Virtual Nurse Practitioner

Baba, a Medicare-covered advocacy platform, has appointed Alicia Tennenbaum as Head of Clinical Operations. Tennenbaum previously served as Executive Director of Care Transitions at Mount Sinai Health System, where she oversaw discharge planning and post-acute coordination. Before Mount Sinai, she was Vice President of Case Management at Med-Metrix and Senior Director of Social Work and Case Management at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. Baba provides dedicated human advocates including community health workers, nurses and licensed social workers to support caregivers and Medicare recipients across all 50 states. The company focuses on post-discharge care coordination, aiming to reduce operational friction and improve care plan follow-through after patients leave hospital settings.

Patient advocacy platform Baba makes public debut with $6.5M in seed funding. March 9, 2026 New York-based Medicare- and Medicare Advantage-covered patient advocacy platform Baba has made its public debut with $6.5 million in seed led by General Catalyst, with participation from Genius Ventures, Soma Capital, Ground Up Ventures, Triedge Investments and others, the company disclosed last week. Since its launch in early 2025, Baba has supported more than 6,000 families. The company partners with nursing homes, home care agencies and home health organizations nationwide to connect older adults with advocates during care transitions. "Baba connects older adults with patient advocates, older adults and their families with patient advocates who are usually nurses or social workers who act as care coordinators across whatever part of that healthcare journey the individual might be struggling with, whether that's appointments or coordinating with home health or safe transitions home," founder and CEO Connor Sweeney told the McKnight's Business Daily. Sweeney added, "We work with dozens of skilled nursing facilities across the country who have seen that this is really improving outcomes, but also saving their staff a lot of time by acting almost like outsourced case management that's in lockstep" with social services designees and directors of nursing. Baba's services are covered by Medicare- and Medicare Advantage insurance, "so we're able to support our patients 98% of the time without a single dollar out of pocket," Sweeney said. Part of the seed funding will allow the company to expand its pool of patient advocates. "These are usually folks who have been in nursing or social worker settings for decades and either do this as a part-time job or have switched to this full time. What's really nice is they can do it remotely, so a lot of times this is a little bit easier than or a little bit less demanding sometimes than being on a hospital floor themselves," Sweeney said. The company operates nationally and typically pairs an individual with an advocate from the same geographic area "who understands the local ecosystem of resources available and that advocates available 24-7 over phone calls and texts," he said. In addition to human advocacy, Baba offers a phone- and text-based artificial intelligence companion that provides daily engagement, reminders and early signals when barriers to care arise, which allows the human advocates to intervene quickly and manage follow-through.

Baba, a Medicare-covered patient advocacy platform, has emerged from stealth with over $6.5 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst. Genius Ventures, Soma Capital, Ground Up Ventures and Triedge Investments also participated. The platform connects older adults and caregivers with experienced human advocates, typically nurses or social workers, who handle insurance challenges, scheduling issues and care coordination. Baba also offers a phone and text-based AI companion that provides daily engagement and reminders, enabling advocates to intervene when barriers arise. Founded by Connor Sweeney, Baba has supported over 6,000 families to date. The company partners with nursing homes and home care agencies nationwide and is conducting an IRB-approved clinical study with Johns Hopkins to evaluate its impact on health outcomes. The funding will support service expansion and provider partnerships.