Launched in 2021, Cayaba Care is on a mission to improve maternity for underserved populations. The company’s home-based care model combines routine in-person care with tech-enabled multidisciplinary teams to support patients in all aspects of their pregnancy journeys. Cayaba focuses on providing holistic care for its patients, bridging gaps for women who face substantial social and health inequities. Pulse writer Niki Bakhru connected with Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Olan Soremekun to learn more about his experience building and growing Cayaba Care.

Dr. Olan Soremekun, Co-Founder and CEO of Cayaba Care

The Pulse: Looking back on your career journey, what are some experiences that led you to where you are today as co-founder and CEO of Cayaba Care?

Dr. Olan Soremekun: I started with both medical school and business school in New York at Columbia University, while also spending some time doing M&A work at Bristol Myers. Through it all, I always knew I wanted to get closer to the delivery side of healthcare. I completed my residency in emergency medicine in Boston, then moved back here to Philly. Working in the emergency departments in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, I started to recognize significant gaps within the health system, particularly for patients affected by social determinants of clinical and behavioral health. And so I took a hiatus from working at health systems to spend more time on population health work at Cigna to help providers figure out how they could be successful in a value-based program.

While I really enjoyed that work, I knew that deep down in my DNA I was an operations service line person – I wanted to build innovative solutions now using my population health mindset. I ended up in maternity partly because of this and partly because of lived experiences. At that same time, my wife and I were expecting our first baby. I saw around me how broken the system was, how patients were not getting what they needed. It translated to terrible outcomes, and we’ve done worse as a country over the last 15 years in maternity than in any other specialty. Unfortunately, if you’re black or brown, the numbers are even worse. So, I began trying to build a solution that was different and that could impact those outcomes.

The Pulse: And so Cayaba was born – can you describe the solution you built with Cayaba and how it addresses the unmet needs you mentioned?

Dr. Olan Soremekun: Sure. At Cayaba, we focus on serving low income families and mothers, mainly on Medicaid but also commercially insured. Our belief is that the future of maternity care has to be three-fold – not just in office, but also leveraging telemedicine and in-home care, personalized to the needs of the patient. It really comes back to population health and understanding the risk level of the population you serve. And, it has to be holistic, thinking about clinical, social, and behavioral factors. What Cayaba is providing is a home-based extension of the practice to address these three areas and needs, journeying with the women through her entire pregnancy to drive improved outcomes.

The Pulse: Focusing on this idea of being “home-based”, how do you leverage technology or partnerships with practices to support Cayaba’s hybrid model of care?

Dr. Olan Soremekun: Technology is really a key component of what we do. As most folks know, there’s a huge staff shortage in U.S. healthcare from a provider perspective. Critical to our model is hiring women from the communities that we serve and enabling them with technology to deliver care in a better way. In addition to bringing this team and technology to the table, we think about how to use data to understand the individual needs of our patients and to risk stratify the patient. We run that data through algorithms to match the patient with the right level of service they need for better outcomes.

The Pulse: Something crucial to this conversation, as you mentioned earlier, is that outcomes in pregnancy aren’t where we want them to be and that’s especially difficult for black and brown women. Even right here in Philadelphia, black women accounted for 43% of all births, but 73% of all deaths. What are a few examples of challenges you see facing these patient populations and how does Cayaba address these?

Dr. Olan Soremekun: Yes the numbers are staggering and driven by many factors, including inherent bias in the system. At Cayaba, we recognize that race is a risk factor. Regardless of income level, black women are at a significantly higher risk for morbidity and mortality during childbirth. To combat bias, our care model focuses on making sure we provide equity and increased access to the patient. By hiring team members from the communities we serve, we’re able to engage in a very different way. Our team can connect with patients and truly understand the needs we’re trying to address. Clinical is an important but small subset of these needs. We’re thinking about social, behavioral factors – for example, relationships and employment status. Our role is to provide support at such a critical life event and, with all the stresses that our society brings, alleviate burdens to the best of our ability.

The Pulse: Also to the benefit of your members, Cayaba’s free membership is covered by most insurance, including Medicaid. How does Cayaba find a way to provide care at low cost given historically lower reimbursement rates, especially for Medicaid?

Dr. Olan Soremekun: That’s a great question because Medicaid is difficult. We’re a home-based, hyperlocal provider group, but scalable. Our model works really well in a fee-for-value environment, but we recognize that if we’re going to work with payers, we probably have to start from a fee-for-service structure and, over time, evolve to fee-for-value. To be successful, we need to demonstrate that shift to value – being incentivized for outcomes that drive on total medical costs, patient experience, etc. We recognize we’re not building a total solution for Medicaid; we’re focusing on zip codes and neighborhoods.

The Pulse: Within the zip codes you’re focused on today, can you share examples of Cayaba’s early results?

Dr. Olan Soremekun: Early results are really encouraging and exciting in terms of patients that are engaged with the Cayaba model. Our patients are over 40% less likely to utilize the emergency department during pregnancy. They’re also three times less likely to miss appointments. Both of these are really encouraging observations. In the future, we’d also like to measure impact on things like NICU stays, transitioning from caring for the mom to the baby in terms of factors like vaccinations, etc.

The Pulse: Those results are great to hear. With these in mind, what are some strategic moves you see for Cayaba in the year ahead?

Dr. Olan Soremekun: We’re continuing our hard work in continuing to engage patients and grow. Within Philadelphia, we’re trying to engage members of our network, such as the health systems. We’ve already seen significant month-over-month growth and as we think about what we’ve built in Philadelphia, we’re starting to consider other similar cities. We have a really great playbook to expand to cities that look like Philadelphia in terms of their needs and market dynamics, so we envision transitioning from one market to many in 2022. We hope our solution continues to engage patients in a different way and continues to drive outcomes that encourage a shift from fee for services to fee for value.

The Pulse: Looking forward to seeing what’s in store for Cayaba this year and ahead. As our time comes to a close, I’d love to ask just one more question – where does the name Cayaba come from?

Dr. Olan Soremekun: I immigrated to the U.S. as a kid but I’m Yoruba and in our language, “Ayaba” means “Queen.” We intentionally chose to end the company title with Care instead of Health because we felt “care” aligned better with our vision – holistic care for queens. Finally, thinking about branding and alliteration, our team landed on “Cayaba Care.” We love what this name stands for and how it connects to our overall mission.

Interviewed by Niki Bakhru, December 2021.

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On Feb 10-11, 2022, Wharton is excited to feature more expert perspectives like this one at our annual Wharton Health Care Business Conference. This year’s conference is virtual and themed ‘A Fair Shot at Health’. Tickets available here.