Even the best-laid plans can change their paths.
So it is with business startups, too — even those in Madison’s booming health tech industry.
Wellbe, founded in 2010, designed Guided CarePaths for patients facing surgery or other procedures — providing advance information, forms to complete, reminders and follow-up recovery instructions — to get them involved in their own return to health.
Knee and hip replacement patients were the first targets, with the company’s first CarePath released commercially in 2012, followed by bariatric surgery the following year, and then numerous other specialty areas, from sports medicine to neurosurgery to cancer care, via Wellbe’s ConnectedCare technology platform.
The government’s Medicare and Medicaid programs had begun moving toward changes in the way health care is paid — from the current system of charging for each service and product to a pay-for-performance model with financial incentives tied to the best patient outcomes. Wellbe’s CarePaths were meant to improve patient results, and in so doing, boost hospitals’ marks, too.
But the transition to a new payment system slowed after 2016, Wellbe CEO James Dias said.
So he made some nips and tucks in the company, including staff cuts — from a peak of 30 employees in 2016 to the current 12 — and is now moving forward with new technology, new investor funds and plans to rebuild the staff. Read the full story here.
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