CareCloud wants to help doctors spend more time practicing medicine and less time managing their practices.
Started in 2009, the Miami-based privately-held company has developed a comprehensive Internet-based system that reduces paperwork, streamlines medical practices and improves efficiency in the growing healthcare sector.
CareCloud offers a menu of online services that schedule appointments, manage patients, process insurance claims and billings, handle collections, produce analyses of office finances and operations, update electronic medical records and provide a link between patients, doctors, diagnostic centers and other healthcare organizations.
?We take care of all the heavy lifting for physicians,? said Albert Santalo, 44, CareCloud?s founder, president and CEO. ?The idea is that doctors can practice medicine and focus on patients, and not have to worry about all the details related to their practices.?
As the economic downturn drags on, CareCloud is part of the newest wave of fast-growing technology companies that are gaining notice as job creators. Just in the past five months, CareCloud has hired 30 more people and attracted $20 million in new venture capital. In December, Santalo participated in a meeting at the White House of Startup America, a presidential program designed to promote entrepreneurship.
The stakes are huge. Santalo, who has worked for many years in information technology and financial services and previously founded Avisena, a company that developed revenue management software for the healthcare sector, believes that the comprehensive, client-based products and services he and his CareCloud team have developed can help revolutionize the country?s inefficient medical system.
Realizing that much of the enormous waste in healthcare was due to administrative inefficiency and excessive paperwork, Santalo decided to build a company that would offer new technological solutions to replace older software and service systems, often developed in the 1990s before email became popular, and still used in most medical offices. He designed the basic concepts and began seeking private capital in early 2009.
?I originally was looking for $2 million and ended up with about $3 million,? Santalo said. The following year he obtained another $5 million in private investment and in September 2011 raised $20.1 million from two Silicon Valley-based investors ? Intel Capital and Norwest Venture Partners.
As he obtained fresh capital, Santalo expanded his staff of computer engineers, experts in computer science and other professionals, developed the proprietary software for CareCloud?s basic services and went to work on a variety of new applications.
Technology used by most healthcare providers ?tends to lag behind the general tech industry,? Santalo said. ?We believe a big part of what we have to do is continue innovating. To do this, we will increase our geographic footprint and expand our sales and marketing teams. Most doctors? offices are mom and pop operations and aren?t linked together,? he added. ?The cloud gives us a way to connect everyone.?
CareCloud?s basic service covers all administrative and financial aspects of medical practices, and costs $499 per month per physician. It also offers a more comprehensive revenue cycle management service, called Concierge, with fees based on a percentage of collections. All customers will receive free access to a private social network that links doctors, patients and other people and institutions in the healthcare sector.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/08/2579653/carecloud-helps-doctors-spend.html
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