed local venture groups. The funds are being used for expansion and operating capital.
Local investors include John Torinus and Tom Schuster of Wisconsin Super Angel Fund, as well as Howard Frankenthal, president of Mequon-based food distributor Frankenthal International Ltd.
“Fundraising itself has been brisk and the interest has been high,” said Eric Haberichter, co-founder and chief executive officer of Access.
The startup coordinates between payers and providers to bundle health care services and offer each for a predetermined flat fee. It’s an increasingly popular solution in an age of escalating health care costs and complex reimbursement structures. For its disruptive approach to health care costs and its rapid growth, Access HealthNet is the BizTimes Best in Business 2017 Small Business of the Year.
Back in December 2016, Access HealthNet had 4,000 providers under contract nationally. Now, it has more than 7,000 provider locations, with another 2,700 in the pipeline. The company has 20 distributor contracts, and has priced out more than 1,200 health care bundles.
“It’s not just that we have 20 clients; we have 20 people with client bases that are enrolling in our platform,” Haberichter said.
Haberichter said Access HealthNet is glad to be part of a burgeoning tech scene in Milwaukee, especially since some of the other startups are potential collaborators.
While Access experienced rapid growth in 2017, “2018 is really going to be our breakout year,” he said. “There are a lot of exciting new partnerships with local vendors on both the provider and technology side that are really going to propel the company forward.”
For example, last month Access HealthNet landed a major Wisconsin health care provider, the Marshfield Clinic, which has more than 50 locations in the northern half of the state.
The startup plans to undertake another hiring push in early 2018 as a number of new clients come on board with the Jan. 1 start of many plan years.
Access has also had success on the employer side. Brokers like M3 Insurance and Hays Cos. are on board.
“I think it’s just a matter of timing. It’s the right place, the right time,” Haberichter said. “Something that’s about disrupting and controlling the cost of health care, there’s hardly a better place for it to come from.
“We also have an employer base here that although they might be very conservative in terms of change, they’re very loyal to their employees and right now I think the idea of controlling the cost of health benefits while making it more affordable to employees is important.”
Access HealthNet allows employers to take some control of health care spending in a proactive way, which has resonated with them, he said. At the same time, providers get a more reliable payment, so their profits increase.
“The demand for employees has grown to where employers are trying to make their health plans richer, not leaner,” he said. “A product like ours fits into that, so that timing is very right. People are also very sick of the out-of-control nature, they feel, of health care. Everything’s changing without them having any say.”
Because it isn’t replacing an existing product in the marketplace, Access is actually creating new employment for Wisconsin rather than shifting it around, he said. And the employees at Access believe in the product, so several of them have left big money jobs to join the team.
“We also learned so much over the last couple of years,” Haberichter said. “On a daily basis, I’m more proud than anything of the talent that we’ve been able to attract to the team.”
