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Andy Slavitt will lead Cityblock Health on an interim basis while the startup’s CEO and co-founder Iyah Romm takes a leave of absence.
Romm on LinkedIn posted a message he shared with employees Tuesday, outlining a temporary leadership plan while he goes on leave to focus on his mental health for six months.
“Building Cityblock with you all is one of the greatest joys of my life,” Romm wrote in his letter to employees. “But in order to continue to build our company for scale and for impact, now is the time for me to get healthy, for myself, for my family, my community, and for Cityblock and the members we serve.”
Romm’s leave begins Friday and will end in May.
During that time, Cityblock will be led by an office of the CEO composed of the startup’s president, chief operating officer and other members of the executive leadership team.
The office will be led by Slavitt, who chairs Cityblock’s board. Slavitt, a former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, also co-leads Town Hall Ventures, a venture-capital firm he co-founded in 2018 to invest in healthcare technology and service companies that deliver care to low-income and high-needs populations.
Town Hall Ventures is an investor in Cityblock.
“I won’t be active on social media over the next few months, but just know that I appreciate all of your support and well wishes,” Romm wrote on LinkedIn. “Let’s be sure that the grace being shown to me at my time of growth, healing and reflection extends to those more vulnerable members of our communities.”
Romm founded Cityblock as an entrepreneur in residence at Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet subsidiary and Google sister company that builds and invests in “urban innovation” companies—companies that address challenges like transportation and infrastructure that cities around the U.S. are facing.
Cityblock, which spun out from Sidewalk Labs in 2017, describes itself as a “value-based provider.” It contracts with health insurers to provide services to low-income and other underserved members that improves health and lowers the cost of care, such as through better coordinated medical care, access to behavioral healthcare and addressing social determinants.
Cityblock has raised roughly $892 million in venture-capital funding since 2017, according to data from Modern Healthcare’s Digital Health Business & Technology. The startup raised the fourth largest funding round so far this year—a $400 million Series D round it announced in September. That’s on top of $192 million that it raised earlier this year.
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