“We ask ourselves, ‘Is this a technology that can significantly improve care delivery, specialty care, transitional care, pharmaceutical services or whatever within the safety net delivery system?‘”

Sandra Hernandez, the second ever, President and CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) joined Dr. Pat Salber () at the 2015 Health Tech Forum‘s Innovation Conference themed the “Common Good.” She said that for the last 5-6 years, CHCF has been running a Health Innovation Fund for early stage companies that have new tech tools or products that could improve care for a large number of MediCal (California’s Medicaid program) or low income populations; or that have the potential of creating efficiencies and/or generating significant savings.

CHCF tries to match the companies with organizations where their product can be piloted. They provide early stage loans to fund a formal evaluation of the outcomes of the pilot and to help get the company get off the ground. In the end, the hope is that their business model gets embedded and ideally scaled within a safety net delivery system.

Watch the video as Dr. Hernandez provides an overview of the Foundation’s Innovation Fund that helps young companies hone their products and business models to serve California’s Safety Net organizations.

You can also read more about the interview here.

This video is under BY-ND creative commons.