Bootstrapping To $19 Million: Office Ally CEO Brian O’Neill (Part 7)

SM: Whom do you charge, and what do you charge, for the Patient Ally system?

BO: We offer that for free.

SM: So you are subsidizing that with your Office Ally business?

BO: Correct. Our EHR product is the least expensive in the country. It cost $9.95 a month which subsidizes Patient Ally.

SM: How many customers do you have using your EHR product?

BO: Around 4,300. We are finalizing a contract that will roll us out into 80 clinics. That contract is worth $6M a year to us.

SM: So when it comes to EHR the providers are paying?

BO: Correct. We have a product for the payer side and a product for the provider side, although both will use each system.

SM: What other products or revenue streams do you have?

BO: We have added a reminder tool which will automatically call and remind patients of their upcoming visits. The patient can then confirm, cancel or reschedule the appointment via the phone which will automatically update the provider calendar in real time. That system also emails all of the patients as well. We charge for that service.

We are rolling out a product in the next couple of weeks which we think will be a huge product. If a doctor has 30 patients coming in the next day for appointments, our system will automatically check the eligibility of each of the 30 patients the night before their appointment. We will change their co-pay status and place it directly on the calendar. If the insurance has changed the co-pay, they will know immediately. Often times the insurance card has the wrong co-pay amount on it and this system will help doctors retrieve the correct information directly from the insurance. We do the eligibility checks based on the insurance information provided by the patient during their last visit.

SM: So a patient may not have an updated or current insurance card?

BO: Yes. However, I personally have changed health plans in the middle of the year for my own company. I did not change insurance companies, but I did have to raise the co-pay to $25 to $10. The insurance company never sent us new cards. The doctor got cheated out of $15 if they did not check.

Another point is that co-pays change by specialty. Chiropractors may have different co-pays than primary care providers. Our system will check and validate the co-pay information based on the specialty of the doctor.

SM: The health business has too many loopholes.

BO: Which is why it is so expensive.

SM: What are your plans for the company? Are you going to keep it, sell, raise money, or go public?

BO: I want to keep growing it as fast as I can. As long as I enjoy this I will keep doing it. I enjoy solving problems and that is what we are doing.

SM: Great story, thanks for sharing.