I’ve written a bit about our portfolio company Nurx since we made the investment back in 2016. Nurx is a great example of how technology is helping to reshape how healthcare is delivered.
With the Nurx mobile app, women (and men too) can find the prescription or home diagnostic test they need, connect to a doctor who can review the request and write the prescription, and get the medication or test shipped to them at home. No stigma, no wait, no travel.
What is amazing to see is the scale with which people are opting to access their healthcare this way. Nurx and their doctors are currently providing healthcare this way to over 300,000 patients a month. That turns out to be over $150mm a year of healthcare being provided by a mobile app and a network of doctors. I suspect these numbers are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of how many people will opt into this sort of relationship for their regular healthcare needs.
The Covid pandemic has certainly been a boost to all forms of telehealth and Nurx is no exception. They have seen a 75% increase in new patient requests this year. But like many things that got a boost in this pandemic, I believe many patients who adopted this approach to everyday healthcare needs will not go back to the old way when the pandemic ends. We are witnessing a sea change in the way we want to access healthcare in this moment.
Nurx accepts insurance and also offers affordable options for those who don’t have insurance. That is a reflection of Nurx’s mission to expand access and improve the quality of care while decreasing cost to the patient. Technology makes all of this possible. At USV we believe that technology can expand access and reduce the cost of healthcare at the same time and we have been investing in that theme for the last six or seven years. Nurx is a great example of our thesis in healthcare.
