Relevant Health Homes Joins Foothold Technology

Foothold + Relevant: Frequently Asked Questions

We are thrilled to announce that Relevant Health Homes has joined Foothold Technology. Below you will find some frequently asked questions and answers about what’s happened, what it means, and what our plans are moving forward.

What is Foothold Technology?

Foothold Technology was founded in 2000 in New York City, and provides EHR and HMIS software to agencies across the spectrum of social services, including developmental disabilities, mental health, substance use disorder, homelessness, supportive housing, and more. Foothold supports customers in 28 states, plus Puerto Rico and Guam, the majority of which are in New York State.

What is Relevant? What is Relevant Health Homes?

Relevant was founded in 2015 in New York City, and until recently comprised two business units: Relevant Health Homes and Relevant Analytics. Relevant Health Homes (RHH) provides care management software geared toward Health Homes in New York State, and currently supports 66% of the Health Home membership in the downstate region and more than 40% of the Health Home membership statewide. Relevant Analytics provides data and population health tools for more than 45 community health centers across the country.

What’s the headline?

On January 20th, 2021, Foothold Technology acquired Relevant Health Homes from Relevant. The RHH product is now owned and operated by Foothold, and the entire RHH team has moved from Relevant to Foothold. Relevant remains an independent company, and will continue to provide its analytics and population health tools to community health centers.

What does this mean for the Foothold and RHH products?

Neither the Foothold product (AWARDS) nor the RHH product is going anywhere. While our products share many common features, each serves a distinct purpose and customer base.

What does this mean for the Foothold and RHH teams?

Everyone on the RHH team has moved over from Relevant and is now employed by Foothold Technology. Jacob Hodes, co-founder and formerly CEO at Relevant, will continue to lead the RHH team as Foothold’s new VP of Care Management. The RHH team will continue to maintain, build, and support the RHH product, just as before.

Similarly, the Foothold team will continue to maintain, build, and support the AWARDS product. Over time, we see exciting opportunities to collaborate across teams, but for now, each team will remain 100% focused on their respective products and customers.

Tyler Hoffman will remain CEO of Foothold, overseeing the combined business.

What does this mean for Relevant?

Relevant will remain independent from Foothold, and will retain the Relevant name and brand. Brandon Hamilton, Relevant’s co-founder and former CTO, has assumed the role of CEO. Jacob Hodes will also continue to play a leadership role at Relevant.

What does this mean for the RHH brand?

Soon, Relevant Health Homes will be renamed Foothold Care Management. The RHH product was built within a Health Home, and the New York Health Home program will remain a primary area of focus. But over time we plan to develop the product so that it can support many flavors of care management, both within and outside of Health Homes. Our new name – Foothold Care Management – reflects this broader commitment.

What’s exciting about this partnership?

We’re excited because:

• Our cultures and missions are aligned: The Foothold and RHH products share similar origin stories, are helping the same agencies, and ultimately, are helping the same people that these agencies support.
• Healthcare technology should not be siloed: Under one roof, we hope Foothold and RHH can begin breaking down the technology silos that get in the way of progress.
• Double data entry is painful: Many agencies in New York manage separate EHR software and Health Home software. As a result, agencies must decide which is more painful: no single system of record, or double data entry. We hear about this challenge directly from the agencies we support all the time, and believe that we can address this challenge by working together.
• Mutual Learning: Both Foothold and RHH have strengths and opportunities for improvement. We believe we can help each other learn, grow, and collectively serve our customers better. Learning from each other will better equip each team to navigate the changing behavioral health and care management landscape over the next several years. 

If my agency currently uses both AWARDS and RHH, will I be able to share data across platforms?

We believe that sharing data across these two platforms could help agencies that use both AWARDS and RHH in a number of ways. It could reduce the need for double data entry, it could enable comprehensive agency-wide reporting, and it could facilitate closing the loop on referrals, to name a few. 

However, we need to dive deeper into the technical architecture of both systems before we know what’s possible. We also want to make sure the short-term transition from Relevant over to Foothold is a seamless one for RHH customers and the RHH team. Once we have a more informed view on the possibilities for data exchange and the difficulty/timeline of implementation, we will share more details with customers.

What should Foothold and RHH customers expect?

Foothold and RHH customers should see the same great service that they have come to expect from the Foothold and RHH teams. 

Our immediate priority is to ensure a seamless transition for the RHH team over to Foothold, which should largely happen behind the scenes. We anticipate that this transition will be largely complete by the end of March, at which point we will begin turning our attention to the evolution of the RHH product from Health Home software to more general-purpose care management software. At this time we will also begin to evaluate integration between AWARDS and Foothold Care Management to address the pain of double data entry.

Who can I reach out to with additional questions?

For current Foothold and RHH customers, you can reach out to your respective Customer Success or Services team contacts if you have any additional questions. You can also always reach out to Tyler Hoffman, Foothold’s CEO, at [email protected]