RedBrick Health raises $15M - San Francisco Business Times:

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The cash-for-equity investment was announced in arecenft U.S. Securities and Exchanged filing. RedBrick said the financinfg was led by newinvestor (KPCB) of Menlko Park, Calif., and also included existing investors , and . “RedBrick Healthg brings a new dimension in accountability tohealtb care, which is why we selected them as our firstr new health care investment of the year,” KPCB partnetr Beth Seidenberg said in a news Barbara Lubash, a managing director at Menlo Park, Calif.-baser Versant, said Redbrick will use the funds for sales and development as it growes past the early-adopter RedBrick from Fidelity, Highland and Versant abou t a year ago.
Minneapolis-based RedBrick was , a pioneerf in consumer-directed health coverage that was boughtyby Minnetonka-based for $300 million in 2004. RedBricik offers health assessment andscreening tools, healtj coaching programs over the telephone and Internet, and other preventative healthb services. Workers get financial awardsa for participating and employers are able to reduce healtuhinsurance costs. Recent wins for the companuy include with theNortheasft U.S. supermarket operator Hannaforsd Bros. Co., which is expandinb preventative health servicesfrom 2,40o to 18,000 workers. More insurers are offering preventative healtg programs to the employers that aretheirt customers.
But RedBrick and competitorw suchas Franklin, Tenn.-based might have an advantage becausew employers might trust an outside company more than an said John Nyman, a professor of health economic at the University of Minnesota. “You sort of have a littlw bit better feelof what’z going on when you go with an outside Nyman said. More companies have adopted preventatived health programs in recent years because they see them as a way to save money onhealth costs, while also providing employes benefits like smoking-cessation programs or nutrition advice.
Nymab recently published a study about howthe disease-managementt program that Healthways provides the university produced an average $1,376 in savings among each of the more than 1,00 workers who participated in 2006. “That’s the bet. It’w whether there’s sufficient evidence that there will be a reductionj in the health care costs that will more than offset the costs of theprogram itself.
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