Eleanor Health Year in Review 2021 - Service, Outcomes, & Defining the Gold Standard

By: Corbin Petro , Co-Founder & CEO Eleanor Health

We have much to reflect on as we round the corner on 2021, a year that prolonged the pandemic, exacerbated mental health challenges, and strengthened our commitment to our mission. Along with tragedy and challenges, we’ve held on to hope and service to others as guiding principles in expanding our mission. And expand it we have.

Throughout 2021 we continued to deliver superior clinical outcomes and secured game-changing contracts with national and local payers that enable us to deliver those outcomes sustainably.? I am proud to be a part of a team that, through a relentless focus on outcomes as our North Star, continues to expand our impact by changing how improved health and care is paid for.?

Our mission at Eleanor Health is to help people affected by addiction live amazing lives. We live this mission through serving our community members and delivering whole-person care to address all of our members’ health needs. Our vision for how we deliver our mission is through a mixed clinic/virtual/in-home model that is focused on outcomes across large populations, not just limited, well-defined segments. Delivering a whole-person model like ours is only sustainable if we are able to change how we are reimbursed for our care. To solve this, we developed value-based care models that pay us for the outcomes that we achieve with our community members.?

At this time of year, I am often asked for my predictions for the coming year. Throughout 2021, we started hearing how our reputation as the gold standard was setting the bar for quality and outcomes. While access to mental healthcare was the most critical issue of the past few years, massive funding of companies that increase access through platforms connecting patients to providers has helped close this gap. What these platforms can’t and don’t deliver in their quest to democratize care is quality and outcomes. We believe the behavioral health industry is on the precipice of an awakening to the importance of quality and outcomes - delivered through care models that hold themselves accountable to more than just access, in value-based care reimbursement structures.

COVID’s continuation has only exacerbated the need for whole-person, outcomes-based mental health and addiction treatment. Our mission has never been more impactful, as demonstrated in the following highlights and testimonies from the past year.

We expanded, grew, and developed new partnerships to serve new geographies, communities, and populations:

• Deepened our reach by opening 17 new clinics, increasing from 10 to 27 in operation
• Launched 2 new states (OH, LA) with payer partnerships, growing from 4 states to 6
• Expanded our impact to 4x more community members and delivered 5x more services than 2020
• Raised an over-subscribed Series B led by world-class investor, Warburg Pincus. With 2.3% of VC funding in 2020 going to all female-founder management teams, we acknowledge that we are the 2.3%
• Signed first-of-its-kind population-based contracts with 5 national & local health plans that commit to attributing 40,000 patients to us via innovative value-based arrangements

"I can't express to you how grateful I am for you and for [Payer Partner]. I feel like I'm finally getting my life together!"

– Community Member

We developed our team and culture:

• Nearly tripled our team to 272 teammates, maintaining best-in-class employee engagement and was named one of Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work
• Continued to stand for diversity, equity, and justice, setting the standard for inclusion with 30% of the organization identifying as BIPOC, diversifying our board , and committing to anti-racism through guidance of our Black Lives Matter Committee?
• Created community in a distributed organization with 3x/month All Hands meetings, weekly emails from the CEO, virtual “Coffee with Corbin” and “Hangin’ with (Dr.) Harrison”, and motivational slack channels.

“Thank you for having the audacity to create a magical place for the people we serve. Thank you for providing opportunities for people who are operating in their callings and using their gifts. Thank you for building a culture where prejudgements and micro-aggressions weren't welcomed. Thank you for having the guts to take the unorthodox approach. In explaining where I worked to family and friends, I would liken Eleanor Health to Ellis Island. A place where talented optimists could escape the problematic issues and barriers that existed in their old workplaces.”

– Bruce Wright , Eleanor Teammate?

We continued to transform & define the gold standard for quality and outcomes for populations affected by addiction and other mental health conditions:

• Delivering industry-leading clinical outcomes:?77% of members with improved depression,?82% of members with decreased substance cravings,?84% reduction in 90-day and 40% reduction in 365-day ER/inpatient days?
• Achieved CARF Accreditation in NC & NJ , becoming the first CARF accredited in our category in NJ
• Launched tech purpose-built for our teammates & members, leveraged data including >100M claims & 60K psychometrically-validated assessments to continually improve our care model & the standard of care with one of the largest datasets of its kind
• Selected to the CB Insights Digital Health 150 and Top 21 & Top 10 Healthcare Startups to Watch in Boston

“Eleanor Health has been the best experience I’ve ever had for assisting me on my wellness path. I have never ever felt this supported. Everyone here AUTHENTICALLY cares about the success of their patients. There are regular check-ins cheering you on and making sure you’re doing well. I can’t say enough good about this experience.”

– Community Member?

As we head into 2022, I’m grateful for my co-founders Dr. Nzinga Harrison and Srishti Mirchandani and the entire Eleanor Health team, our investors, board members, partners, and community members. These next twelve months we will continue to aggressively transform healthcare for populations traditionally stigmatized and underserved – those affected by addiction and other mental health needs. I look forward to a year where we will welcome new investors, launch new partnerships, and expand the reach of our whole-person model that delivers industry-leading outcomes for our members and partners.?

Corbin Petro is the CEO & Co-Founder of Eleanor Health, a provider of evidence-based, whole person care specializing in addressing the unique complexities of individuals and populations with substance use disorder and mental health needs. We leverage proprietary technology and data-driven insights, compassionate teams, and value-based payment to deliver superior clinical and financial outcomes.