What happened at Forward Health?

I’ll acknowledge that I’ve been skeptical for some time now of primary care businesses in health care that are cash pay, clinic-based and claim to differentiate themselves through technology.

If primary care is truly concierge, meaning there’s a wealthy patient base in mind, then it’s usually discrete, heavy on services, and not backed by venture capital. Some of the most elite, concierge medical practices I’ve encountered in my career don’t even have a website by design. You have to know the right people to find your way to it - and if you’re lucky enough to be allowed on the waitlist, expect to pay $50,000 a year (or more).

Forward Health launched about a decade ago with a vision of high-end primary care via subscription, where patients in urban areas could get access to the latest and greatest technology. Think of it like a more expensive, more tech-forward version of One Medical. But with no health insurance accepted. The company had clinics in urban areas, like San Francisco and New York City, and in its most recent iteration, it built “CarePods” that claimed to use AI to do automated medical checkups. The company announced it raised $100 million to roll those out.