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

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The cash-for-equity investment was announcedr in arecent U.S. Securities and Exchange RedBrick said the financing was led by newinvestoe (KPCB) of Menlo Park, Calif., and also included existingv investors , and . “RedBric k Health brings a new dimensioj in accountability to health which is why we selected them as our firsf new health care investment of the KPCB partner Beth Seidenberg said in anews release. Barbar a Lubash, a managing director at Menlo Park, Calif.-bases Versant, said Redbrick will use the fundasfor marketing, sales and developmenrt as it grows past the early-adopter RedBrick from Fidelity, Highlandf and Versant about a year ago.
Minneapolis-based RedBrick was , a pioneer in consumer-directed health coverage that was bough tby Minnetonka-based for $300 milliojn in 2004. RedBrick offers healtjh assessment andscreening tools, health coaching programse over the telephone and Internet, and other preventativ e health services. Workers get financial awards for participatinf and employers are able to reduce healtuinsurance costs. Recent wins for the compan y include with theNortheast U.S. supermarket operator Hannafordd Bros. Co., which is expanding preventative healtjh servicesfrom 2,400 to 18,000 workers. More insurers are offeriny preventative health programs to the employers that aretheier customers.
But RedBrick and competitors suchas Tenn.-based might have an advantage because employersz might trust an outside companh more than an insurer, said John a professor of health economics at the Universitg of Minnesota. “You sort of have a little bit betteer feelof what’s going on when you go with an outsidr company,” Nyman said. More companies have adoptedf preventative health programs in recent years because they see them as a way to save moneuy onhealth costs, while also providing employee benefits like smoking-cessation programs or nutritioh advice.
Nyman recently published a study aboutt howthe disease-management program that Healthways provides the universit produced an average $1,375 in savings among each of the more than 1,00o0 workers who participated in 2006. “That’s the bet. It’s whether there’s sufficieny evidence that there will be a reduction in the health care cost that will more than offset the costse of theprogram itself.
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