City Block

Cityblock (Cityblock Health) is a Brooklyn, New York-based healthcare provider that delivers primary care, urgent care, hospital-to-home transitions, mental health services and social care to people with complex health and social needs. The company describes itself as a value-based provider that partners with health insurance companies, and its stated focus is on Medicaid beneficiaries and individuals dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Care is delivered by multidisciplinary teams of doctors, nurses, counselors, behavioral health specialists, social workers, technologists and healthcare industry staff, and can be provided in neighborhood locations or in members' homes, with a phone line staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The company frames its model around combining clinical and community support with technology, using what it calls high-touch, high-trust and high-tech care. It works with community-based organizations such as housing agencies, shelters, hospitals and specialty providers, and selects new market locations based on accessibility factors such as proximity to public transportation and grocery stores. Its stated mission is to improve the health of marginalized communities at scale, and its stated vision is to become the leading nationwide provider of tech-enabled value-based healthcare for individuals with complex needs. According to one profile, the company has set a goal of reaching 10 million people within 10 years.

Founding story

Cityblock was launched in 2017 by Dr. Toyin Ajayi together with co-founders Bay Gross and Iyah Romm. Ajayi, a board-certified family physician who grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, trained at Stanford University, the University of Cambridge (MPhil) and King's College London School of Medicine, and previously worked at Boston University/Boston Medical Center and at Commonwealth Care Alliance, where she was Chief Medical Officer from 2015. Her experience caring for low-income patients with chronic conditions who relied on emergency rooms informed the company's focus on human-centered care for marginalized communities.

Business model

Cityblock operates as a value-based care provider that contracts with health insurance companies (health plans) rather than selling directly to consumers, delivering care to those plans' members with complex needs, particularly Medicaid and dual-eligible populations. Its care delivery combines in-person neighborhood clinics, home visits and 24/7 telephone access, supported by internally built technology.

Sources describe Cityblock as a value-based provider partnering with health insurance companies; a secondary profile states the company reported a three-times year-over-year increase in revenue in 2021. No further detail on contract structures is given in the sources.

Traction

A secondary profile reports more than 70,000 members across markets including New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, North Carolina, Ohio and Washington, D.C., cumulative funding of $891.3 million from 34 investors, a valuation of $6 billion as of May 2022, and a threefold year-over-year revenue increase reported in 2021.

Latest developments

The company's site advertises active hiring, lists insurance partners in seven markets, and promotes a newsroom item about a new addition to the Cityblock Health board of directors with a background in consumer digital health. No dated recent developments beyond this are available in the sources.