Manik Bhat had every intention of going to medical school. His parents, physicians themselves, sacrificed a lot to move to the United States from Kashmir and build a life in Ohio for him and his brother. They wanted to make sure that he had every opportunity to pursue his passion. He would become a doctor. That was the plan. That’s what brought him, as an undergrad, to Johns Hopkins, one of the most respected universities in the country.

Except he just rescinded his offer to medical school.

As an undergrad at Johns Hopkins and after graduation, Manik spent time working at clinics to help connect low-income patients with basic resources across Baltimore, where almost a quarter of the residents live below the poverty line. But he began to feel strangely helpless.

“We were failing people on a lot of levels,” Manik said. “We were relying on poor, out-of-date data and badly coordinated systems and, as a result, we didn’t understand the community’s needs effectively and couldn’t connect people to the right services. It became clear to me that your zip code was more important than your genetic code.”

The roots of Baltimore’s inequality stretch deep into the past and have only been exacerbated in the past few years. From Johns Hopkins campus to the East Baltimore neighborhoods Manik was working in just miles away, there is nearly a 20-year gap in life expectancy. If an address could have such startling ramifications on a person’s mortality, Manik worried what kind of impact a lack of resources could have not just on his patients but the entire population.

In preparation for medical school, Manik Bhat spent time working in clinics across Baltimore, where almost a quarter of the residents live below the poverty line. “It became clear to me that your zip code was more important than your genetic code,” he said. Photos courtesy of Creative Commons.

“I thought we were squandering opportunity,” he said. “It made me really angry. Especially knowing what I knew about the power of business and technology. If we didn’t fundamentally address these needs, we weren’t just failing to build a better path for the community, we were failing to build a path to improve humanity.”

Manik knew there had to be a more effective way to address these gaps in America’s healthcare system. The U.S. has one of the most expensive healthcare systems in the developed world, but its inefficiency and inequity have a profound effect on the public’s health. As much as the country spends, it ranks poorly on nearly every measure, resulting in outcomes comparable, if not worse, to the developing world.

That’s because only 20 percent of the factors that influence a person’s health are related to access and quality of health care. The other 80 percent are due to what are known as social determinants: highly interconnected factors, such as adequate housing, poor nutrition, and drug and alcohol use, which can create medical problems. These unaddressed social needs not only affect over 70 million Americans but can also cost an estimated $85 billion a year in additional healthcare spending.

In the U.S, unaddressed social needs not only affect over 70 million Americans but can also cost an estimated $85 billion a year in additional healthcare spending. Healthify’s mission is to create a world where no one’s health is hindered by their need. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.

After seeing family after family come into the clinic and leave without getting the services they needed, Manik started to question his purpose. He could carry on and fulfill his original plan of becoming a doctor, but he would never have the impact he wanted operating within the existing healthcare system. “Seeing so much unnecessary pain and suffering in the community made me realize if we want to get serious about health, we need to get serious about this first,” he said. “People often think social needs only affect low-income, disabled or elderly people, but that’s not the case. There are overlooked needs apparent in every population and there are a lot of great services available at a low cost or even free, but there’s this huge disconnect.”

In 2013, Manik rescinded his offer to medical school and began to explore how to harness his generation’s interest in entrepreneurship to address the inefficiencies of the healthcare system for low-income Americans. “Everyone wants to be an entrepreneur,” he said, “but the problems they’re solving usually don’t move us forward as a society.”

Growing up, Manik had always had a passion for technology and entrepreneurship passed on by his older brother, but medicine always came first at home. He convinced fellow students and budding tech entrepreneurs Eric Conner, Alex Villa, and Daniel Levenson to become his co-founders and began to build a team, many of whom, like Manik, were working towards using business for good. “We all had opportunities we could’ve pursued,” he said, “but we all wanted to solve this problem and knew the large-scale impact we could have together as a team.”

That’s not to say they knew how to make that happen. Manik admits to being naïve, attempting to take on a massive industry as 20-somethings with no contacts in the healthcare system and no real experience creating a successful startup. It was a painful learning process, but that didn’t deter them. Manik and his team started to build their social enterprise known today as Healthify, an Acumen investment working to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare system for low-income people.

In 2013, Healthify landed a spot at Blueprint Health, an accelerator for health startups in New York. There, they started to build the platform at the core of the social enterprise’s work. In cities and communities across the country, healthcare providers struggle to manage patients’ needs, especially those on Medicare or Medicaid, because they don’t have a good understanding of the severity of need in a population or the proper tools to track referrals to community service. As a result, they can’t connect people to the care they need or measure the invention. The idea behind Healthify’s platform was to provide a comprehensive platform to improve how healthcare providers find community services and manage social determinants, so they could better serve the complex needs of low-income patients and ensure end-to-end care.

Right now, the U.S. spends nearly 20 percent of the GDP on health care, but only around 4 percent on social services. Photos courtesy of Creative Commons.

Upon graduating from Blueprint Health, the team of six managed to raise their first $500,000 to build out the platform and secure its first set of clients. In less than a year, the company signed clients like Johns Hopkins Healthcare, growing in revenue from zero to more than $800,000. Healthify’s big idea — to create a world where no one’s health is hindered by their need — was quickly becoming a real business. But Manik and the team knew their next steps had to be strategic. “It’s one thing to care deeply about the mission, but it’s only useful if you figure out how to scale your business. For us, the more business we could grow meant the more impact we could have.”

In early 2016, Manik and the team started to look for new investors. To raise that first round of capital, Manik had pitched a total of 117 people who didn’t always see the value of Healthify’s social mission. “I would get asked ‘Oh, so you’re working with Medicaid? You focus on low-income populations? What does that mean in terms of business growth?’” he said. “It was difficult to get people on board but, when I started talking about the market size and the growth, the proof was in the pie. Numbers don’t lie.” This time around, he wanted to find investors who would not only help him take the company to the next level, but also saw Healthify’s potential long-term impact.

“We had been talking to so many people who liked the idea of Healthify but didn’t understand the importance of what we were doing,” Manik said. “Acumen was one of the first firms that actually understood our vision. I still remember getting the e-mail saying they were in for $500,000. I jumped for joy. Literally. I was running through the streets of the East Village.”

Manik and the Healthify team outside their office in New York. Like Manik, Healthify’s co-founders were pursuing careers in medicine and social work but felt they could have a greater impact creating a business to fix the healthcare system’s inefficiencies. Photos courtesy of Healthify.

Today, Healthify works in more than 28 states, raised more than $3 million through investors like Acumen, Primary Venture Partners, Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas, and is finalizing its Series A round to continue to accelerate its growth. And even Manik’s parents have come around, seeing the impact Healthify is having within the healthcare system. But with the House of Representatives’ recent vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Manik and his team have their work cut out for them. Right now, the U.S. spends nearly 20 percent of the GDP on health care, but only around 4 percent on social services. For Manik, the answer lies in proactive, preventative care. “Right now, we’re thinking about how we can scale access to services and support policy that will help us drive our mission forward.”

Acumen America harnesses the power of entrepreneurship to tackle poverty in the United States. Our health portfolio is anchored by the generous support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s largest public health philanthropy. Learn more at www.acumen.org/america.