RetraceHealth Secures $1M Funding to Expand In-Home and Virtual Primary Care Services

Headquartered in Minnesota, USA, the company specializes in primary care home visits and telemedicine consultations. It recently secured $1 million in financing from investors including Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthEast Care System, and McKesson Ventures.



In 2013, Thompson Aderinkomi founded the company based on two personal experiences. The first experience was related to seeking medical care: he took his son to a clinic when the boy had a fever and persistent cough. The doctor diagnosed it as a viral infection that would resolve on its own. However, his son’s condition showed no improvement. He took his son to see doctors three more times, but the condition worsened with each delay, ultimately developing into pneumonia.

Another experience relates to the healthcare system: The Aderinkomi family enrolled in a high-deductible health plan in 2012 with a $7,000 deductible, yet they still had to pay $664.28 in medical expenses when the final bill arrived.

This made Aderinkomi recognize the flaws in the healthcare system: seeking medical care at hospitals is not only time-consuming but also expensive. He decided to establish his own healthcare company.

Aderinkomi said that when he decided to start his company, his first thought was to draw inspiration from past approaches to medical care. “If we step back a bit, we will find that many aspects of historical healthcare practices are worth learning from and preserving. I believe we should provide house-call services as was done in the past. That is why I named my company RetraceHealth.”

RetraceHealth provides primary care services to patients through video consultations and home visits. Patients first log in to the company’s website to schedule an appointment, and then communicate with clinicians via smartphones, tablets, computers, or other devices. For conditions requiring in-person diagnosis and treatment, such as those needing medical testing, clinicians will conduct home visits.

RetraceHealth’s fee structure consists of two tiers: standard fees and membership fees. The standard fee model applies to pay-per-visit services. Standard rates are as follows: $60 for video consultations, $150 for home visits, $190 for home visits including medical laboratory tests (with follow-up visits provided free of charge), $160 for in-home X-ray examinations, and $160 for ultrasound examinations. Under the membership model, individual plans cost $50 per month, while family plans cost $100 per month. RetraceHealth has also established a network partnership with its investor, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. Additionally, it provides medical services to another investor, HealthEast Care System.

RetraceHealth hires only nurse practitioners to provide patient care. In primary care, approximately 20 states allow nurse practitioners to practice independently.

Currently, this service has nearly covered the entire state of Minnesota. The company will use these funds to expand its services to other states that allow nurse practitioners to practice independently, including Connecticut, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Rhode Island.

Aderinkomi believes that hiring nurse practitioners is far preferable to hiring primary care physicians with an M.D. degree. He stated, “Nurse practitioners often deliver better outcomes than physicians and are rarely sued. Furthermore, their malpractice insurance premiums are lower than those of physicians in the same specialty, which is telling. The training pathways for physicians and nurse practitioners differ significantly; nurse practitioners must first work as nurses, then become registered nurses, and finally advance to become nurse practitioners. This model enables them to accumulate substantial experience in patient care.”

Circle Medica, another company providing primary care services through house calls, raised $2.9 million in funding a few months ago. Circle Medica’s house-call services include annual health checkups, vaccinations, chronic disease management, and treatment for illnesses and injuries.

Compiled by: Chen Kun

Editor: Zhang Nan