No new kid on the block, MEDecision has been working to increase the interaction between payers, providers, and patients for the last 17 years.
"It is our firm belief that the key to their interaction is not in payment processing but information transfer," says John Copobianco, MEDecision president. "We started in the payer world, because that's where the information resided."
About two years ago, MEDecision decided to create patient clinical summaries (PCSs) — clinically validated payer-based claims data records for use by providers at the point of care. The company still targets the payers to buy its software and services — including PCSs — allowing them to, in turn, to push the records to affiliated providers, who also have the option of making them directly available to customers through a Web portal.
"The important thing that the provider IT guys need to know is that we are working for their benefit to provide all the data that we can glean out of the payment side of healthcare," Copobianco says, describing the company's collaborative care management efforts.
MEDecision has already seen interest in its PCSs, with a pilot program in the works at Delaware-based Christiana Health Care System. The company also worked with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas to create over 800,000 PCSs as Hurricane Rita approached. In a third project, MEDecision created 3.7 million records for members covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. Those records are to be delivered to clinicians at the time of treatment.
MEDecision — which invests more than 25 percent of its revenue into research and development — is currently a private organization, venture capital backed with "significant" employee ownership. The company, however, may not be private forever.
"I don't see any prospect today of us being acquired. We are proud of what we do and profitable and don't need anyone," he says. "We are in a very good position for a public offering."
