As healthcare unshackles itself from paper-based workflow, transcription, medical billing and practice management have become 24x7x365 necessities.
Born in 1998 as an overflow transcription service company, CBay Systems, Annapolis, Md., [AIM: CBAY] has matured into a full-fledged service provider for transcription and billing needs, harnessing its global workforce of 5,000 to establish a strong presence in the acute-care arena.
Rising to the #55 spot on the 2007 Healthcare Informatics Top 100, President Chris Foley attributes CBay's booming business to the company's flexibility and its customizable products: "You can't go to a client and say, 'We're the transcription experts; you need to be doing things this way instead.' We don't force clients to fit into our box; we fit CBay into their box."
With experienced staff in the United States and India, CBay offers round-the-clock transcription and medical billing services for hospitals, clinics and physician practices.
The healthcare market's previous negativity toward off-shore labor and the arrival of the HIPAA regulations provided reasons for CBay to invest heavily in security and controlled-environment operation centers at home and abroad, Foley explains.
"If we were going to compete in the acute-care arena, we knew we'd have to do it better than everyone else," Foley says. "We needed better security, better technology, better turnaround, better everything."
The company has 1,000+ clients in the United States and abroad, and is the leading physician practice transcription company in the United States. CBay's most recent 2007 clients include the Yale University Health System and the Cleveland Clinic Health System.
In June, CBay's parent, CBay Systems Holdings, became publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange.
The company is also set to launch its newest solution, CBayPraxis, a Web-based dashboard of tools and services designed for the small-to-mid-sized physician practice.
The CBayPraxis tools include transcription, e-prescription, billing services, and an electronic medical record — all within a single desktop application. The product requires no IT or hardware costs upfront — the service bundle can be billed monthly on a percentage of the practice's revenue, Foley says.
"It's an incredibly price-competitive model — especially when the technology comes free."
