Built To Enjoy: eClinicalWorks CEO Girish Navani (Part 7)

SM: How does the stimulus bill affect you?

GN: The initial stimulus bill ended up dedicating anywhere from $39 billion to $46 billion to the adoption of electronic medical records in the Unites States. Do I like that? Part of me doesn’t. I wish we had just stayed the way we were without external catalysts because we were succeeding. However, the other part of it is that $39 billion to $46 billion will flow into an industry that is no more than $5 billion today. It is going to change the landscape. We will see an adoption curve like no other. Between 2010 and 2015, we will go from 20% adoption to 85% adoption. Along the way eClinicalWorks will grow five- to tenfold depending on what the execution terms are. We are prepared to surf that tidal wave.

SM: Let’s assume we do reach 80% adoption in the next five years. What does that save in terms of healthcare administrative costs?

GN: Regardless how I answer that question, somebody is going to object; however, I have a simple premise here. If you eliminate paper from any industry, the efficiency has to improve. There is a lot of communication among doctors in this industry. I cannot imagine how and electronic system cannot transform.

Having said that, I must confess I have not done an analysis on what it will save. I will tell you from my perspective where it will save and the significance of these savings. Let’s look at two aspects. One is drug costs; because you can now prescribe medicine that are on healthcare plans, doctors will prescribe medicines which cost less. Doctors will be much more educated in what they prescribe, which will reduce pharma costs, which is one of the big components of healthcare costs.

The second component are orders; labs, X-rays, and diagnostic studies. EMRs will eliminate duplications. That is the second largest component of healthcare costs. Taking on those two will tackle two of the three largest cost structures in healthcare. I think that this will have a significant impact. The key is finding out how to give some of the money that has been saved to the doctors. Primary care [physicians] in the United States needs to get a boost in their income levels to compensate what they do.

SM: I recently was told the savings associated with the industry moving to e-claim processing and healthcare plans paying providers electronically would be $90 billion.

GN: Then you can double that savings for lab orders and medications.

SM: This is incredibly low-hanging fruit. I am astounded it is still an electronic process.

GN: The reason is twofold. There are obviously some physician concerns that adapting to the system will take them more time. I challenge that notion simply by pointing to the fact that we have added 34,000 doctors. We would not have grown if one doctor did not hear from another doctor that our solution was valued.

SM: I don’t have a problem accelerating the process with a stimulus because the macro picture of the waste in the system is really awful.

GN: Isn’t it amazing that we are in 2010 with a healthcare system that is still 90% paper?

SM: It is annoying!

GN: Excellent choice of words!

SM: I am delighted to hear your story. I love bootstrapping case studies and people who have the grit to succeed without taking millions of dollars of outside financing. It will be inspiring to other entrepreneurs.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Built To Enjoy: eClinicalWorks CEO Girish Navani
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