A physician who develops pancreatic cancer ought to have one advantage over the rest of us: she knows how medicine works. Jeremy Gurewitz’s mother was a radiologist. In 2016, when she became the patient, that knowledge did not spare her family the scramble for clinical trials, second opinions and a coherent account of the available treatments. Expertise was in every room. Somebody still had to connect the rooms.
That neglected job became the basis of Solace. Gurewitz and product leader Sara Sargent founded the company in 2022 to connect patients with professional advocates. These are people who call specialists, gather records, question bills, follow insurance appeals and keep track of what one clinician said to another. Solace’s pitch is almost offensively ordinary: when a patient is ill, let somebody experienced take care of the administrative work.
- Solace pairs patients with one continuing advocate, usually a nurse or care specialist.
- It bills eligible Medicare and other insurance plans; a patient’s cost depends on coverage.
- Its advantage is the combination of experienced people, continuity and the machinery that makes their work reimbursable.
- Its limit is practical: an advocate can move a case along, but cannot diagnose, prescribe or guarantee an insurer’s answer.
The family had a doctor. It needed a conductor.
The origin story matters because it rules out a lazy explanation for healthcare confusion. Gurewitz’s mother did not fail to understand a pamphlet. Her family faced a system in which clinical decisions, appointment calendars, insurance rules and medical records live in different places, answer to different people and rarely announce which one has gone missing. A physician can know what a trial is and still need help getting into one.
The first obstacle was surprisingly mundane. Independent advocates already existed, but they were hard to find and awkward to hire. Sargent described the original Solace as a marketplace for health advocates. Gurewitz later said that finding an advocate, then working with one, was itself too difficult. Solace built the front door: a patient explains the problem, completes an intake with a company physician, and is matched with a dedicated advocate. The service continues through phone or video visits and secure messages.
“Our advocates don’t just tell you what to do and wish you the best.”Solace, describing its service
The distinction is the verb. A directory gives you a name. Advice gives you a task. An advocate makes the calls, waits through the hold music, collects the missing documents and returns with an answer. If a referral stalls, the advocate can find out where. If a prior authorization fails, the advocate can identify the reason and help prepare an appeal. If several specialists are involved, one person keeps the thread. That person does not replace the doctor; the job is to make it possible for the doctor’s plan to happen.
A policy change gave persistence a price
The business changed when Medicare created payment for principal illness navigation and community health integration services in 2024. The rules did not invent advocates. They made certain forms of navigation billable when delivered under the required clinical arrangements. That was the hinge. Private advocates commonly billed patients by the hour. Solace could now build software, clinical intake and billing operations around insurance-covered work.
What the patient actually buys time from
For the patient, the relevant number is not a national average. It is the cost under that patient’s plan. Solace says it bills eligible coverage directly, including Original Medicare and many Medicare Advantage plans; its newer materials also describe coverage through commercial insurers. Many patients pay nothing out of pocket, but copays, deductibles or coinsurance can apply. The company’s FAQ makes the sensible first step explicit: check eligibility. An older Solace patient page also describes hourly rates for people without Medicare. There is no single public price that describes every case.
For Solace, the economics run the other way. Bloomberg reported that the company takes a variable share of Medicare reimbursements paid to advocates using its platform. Behind the service sits an electronic record system and billing technology that helps connect patient histories and submit claims. This may sound unromantic. It is also the part that lets a nurse spend time on a patient without asking that patient for hundreds of dollars an hour.
The software is backstage
Plenty of healthcare companies promise a smoother portal. Solace’s product is more specific: a continuing relationship with someone who understands the system well enough to act inside it. The company says its advocate network exceeds 2,000 and averages more than 16 years in healthcare. Its site says it has helped more than 200,000 patients and families, a company-reported measure that combines patients with the people around them.
That emphasis also explains where Solace sits in the market. Hospital patient representatives can help within a hospital; insurer case managers work for a payer; independent advocates can work directly for the patient but often require cash. Solace offers a patient-side advocate across institutions, with insurance billing and a national virtual platform. The difference is useful where care crosses several offices, or where a family member lives far from the patient. It is less useful when the need is an emergency response, a medical diagnosis or legal representation - tasks the company says advocates do not provide.
The scale has drawn capital. Solace announced a $14 million Series A in 2024, a $60 million Series B in 2025, and a $130 million Series C led by IVP in February 2026. The last round valued the company above $1 billion. The three named rounds total $204 million; a Bloomberg report put all funding to date at $211 million, including earlier capital. What did it cost to build the business? At least those publicly announced rounds, plus the expensive continuing work of recruiting advocates, handling sensitive information and collecting reimbursement. The exact operating cost is private.
Capital followed the billing code
Announced Series A, B and C rounds. Bar length is proportional to each round.What a reader can borrow
A patient need not join Solace to copy the underlying method. Keep one list of every clinician, referral and insurer contact. Save the denial letter and note its appeal deadline. Ask which person owns the next step. When a bill arrives, compare it with the insurer’s explanation of benefits before paying. When advice conflicts, ask each clinician to state the reasoning and whether they have seen the other opinion. Solace sells the experienced person who can do those things repeatedly, especially when the patient is least able to.
The company’s existence is a small indictment of healthcare’s division of labor. We have specialists for organs, codes for procedures and systems for claims. For years, the person expected to make them cooperate was the sick one. Solace’s wager is that this invisible job deserves a professional, a payment mechanism and enough continuity to remember what happened last Tuesday. It is a modest ambition with a large addressable queue.