As a mother of two young girls, Jen Wirt experienced firsthand the challenges of getting timely care from pediatric specialists for children with developmental delays. Early access to speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists and physical therapists plays a critical role in shaping school readiness, lifetime healthcare costs and long-term behavioral health outcomes.
Wirt founded Coral Care three years ago to solve care access gaps, such as provider shortages, long waitlists, high costs and other systemic barriers.
“Coral Care represents the modern approach to care delivery—one that is affordable, localized and customized to meet patient need,” said Olivia Baribeau of Haymaker Ventures, the lead investor in Coral’s Series A round alongside Greymatter Capital, Reach Capital, Mother Ventures, AlleyCorp and other backers. The funding will fuel Coral Care’s expansion into Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and help it extend services to Medicaid-covered families.
In-person care
Coral partners with a network of 400 licensed pediatric specialty care providers to deliver in-home care to families. The Massachusetts-based company says it cuts clinicians’ administrative workload by up to 15 hours a week, freeing more time for direct patient care.
While many providers are shifting to telehealth because it’s cheaper and faster to scale, Wirt says a screen often falls short for toddlers who won’t sit still or children struggling with self-regulation. Most of the children Coral serves have autism or ADHD diagnoses.
“In-home care is a harder model to build [since] it requires local density and payer infrastructure and real operations supporting each individual market,” she told ImpactAlpha. “For this population with these specialties, we fully believe that it produces better engagement, more durable progress, and creates a better path toward achieving outcomes.”
Lower cost
Coral currently serves families with commercial insurance but plans to expand to Medicaid over time. In many of the states where it operates, Wirt says Medicaid reimbursement makes it challenging for Coral to pay its provider partners rates that reflect the value of their work.
“Families covered by Medicaid often represent the highest-need population, and we think that it is essential that innovative care models reach them,” she added. “This funding gives us more flexibility to think about adjacent business lines sooner, including how we could responsibly and sustainably serve Medicaid populations. We want to enter Medicaid in a way that works long term for both families and clinicians.”
Through Coral’s in-network commercial insurance partners, including Blue Cross Blue Shield in Texas and Massachusetts, Cigna, Mass General Brigham and Anthem, the company says families pay an average of $20 to $40 per visit. Out-of-pocket evaluations can cost up to $250, compared with the thousands of dollars families can face through traditional providers.
