In 27 states, nurse practitioners are allowed to operate with full practice authority. That means they can run their own practices and work outside of hospital systems—often a more lucrative path. It’s an ongoing regulatory transformation to the health care industry, with more states likely to grant full practice authority to the female-dominated profession as a way to increase access to health care and especially primary care.
That’s just one of several trends transforming health care right now that led Lava Sunder and Anne Gifford to found the company Corner Health. The changing regulatory landscape for NPs, primary care shortages, and AI’s new applications in health care business operations are all at the center of their company. “It felt like the perfect storm to create something,” Sunder says.
The pair just closed a $25 million Series A round led by the health care investor Oak HC/FT, Fortune is the first to report. With $7.5 million in seed and pre-seed funding, that’s a total of $32.5 million.
Sunder and Gifford have been talking to NPs for years about what they need. “They’re wildly entrepreneurial,” Sunder says. Seventy-eight percent of NPs want to start their own businesses. (And 77% of NPs are women.) “They frankly feel quite dismissed in the medical environments they’re in today,” she adds.
