Cohere Health Secures $90M Series C Funding to Expand AI Applications in Healthcare

Cohere Health, a digital health company known for its prior authorization technology, has successfully raised $90 million in a Series C funding round. This significant investment will enable the company to broaden its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and address additional technological challenges faced by payers and providers in the healthcare industry.

Funding Details and Investor Participation

The funding round was led by Temasek, an investment firm owned by the Singapore minister for finance. Other notable investors included Deerfield Management, Define Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Longitude Capital, and Polaris Partners. This latest investment brings Cohere Health's total funding to over $200 million, following a $50 million Series B round last year.

Expanding AI Applications Beyond Prior Authorization

While Cohere Health has primarily focused on simplifying prior authorization processes, the company is now setting its sights on leveraging AI to improve care management and alleviate other administrative burdens in healthcare. CEO Siva Namasivayam explained the company's strategy:

"Now we are finding that, since we have a lead in the marketplace, we want to be able to take the clinical grade AI we developed and get into additional areas that can help both the payers and the providers."

The majority of the funds will be allocated to developing advanced AI models, which require substantial investment in cloud bandwidth, processing power, and expertise. Additionally, the company plans to bolster its sales and marketing efforts and explore potential small acquisitions to enhance its subject matter expertise.

AI-Driven Efficiency in Healthcare Administration

Cohere Health's AI technology has already demonstrated significant success in streamlining prior authorization processes. The company currently handles 12 million prior authorization requests annually, with AI making real-time decisions in 85% of cases. The remaining 15% receive final approval from nurse reviewers and medical doctors, assisted by AI co-pilots to expedite decision-making.

Namasivayam envisions similar opportunities to simplify care management processes:

"We believe we can simplify the whole thing, so instead of it taking 40 to 50 minutes for the physician to be able to review, with our copilot we can get that down to 10 minutes. That allows them to work on top of their license because today, people actually spend a lot of time ... not able to truly focus on their clinical expertise."

This approach aims to reduce physician burnout by allowing healthcare professionals to focus on their core competencies rather than administrative tasks. The company also plans to apply this concept to other administrative processes, such as compiling and distilling patient medical records across multiple provider departments to facilitate faster and more efficient patient care.