Best Buy Acquires Current Health

Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) will acquire the home-based care technology platform Current Health for an undisclosed amount. The electronics retailer has joined the ranks of massive, non-traditional health care companies seeking to capitalize on demographic tailwinds and the shift of services towards the home.

Established in 2015, Current Health brings to market a tech solution designed to integrate remote patient monitoring, telehealth and patient engagement. At its launch, the company oriented its business model around partnerships with health systems, but Current has increasingly focused on home-based care in recent years. Earlier this year, Current joined the Moving Health Home coalition, a collaborative of companies that advocate for home-based care, spearheaded by Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN).

Companies like Best Buy can improve access to home-based care by leveraging their vast infrastructure and resources to build scale, according to Current Health CEO Christopher McCann.

“Providers face infrastructure, technology and logistics gaps that obstruct them from delivering care in the home,” McCann wrote in a blog announcing the sale. “This means that despite advances in medicine, these hurdles will continue to hold us back from realizing their true benefit. Overcoming these two challenges is no small feat. It requires enormous physical infrastructure and human-centric capabilities that take decades to build.”

Current Health has a history of attracting investors. The company received $43 million in Series B funds in April, Hospice News’ sister site Home Health Care News reported. This followed a Series A round that garnered $11.5 million in 2019. 

Current will come under the auspices of the tech giant’s subsidiary Best Buy Health, which also has a strong focus on home-based care. Best Buy Health offers virtual care solutions, medical devices and communications technology designed for telehealth and other services with an emphasis on older adults covered by Medicare and/or Medicaid, as well as the senior living population.

Driving these moves are the hurricane-force tailwinds generated by the aging population. About 10,000 people in the United States become Medicare eligible every day, a trend that began in 2011 and is expected to last through 2030, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MEDPAC).

The U.S. Census Bureau projected in 2017 that 77 million people across the country will be 65 or older by 2034, or 1 in every 5 people. This population will substantially increase demand for serious illness and end-of-life care, contributing to a strong growth trajectory for the hospice and home-based care markets.

Close to 80% of older adults have at least one chronic disease and 77% have at least two, according to the National Council on Aging. Chronic disease accounts for approximately 75% of U.S. health care expenditures.

Best Buy expanded its health care technology infrastructure with the 2018 purchase of GreatCall for $800 million. The company’s pursuit of senior and health care assets continues a trend of large non-health care organizations investing in these types of services. Both Amazon and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) are themselves increasingly active in the health care space.

“The future of consumer technology is directly connected to the future of health care,” said Deborah Di Sanzo, president of Best Buy Health. “We have the distinct expertise in helping customers make technology work for them directly in their homes and by combining Current Health’s remote care management platform with our existing health products and services, we can create a holistic care ecosystem that shows up for someone across all of their health care needs.”