A Candid Update on Recent Primary Care Investments

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Many private equity folks and venture capitalists seem to salivate when approached with primary care opportunities. Not the good ones, like independent DPC offices, but the ones they think will scale quickly. Remember, they always want ten times their money and they want it quickly. With that in mind, let’s see what’s out there:

  1. Carbon Health – They do primary care and offer “both in-person care at nearly 100 clinics and virtual care services,” and just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief in Texas. Carbon Health had raised more than $600 million across multiple funding rounds.
  2. Cano Health: Filed for bankruptcy in early 2024 to undergo financial restructuring, closing clinics to focus on Florida markets. Had over a billion in debt. Supposedly went private and is surviving for now.

3. Miscellaneous – I have blogged about Forward who tried to make a go of DPC and failed. Here is a list of 20 other healthcare failures in 2025. They are not all primary care but you get the point.

Primary care is not easy if you load it up with middlemen. When you add administrators and businessmen and VC/PE, then you are going to fail. It’s really that simple. DPC, on the other hand, has a 90% success rate.

So, what’s on the horizon?

  1. Death Clock Launches “Life Lab”: An AI Health Concierge Democratizing Private-Doctor Level Care for the Mass Market – Here is how they are described: “The world’s #1 longevity app, today announced the launch of Life Lab, an advanced AI health concierge designed to shift healthcare from reactive treatment to proactive prevention. This major evolution brings “Medicine 3.0″ capabilities to the public, including integrated blood work from over 4,800 Labcorp, Quest, and BioReference locations and the ability for users to upload existing records from their own physicians. All blood tests also include the biomarkers necessary to calculate a blood based death date and biological age.” Pricing is from $99-$299 a year. Investors include prominent VC firms such as Freestyle Capital, Village Global, Harrison Metal, King River Capital, Origin Ventures, and Cake Ventures. (You tell me how they can get their money’s worth with this?)
  2. Lotus Health nabs $35M for AI doctor that sees patients for free – From the article: “In May 2024, he launched Lotus Health AI, a free primary care provider that’s available 24/7 in 50 languages. On Tuesday, Lotus announced it raised $35 million in a Series A round co-led by CRV and Kleiner Perkins, bringing its total funding to $41 million.” (Free? I have been reminded about this saying which is if you aren’t paying for the product that YOU ARE THE PRODUCT!) “AI is giving the advice, but the real doctors are actually signing off on it,” Dhaliwal told TechCrunch. Lotus recognizes the limits of virtual care. For urgent health issues, Lotus directs patients to the nearest urgent care center or emergency room. And if a case requires a physical examination, the platform refers the patient to an in-person physician, Dhaliwal said.
  3. Doctronic – Doctronic offers an AI-enabled doctor consultation platform. The company says the AI asks relevant clinical questions in response to individuals’ inquiries and provides medical explanations. The platform also offers access to licensed physicians via video visits starting at $39. The company will use the funds to expand its direct-to-consumer services as well as its partnerships with payers and health systems. (What doctor wants to see patients for $39? And that is what the company charges. How much will actually go to the doctor or nondoctor?)

As you can see, big money is being thrown around for primary care and healthcare in general. What amazes me is that they don’t seem to mind losing millions. It’s crazy. For VC-backed DPC, the only ones left are the ones going after employers. They gave up on treating the public themselves.

Why bring this up? Well, imagine if this kind of money were available to back independent DPC practices with grants or no-interest loans. Primary care doctors would leave the system in droves. More students would pick primary care as their future. This would be the tipping point to fixing our broken healthcare system, as insurance companies would get out of the primary care business and just do catastrophic care.

I can dream, can’t I?

Feel free to offer your criticisms in the comments.

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About Douglas Farrago, MD

Dr. Farrago is a retired family physician based in Forest, Virginia. Since 2021, he has run DPCnews.com, a leading resource for the Direct Primary Care (DPC) movement. He is the author of three best-selling books on Direct Primary Care: The Official Guide to Starting Your Own Direct Primary Care Practice The Direct Primary Care Doctor’s Daily Motivational Journal Slowing the Churn in Direct Primary Care (While Also Keeping Your Sanity) In 2016, Dr. Farrago conceived the idea for the Direct Primary Care Alliance and co-founded the organization alongside other pioneering DPC physicians. He is widely recognized as a leading expert in the DPC model and frequently lectures to medical students, residents, and practicing physicians on how to successfully start and run their own DPC practices.Dr. Farrago sold his Direct Primary Care practice in October 2020 but continues to receive care there as a patient.