Requesting and retrieving medical records is one of healthcare’s more arduous tasks. There are countless forms and a never-ending stack of patient requests. The process typically takes days or weeks until the patient receives the information he or she is looking for. It typically takes days or weeks for the patient to get the data they’re wanting; data, mind you, that details their own health.
The HealthMark Group, a Dallas-based health technology company, is attempting to simplify and expedite the Release of Information, or ROI, process. The goal is to help make it easier for the provider as well as the patient to obtain and distribute records. Its origin story sounds similar to many other startup companies in its field: in 2006, its founders, Scott Bagley and Brad McPherson, noted a lack of efficiency in how medical records were both requested and in how those requests were fulfilled.
“It felt like a good opportunity to use some of our technology and really make a difference,” says Scott Bagley, CEO of HealthMark Group.
The timing has worked out brilliantly. Interoperability is rapidly becoming one of the industry’s greatest goals. Speaking last month at Las Vegas’ Healthcare Information Management Systems Society conference, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced a three-part strategy that will, hopefully, “unlock” health data to make it more available to the patient. In 2011, former HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius spoke at the same conference and espoused the benefits of coordinating care and pooling data. But making the systems that house this information interact can often appear like two people who are trying to hold a conversation in different languages.
Burwell’s eye is clearly on overcoming that challenge. She announced that the federal government will be motivating providers and tech companies to improve consumer access and to stop blocking information. She also declared federal standardized, policies that would limit how fractured information is in the future.
“These commitments are a major step forward in our efforts to support a healthcare system that is better, smarter, and results in healthier people,” she said at the time. “Technology isn’t just one leg of our strategy to build a better healthcare system for our nation, it supports the entire effort. We are working to unlock healthcare data and information so that providers are better informed and patients and families can access their healthcare information, making them empowered, active participants in their own care.”
HealthMark has followed these tenets for the past 10 years. It has expanded from working with clients in Dallas-Fort Worth, to establishing a presence in all of Texas’ major urban centers, including Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. Its footprint has since extended into Louisiana and Colorado. In 2015, the company’s sales jumped by 60 percent on the heels of adding 1,400 physicians and 130 clinics. It includes the Baylor Health Texas Provider Network, Baylor Scott & White’s affiliated physician group; physician owned facilities for Texas Health Resources; and Methodist Health System primary care and specialty clinics.
Bagley and McPherson say the growth is largely attributable to the launch of a new product called MedRelease. Available starting last November, the software allows its users to merge health records that may be housed through different systems. The software handles all medical records, billing records, and digital imaging requests. Most commonly, health providers depend on three to four different systems to manage the disparate records in the ROI process. The software, both clients and HealthMark say, helps enable hospitals and clinics to keep up with the constant increase in government regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act, or HIPAA.
“There’s probably three or four major rules issued every year and especially at the clinical level, it’s almost impossible for them to keep up with that,” says Bagley. “Since it’s the only thing that we really focus on, we are much more in tune with those laws.”
Karen Vitale is an office administrator for Methodist Family Health Centers and uses the software daily. She said the software makes it easy to navigate the disparate records, streamlining the ROI process.
“We used to do everything internally and so [HealthMark] sort of takes the burden off the front desk and keeps up with the rules and regulations and getting forms signed,” she said. “You scan in the documents and you don’t see them again or hear from them again. I haven’t had any patients complain.”
On the patient side, MedRelease allows them to request their full records online and download them from the comfort of their home. With an average turnaround time of 24 hours, MedRelease facilitates the process for patients with disabilities as well as third parties seeking health records to obtain said records. Prior to the release of their new software, HealthMark was limited to serving urban hospitals and communities.
“With the development of MedRelease I think we’ve kind of been able to scale it out to more of your rural setting, to offer them the same technology,” said Brad McPherson, President of HealthMark.
Although rural communities only account for 5 percent of HealthMark’s current clients, the company hopes to add more clients from those areas in the upcoming year. For now HealthMark’s focus is to continue expanding in the state of Texas and add new clients in the Austin, Houston, and San Antonio markets.
“We’ve got a very good name out here locally,” said McPherson. “We are looking to expand on that in the other markets that we enter.”
