Lava Sunder likes to say she grew up in her mother’s private medical practice.

Sunder’s mother, a doctor who emigrated to the U.S., would have Sunder filing charts during her free time. As Sunder got older, she became the de facto office manager, working on administrative tasks as her mother put her medical degree to work with her patients.

“It was just very clear to me how incredible the care an independent provider is able to provide, but also just how difficult it is for a sole provider to run their own practice,” Sunder said. “My mom is incredible. She’s one of the most capable people that I know. But it is very difficult for the average provider to start their own practice.”

That experience led her to start Corner Health, a Santa Monica-based health tech startup. The company, which helps nurse practitioners start their own private practices, announced in mid-June it raised $32.5 million in seed and series A funding. Oak HC/FT led the funding round, and San Francisco-based First Round Capital and Zigg Capital also added to the influx of cash.

How it works

When opening a private practice, doctors typically wait months to obtain specific credentials with insurance companies and hire an array of staff to operate the overall operation. That includes scheduling appointments, handling billing and dealing with labs. In short, they’re essentially small business owners, responsible for the mundane administrative burdens that underpin their medical expertise. 

Corner Health aims to streamline these processes through Cora, an artificial intelligence platform that automates much of that organizational work. Cora automates scheduling, billing, referrals and lab orders – repetitive tasks typically designated to one person.

“The dominant use of AI in healthcare today is helping clinicians move faster and see more patients,” Anne Gifford, co-founder and chief operating officer of Corner Health, said in a statement. “We’re using AI to create the opposite outcome. Our providers can see fewer patients, spend two to three times more time with each one, and still build thriving independent practices.”

The physician shortage

Corner Health is operating at a crucial nexus of healthcare. The U.S. is expected to see a shortage of over 70,000 primary care physicians by 2038, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.

As the network of primary care physicians shrink, the healthcare sector is faced with a host of problems. Doctors are contending with a larger number of patients, preventing them from spending an adequate amount of time with each one. At the same time, patients are also waiting longer to see their primary care doctor designated in their plan and are more likely to go untreated for preventable ailments.

Some clinicians like nurse practitioners can functionally do what doctors do, such as diagnose patients and prescribe medication under certain circumstances. Corner Health is working with those clinicians to help them start their own independent practices. The goal is to make standard care more accessible to patients who might otherwise need to wait weeks or months to spend a brief moment with a doctor.

“The primary care shortage isn’t fundamentally a clinician shortage,” Vig Chandramouli, a partner at Oak HC/FT, said in a statement. “It’s an infrastructure problem.”

The concept of leveraging nurse practitioners is gaining widespread acceptance in the healthcare world. In 2023, California made it possible for nurse practitioners to operate without a supervising physician. Today, over 25 states in the U.S. have adopted Full Practice Authority, which allows nurse practitioners to evaluate test results, prescribe medication and come up with treatment plans independent of a medical doctor.

“We really are, I would say, the first ever network of built-from-scratch independent practices,” Sunder said. “These are practices that didn’t exist before Corner Health for the most part. you’re literally creating a supply of medical providers to solve this pretty incredible primary care shortage.”

In neighboring Manhattan Beach, Greater Good Health has raised more than $50 million to connect nurse practitioners with doctors’ offices, making it easier for patients to see a medical professional without leaving their preferred practice.