Retrieving records is a $7.5 billion business. And it's not only costly, but time-consuming — often both tedious and slow.
South Jordan-based MediConnect.net is making a dent in the problem, using an Internet interface to retrieve medical records, billing records and police reports for legal firms, workers compensation and insurance companies.
The 5-year-old company has literally "electrified" the process of gathering and reporting information, reducing the time it takes to get the job done.
Clients include Allstate, Colorado Bankers Life, Equitable Life and Casualty, Hartford Life, State Farm, Workers Compensation and more than 150 medical firms, among others.
Life insurance agent Matthew D. Cottrell founded the company in 1996 to make record retrieval faster, something he felt would please his customers enormously and improve the efficiency of his business.
The company used to retrieve information by hand, then copy and fax it in the Denver and Salt Lake areas. About a year ago, they started going nationwide, retrieving information anywhere in the United States and Virgin Islands, using technology to close geographic barriers and speed things up, according to chairman and chief executive officer Michael Colemere.
Because the records being sought are sensitive, privacy has been a huge priority to the company, which has grown to 53 full-time and 8 part-time staffers, Colemere said. Records are transmitted using 128-bit encryption. "It you don't have a decrypter, you couldn't read it at all."
The company is paid a per-record-retrieved fee. In some cases, they've set up electronic links to certain doctors, hospitals and clinics so they can request information online. Otherwise, they make the needed telephone calls and have the information they need faxed over, then scan and encrypt it, sending it to the requester online so it can be placed directly in their systems.
"The more automated a doctor, clinic or hospital becomes, the better it is for us," Colemere said. "In the nation today, we're the only company that does what we do that is fully automated in this fashion. We're also the only vendor I know that gets not only medical records, but property and casualty, as well as police reports for clients."
MediConnect.net has formed partnerships with software companies so that adjudication and underwriting are tied in. To request information, in those cases, requires just hitting a button on the program.
The result, Colemere said, has been much faster data retrieval. "We're five days faster than the competition getting the document back. We average about 10 days to get information back."
Clients can also go to the company's Web site and see the status of a request. "It's not a black hole. It can be updated anytime. That kind of user-friendly and online management is key to life insurance companies."
The company has not been affected by recent health-privacy rules because they've always required requesters to get an authorization from the individual so MediConnect.net can ask for information. Without authorization, it's impossible to "snoop" into personal records.
Last June, MediConnect.net, which is privately held, reincorporated as a Delaware corporation.
E-maillois@desnews.com