Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that nearly one in every 10 U.S. children has been diagnosed with autism, an intellectual disability or another developmental delay. Jen Wirt, the mother of two children with developmental delays, thinks that the country’s programs to treat developmental delays and disabilities “are massively failing” to meet the surging demand for care.
She knows the frustration of having to wait more than half a year on a provider waitlist while watching her daughter miss out on activities that other kids got to participate in. She understands the stress of wondering whether her daughter’s treatment will even still be in the time window for efficacy once the months-long wait to access care finally ends. After experiencing firsthand the shortcomings of existing public and private programs, Wirt did some research about what other parents in her situation were going through in New York (where she lives).
“When I started to dig into these programs more and more, there were a bunch of articles saying that the average wait time for an early intervention program is 12 months. Kids are going to age out the program before they can get in,” she said in an interview this month.
Wirt knew something had to be done, so she founded Coral Care, a startup that brings pediatric developmental specialty care into families’ homes.
The startup announced its official launch on Tuesday. It soft-launched in Massachusetts in November and has since expanded to serve families in New Hampshire and Rhode Island as well.
In addition to its official launch, the startup also announced on Tuesday that it has received $1.3 million in pre-seed funding. Investors included Greymatter Capital, Purpose Built Ventures and Reach Capital. Wirt, who serves as Coral Care’s CEO, said the company will begin expanding into two additional markets in the Northeast in the spring.
On Coral Care’s platform, parents can book at-home sessions with local care providers, including occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists and physical therapists.
“Oftentimes, you get the best care at home. The benefit of at-home care, especially with children, is that patients are more comfortable in their environment. You don’t have to overcome anxieties and discomfort before you can even actually start treatment. A lot of the time, your home becomes your therapy space. As a parent, you can use the tools that you already have in your home — and that your children are already familiar with — to help them,” Wirt explained.
This commitment to at-home therapy helps distinguish Coral Care from some of the other startups out there focusing on the treatment of autism and developmental delays, such as Beaming Health or AnswersNow.
To help families afford at-home therapy, Coral Care is contracting directly with payers. The startup’s services are currently in-network with four insurers — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Harvard Pilgrim Health, Mass General Brigham and Tufts — Wirt said. For those who don’t have coverage through these plans, Coral Care offers transparent, fixed self-pay pricing — $250 for an in-home evaluation and $125 for each in-home appointment.
Coral Care doesn’t just work for parents — Wirt noted that the startup’s platform benefits providers as well.
Many of the professionals making up Coral Care’s provider base work in school districts, where they are underpaid, she pointed out.
“One of the reasons why there is such a supply shortage for getting care is that the vast majority of professionals under these professions in pediatrics work in the public sector — something like 80%. In school districts, across the country, they’re extremely underpaid. They make an average of like $35 an hour — these people have doctorates and Master’s,” Wirt declared.
So for a lot of these providers, having some more therapy hours is an attractive opportunity — but they don’t want to deal with the hassle of getting dozens of administrative tasks taken care of on their own, she explained.
For providers specializing in pediatric developmental specialty care, the platform is “the simplest path to starting or growing a private practice,” according to Wirt. Coral Care manages all back-end processes — such as those related to scheduling, documenting, credentialing, liabilities insurance, claims and payment — for the independent contractors on its platform, she said.
