Garner Health: Building the ‘front door’ to healthcare
American healthcare spending is out of control. The problem isn’t that we spend too much on care, it’s that we spend too much on the wrong care. Most patients have no idea which doctors deliver the best outcomes or what procedures actually cost until the bill arrives. The result: unnecessary treatments, poor outcomes, and ballooning costs that now exceed $4 trillion annually.
For self-insured employers, who directly bear the cost of their employees’ healthcare, this is an existential problem. These companies cover more than half of all American workers, and they’re watching healthcare costs rise over 9% year-over-year with no end in sight. The system is fundamentally broken.
That’s why we’re excited to announce our investment in Garner Health. Garner has built what we think of as the ‘Moneyball database for healthcare providers’. They’ve developed evidence-based metrics to evaluate physician quality. These aren’t subjective ratings or marketing materials, they’re clinical outcomes. Which doctors follow the latest research? Who avoids unnecessary procedures? Who helps patients get healthy faster? Garner’s clinical advisors vet every metric, creating a data moat that would take years for competitors to replicate.
But data alone doesn’t change behavior. This is where Garner’s model becomes powerful. Instead of the traditional services-heavy care navigation approach, they’ve built a software-first platform with a unique incentive structure: when employees choose a Garner Top Provider, the company covers their medical bills: including co-pays, deductibles, and even surgeries. The same procedure that might saddle someone with thousands in out-of-pocket costs could cost a Garner member nothing.
The results speak for themselves. Patients see better care, and employers see an average 12% decrease in per-employee-per-month costs. It’s a rare alignment where quality and cost reduction move in the same direction.
Garner sits at a powerful convergence: rising employer healthcare costs meeting rapid improvements in AI and data infrastructure, alongside growing consumer demand for transparency. The company currently serves over 700 clients, including Kaiser, Volkswagen, and Advanced Auto Parts, covering 2.5 million people.
Healthcare is notoriously difficult to fix. But the combination of comprehensive data, intelligent software, and properly aligned incentives gives Garner the ingredients needed to actually move the needle. This isn’t incremental improvement, it’s rebuilding the infrastructure of how people find and pay for quality care.
We’re proud to partner with Nick and the entire Garner Health team on their mission to become the trusted front door between Americans and healthcare providers.
—Josh & Nadia