Seattle health-tech startup DexCare today announced it’s acquiring Mila Health, a fellow Seattle-area company that has built AI agents to call and text patients seeking medical appointments.
The startups did not disclose the terms of the deal.
DexCare, which spun out of Providence’s digital innovation group a decade ago, helps healthcare organizations fill appointment slots and manages information including patient referral requirements, insurance and scheduling protocols. The company serves 57 million patients nationwide, and customers include Kaiser Permanente, Piedmont, Texas Health Resources and Tampa General.
Mila’s technology can help answer questions related to available appointments and patient qualifications. The startup said it takes only hours to embed its technology into existing systems and launch AI agents.
“Healthcare can’t rely on out-of-the-box large language models because they’re unpredictable and can’t be audited,” said Shailu Verma, co-founder and CEO of Mila, in a statement. “With DexCare, providers and payers can configure an AI agent to complete the tasks they can’t staff for.”
Added Matt Blosl, CEO of DexCare: “AI solutions are everywhere, but health systems quickly realize that building the infrastructure, scaling the pilot, and managing the agent’s boundaries is untenable.”
Providence initially started DexCare to help with digital patient acquisition by better coordinating health system capacity and appointment booking. The startup has raised $146 million, with its most recent round totaling $75 million in 2023. It previously acquired Womp, a Bellingham, Wash.-based online commerce platform, in 2022.
The company was also a finalist for Health Innovation of the Year at the 2023 GeekWire Awards. It’s No. 43 on the GeekWire 200, a ranked index of the Pacific Northwest’s top startups, and has approximately 133 employees, according to PitchBook.
Verma helped launch Mila in January 2024 and previously served as chief product officer of strategy and innovation at UnitedHealth Group. He spent five years at Amazon Web Services as a product manager, leaving in 2021.
PitchBook reports that Mila participated in the Advanced Technology Development Center accelerator and that no equity or funding was exchanged as part of the program. The startup appears not to have raised any venture capital and has 25 employees.
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