DocuTAP helps urgent care clinics digitalize their operations to make them more efficient and less reliant on paper. The software integrates electronic health records (EHR) and “practice management” technology so all the information and tools needed to operate an efficient practice is one place. The platform is accessible on tablets so clinicians can use it on-the-go. DocuTAP also features automated and customizable tools so each clinic can tailor the software to their needs as well as billing services.

In a statement issued this morning, Steve Kraus of Bessemer Venture Partners said that urgent care is one of the fastest growing sectors within the healthcare marketplace. The healthcare industry as a whole is undergoing a digital transformation. The U.S. government mandated that doctors need to be fully transitioned to electronic records by 2014, and companies are raising large amounts of venture capital to help them do that.

In November 2012, Hello Health raised $11.5 million and companies like CareCloud (backed by $20 million) and Practice Fusion (backed by $64 million) are experiencing significant growth. The market for electronic medical records is estimated at between $6 billion and $10 billion.

DocuTAP stands to capitalize on this transition as well, all the way from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The company was founded in 2000 and this marks its second round of funding. Bluff Point Associates led the first round of $12 million in March 2012. This financing will be used to increase market presence, accelerate sales, and continue to improve the products.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT just released its budget plan for 2014, which would increase its $61 million budget to $78 million, a 28 percent jump. But it’s a little-reported line item that’s causing a stir among entrepreneurs — a proposal to boost fees for electronic health record vendors.

The ONC is the division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads many initiatives laid out in the Affordable Care Act.

The funding boost in the Obama administration’s proposed budget is a response to the expanding marketplace for health IT. The ONC reports that a new “revenue source” is needed to help it handle the “increasing workload.”

A little-reported line item proposes amped up fees for electronic health record vendors and is a cause for concern for entrepreneurs.

The $1 million user fee “would provide ONC with the necessary resources to meet the increasing demands of health IT vendors,” the plan stipulates. Sources tell me it has a 50 percent chance of being authorized by Congress.

It’s unclear at this point how the ONC would levy the user fee, but it’s plausible that it would be passed down to doctors.

Lauren Fifield, a senior strategist for the free electronic medical record startup Practice Fusion, said the user fee would not be a strain on the industry. The bigger concern is the “high likelihood” that the ONC will use these funds to take on more projects and soon require higher user fee revenues.

Already, EHR vendors are speculating that a user fee charge is the ONC’s way of assuming regulatory authority. “This would be agency creep,” said Fifield, and urged the FDA, FCC and ONC to come together to clarify their roles.

Health IT startups may eventually face charges on revenues akin to the maligned 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices.

Fifled said this might also create confusion and overregulation for electronic health record developers and entrepreneurs. “The user fee is a slippery slope that could create an even more dysfunctional health IT market,” she said.

Also featured in the 126 pages of program descriptions are several health IT initiatives, including a commitment to examining patient safety, and data security. We’ll be discussing these topics and more at our upcoming HealthBeat conference.

Doctor with electronic health record // Shutterstock

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Imagine browsing dozens of reviews from past patients before booking a doctor’s appointment — all from a smartphone.

This is the vision for Practice Fusion, a San Francisco-based startup that is best known for its free electronic medical record (EMR). Today, the digital health company is launching a web app for scheduling doctor’s appointments, which will be closely followed by iPhone and Android apps.

“We want to facilitate the entire patient journey and life cycle,” said CEO Ryan Howard. The new consumer-facing technology is known as “Patient Fusion,” and Howard describes it as a “Yelp for doctors.”

We covered Practice Fusion’s history and culture after an office visit. Check out the story here. Howard will be speaking at our upcoming HealthBeat conference.

It’s a strategic move, given that Practice Fusion has already amassed doctor profiles and information about your health, all contained within its EMR. Howard admits that by marketing new products to patients, the company will augment its brand with hospital decision-makers. In a nutshell, Patient Fusion is a smart physician acquisition tool.

Already, Practice Fusion claims it has 3 million open appointments for the month of April alone, more than any of its competition. Roughly half of its user base of doctors have opted in — the app will go live with 27,000 doctors and 1.5 million reviews. These physicians serve an estimated 60 million patients across the U.S.

Patient Fusion is directly competitive with ZocDoc, the New York based scheduling technology that has registered about 30,000 doctors.

According to Howard, it’s still a problem as a third of staff time is spent on “scheduling, and canceling and rescheduling.” Patient Fusion was developed to reduce these inefficiencies, and help patients find an appointment at a well-reviewed doctor nearby.

The app isn’t intended as a monetization stream for the company. But it will be deemed a success if more doctors sign up to the EMR  (the company is going after big pharmaceutical advertising deals).

Another goal is to use patient’s data to help them find the best doctor; if you suffer from diabetes, for instance, the app will begin to prioritize physicians in the search rankings with relevant expertise.

Howard observed in a recent interview that accessing and mining patient information can save lives. “We can recommend drug therapies based on their popularity [with previous patients],” he said, and claims there are 200,000 avoidable deaths a year because “data is simply not shared.”

Practice Fusion pulled in its most recent $34 million funding round in June 2012, and counts PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel among its investors.

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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Startup founders often make bold claims about disrupting entire industries. Dr. Tom X. Lee is one such entrepreneur, but in this particular case, his company is already shaping the future of healthcare.

Dr. Lee is the founder and CEO of One Medical Group, a chain of concierge primary care practices operating under the tagline, “The doctor’s office. Reinvented.”

