How Jukebox Health Is Bringing Health Home—and Why We Invested
America’s aging population wants to grow old from the comfort of their homes; they enjoy longer lives doing so; and now there’s a better solution for safely staying put.
I can’t think of a single family that hasn’t wrestled with the difficulty of where and how aging relatives should live — I personally remember multiple difficult conversations about how my grandparents wanted to age. The reality is that more often than not, Grandpa and Grandma don’t want to live in a nursing home. In fact, more than 90 percent of adults over 65 would prefer to age in place versus a nursing home, yet most people are ill-prepared to make this a safe and viable reality. And the risks of not aging safely are huge. Post fall and hospitalization, roughly 80 percent of older adults can no longer live independently, and life expectancy drops dramatically.
Yet what most people would think is a simple process of making safe home adjustments is actually complex and time consuming. It involves finding the right occupational therapists, ordering parts and equipment, dealing with reimbursement, and managing contractors, all with the high probability of needing to repeat the process in the coming years.
Jukebox Health, and the stellar team behind it, is changing this dynamic.
After their own similar personal experiences of caring for older relatives, this issue grabbed the attention of Jukebox Health multi-time founders Romanos Fessas, Seung Bak, and Oren Shatken. Having previously founded and grown businesses that sold to Anthem, Angi, and Softbank, it’s hard to find a team that is better equipped to solve such a large and operationally complex problem of how to promote happier, healthier aging in place.
Jukebox Health’s full-stack solution empowers any occupational therapist to more easily conduct ongoing home safety checkups and ensures that the necessary adjustments are completed in a timely manner. Even simple and low cost home adjustments — grab bars, motion-sensor lights, ergonomic handles — can deliver huge safety benefits and large cost savings. It’s estimated that ~$50 billion is spent annually today in the U.S. because of non-fatal, and often preventable, falls. And, by partnering and working closely with home health agencies and payers, Jukebox is building a solution that enables healthcare organizations to target the highest risk, and often highest cost, patients.
This means that aging adults across the U.S. can live happier, healthier, and safer lives. We are incredibly excited to officially welcome the entire Jukebox Health team to the Primary portfolio as they redefine and simplify aging in place.