Goodroot puts down roots in US Healthcare Industry, hometown

Submitted

CANTON – Healthcare entrepreneur Mike Waterbury announced the founding of Goodroot on Oct. 22, during a tree-planting ceremony at a park near the company’s headquarters in Canton. Goodroot is now the parent company of formulary optimization company RemedyOne, which Waterbury founded in 2015. RemedyOne has saved consumers more than $800 million by helping employers and benefits managers make strategic decisions about which drugs are covered at what price in order to increase wellness and lower costs.

Goodroot also includes the brands AlignRx, Penstock, Famulus, ScholarScripts and Revision, and will serve as an umbrella for additional ventures that aim to fix aspects of the US healthcare system. At the tree planting, Waterbury pledged that Goodroot’s brands will combine to save consumers $30 billion in healthcare costs over the next five years.

“There’s a pervading notion that the shortcomings of the American healthcare system are these massive, intractable problems that can only be fixed by sweeping action from Washington,” says Waterbury. “Those of us with decades of experience in pharmaceutical benefit management and other areas of the healthcare industry can see that issues such as high costs and lack of accessibility are actually the sum of many broken processes that can be corrected by private-sector innovation.”

“Goodroot is a home for healthcare disruptors,” Waterbury continues. “We are founding Goodroot to free the talent and creativity that is currently stifled within our healthcare system. Brands under the Goodroot umbrella will replicate the rapid growth and success of RemedyOne as they improve efficiency and effectiveness of many different aspects of healthcare.”

On its website, goodrootinc.com, Goodroot invites healthcare entrepreneurs to join with them to launch and scale their businesses quickly. Connecticut has a strong entrepreneurial heritage including the founders of several healthcare giants based in Hartford as well as manufacturers like Elisha Root, who revolutionized axe manufacturing in the 19th century in a building that is now home to Goodroot’s headquarters in the village of Collinsville in Canton.

“We’re very fortunate to have RemedyOne, and now Goodroot, in one of the most prominent buildings in the center of Collinsville,” says Canton First Selectman Robert Bessel. “The idea of ‘good roots’ is very appropriate because from day one, Mike and his team have been sinking roots into the community and have never stopped being active in events and making this town a better place to live and work. We see today’s tree planting as a continuation of their good service in town. Just as Goodroot identifies a need in healthcare and addresses it with courage, when they learned about the need to complete the tree line at Mill Pond Park, they took swift action to make it a reality.”

The addition of 19 Adam’s Leaf crab apple trees planted today in Mill Pond Park in Canton serve both to beautify the park and to enhance safety by providing a barrier between East Hill Road and the baseball field. Goodroot’s donation of the trees is noted at the site with a plaque.

“We are putting down roots in healthcare and creating a community of enterprises and ideas coming together to reinvent healthcare–one system at a time,” says Waterbury. “To symbolize the commitment of our new venture, we wanted to plant trees at our launch. By the time these trees have reached maturity, we will have eliminated billions of dollars of waste from our healthcare system and directed it back to patients. Achieving these goals won’t be easy, but it begins by creating new growth, one ‘good root’ at a time.”

“Although our influence will be national,” he continued, “we are rooted in the community of Canton and Collinsville. What better way to be reminded of our commitments than to watch these trees grow where we live and work.”

See more at goodrootinc.com