As a long-time customer, I can attest that this marketing speak isn’t an exaggeration. Feeling unwell? Book a same-day appointment online or via a smartphone app at your nearest doctor’s office, show up, fill out a form or two, and you’ll be seen within minutes.

Dr Tom X Lee, One Medical’s CEO

Dr Lee is a physician-turned-entrepreneur who received an MD from the University of Washington and MBA from Stanford University. ”It was pretty clear in my medical training that the goal was to practice old-school medicine,” he said in an interview with VentureBeat.

“I noticed that the system was broken — it was really confusing, patients weren’t happy, doctors weren’t happy,” he explained.

The model proved to resonate with customers, so the group has been opening offices in new markets, including Boston and New York. And today, it just closed its sixth round of funding led by Google Ventures with participation from existing investors, including Benchmark Capital and DAG Ventures.

One Medical may not be a Silicon Valley startup in the traditional sense, but it has embraced technology from the outset. Patients can use a mobile app to schedule an appointment or refill a prescription, or chat with a doctor via instant message. For this reason, it has been an attractive option for Silicon Valley’s tech investors, and has raised $77 million to date.

Dr. Lee spent six months undercover to root out the biggest flaws with the current system. He worked in a large and unnamed primary care practice in various occupations, including nurse, administrator, physician and secretary. During that time, he learned that doctors are “overburdened” with personel, and held back by paper-based systems.

“What we are trying to do is introduce a small local office solution that has the technology infrastructure of a Kaiser, Mayo Clinic, or University of San Francisco,” he said.

By reducing overhead and administration, the company has also been able to offer medical care at a cheaper rate.

The group accepts almost all insurance plans, including PPOs and HMOs, but asks that customers pay $149 a year to support those who don’t have insurance, and enable the company to invest in new technology. For those without insurance, it costs about $150 a visit, which is still cheaper than most alternatives.

One Medical currently boasts 23 offices around the country with 13 in the SF Bay Area, six in New York, two in Washington, D.C. and one each in Chicago and Boston, and more planned to open this year.

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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Med-tech is off to a bold start this year with a hot acquisition, which will serve to consolidate the market.

Epocrates Inc., a medical applications company based in Silicon Valley, is being scooped up by AthenaHealth for $293 million. According to a company press release, AthenaHealth will pay $11.75 per share, a 22 percent premium to Epocrates’ Friday closing price.

Massachusetts-based AthenaHealth provides cloud-based services and tools to doctors and hospitals. The company faces fierce competition from Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., Quality Systems, as well as Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, which is retooling after a protracted drama with its board. 

Epocrates is an attractive prospect for AthenaHealth, as it has built up brand-name recognition with doctors. AthenaHealth estimates that it is has been used by 338,000 U.S. physicians to pull up short summaries on drugs, including information about side effects and interactions.

“Capturing mindshare has been an uphill battle for Athena for years, and the addition of Epocrates to the platform is a step in the right direction,” said Greg Bolan, an analyst with Sterne Agee & Leach Inc, in an e-mail interview with Bloomberg.

The acquisition will help the company gain an iPhone app and expand into the lucrative electronic medical records (EMR) market.

“I have been an admirer of Epocrates since it first emerged and have watched the company grow consistently, one app download at a time, as it has cemented itself into the consciousness of America’s physicians,” said Jonathan Bush, the president and CEO of AthenaHealth in a statement. “Together, we’re excited by the opportunity to redefine the mobile toolset for care givers,” he added.

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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The experience of waiting in line at your chaotic, paper-strewn doctor’s office may be a thing of the past.

Hello Health, the electronic health record provider popular with independent and local physicians, has pulled in $11.5 million in venture funding.

Around the world, doctors are shifting from paper documentation to electronic medical records. “The practice of medicine hasn’t changed much for me over my career. The business has,” said Hello Health user Dr Richard Goldberg, a New York-based family practice physician.

When Dr. Goldberg opted to get “computerized and have everything run smoothly,” he was won over by Hello Health, which wouldn’t require his practice to pay any up-front fees. In fact, the company claimed that in the long term, it wouldn’t cost him anything at all.

Hello Health works a little differently than most ERP providers. Doctors do not pay for the service; patients do. In fact, medical practices might even make extra cash by charging patients to access Hello Health’s services (like secure instant messaging). Hello Health charges patients around $5 per month for its opt-in services; the startup makes money by taking a cut, and the rest is given back to the doctors.

Electronic health record (EHR) software is particularly appealing for doctors as it reduces the time that is typically spent on paperwork, and makes them more available to patients. Hello Health, a New York-based subsidiary of Myca Health in Quebec, Canada, also offers billing and accounting software and a secure system for prescription requests to be processed online.

To succeed, Hello Health will compete with companies like Practice Fusion, which also offers scheduling, charting, and billing online services and which makes money through advertising rather than fees.

“Independent physicians are beginning to test alternative business models,” said Ian Ihnatowycz, president and chief executive officer of First Generation Capital, in a statement. “Research estimates one in three independent physicians will aim for higher yields by adopting subscription-based care models, and this trend will increase 100 percent annually for the next three years.”

Hello Health has pulled in a total of $21.5 million in VC money in the previous year. This round of funding was led by First Generation Capital.

Healthcare and the cloud is a major topic of discussion at CloudBeat. A panel of experts will gather to debate ways to improve security for cloud-based systems, and how digital services can bring benefits to both doctors and patients. Read more here about breaches of patient’s health records.

Top doctor image // Shutterstock 

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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