STAT+: Cadence raises $100 million to automate chronic disease care with regulated AI

Cadence, a digital health company focused on chronic disease management, announced a $100 million funding round on an unspecified recent date, led by Spark Capital. This investment values the company at $1.23 billion and is intended to fuel its expansion and the automation of clinician tasks through artificial intelligence. Cadence currently serves over 100,000 patients across more than 20 health systems, utilizing remote monitoring devices and a large clinical staff to manage conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and heart failure. The company's primary revenue stream involves charging insurers a monthly fee for remote patient monitoring, a model that has attracted scrutiny from the federal health department's watchdog and major insurers such as UnitedHealthcare. Critics contend that this reimbursement framework is susceptible to abuse and could potentially lead to substandard care. CEO and founder Chris Altchek expressed intentions to significantly scale the company's operations by automating a substantial portion of the human labor involved in patient care.