SOFTWARE: Easing the Pain
By LAURENCE DARMIENTO
Staff Reporter
Excited and anxious about the impending birth of his first child 11 years ago, Jusman Ichwan would often attend his wife’s frequent doctor’s visits.
But what the computer consultant from Indonesia discovered bothered him no end needlessly long visits as nurses searched for medical information already offered many times over.
“They didn’t have any computer system to track paperwork,” says Ichwan, 38. “There was only one viable solution.”
Which Ichwan created.
MedicWare Inc., the company he started in 1991, produces electronic medical records (EMR) software intended to replace the traditional medical file and create a more efficient doctor’s office.
Two years ago, the Irwindale company secured a round of financing and a distribution agreement with Companion Technologies, a subsidiary of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Companion, which took a minority stake, had been a re-seller of other “point-of-care” EMR programs, but now exclusively distributes MedicWare’s product.
“Jay is a genius at taking technologies that are out there and putting them together,” says Lynn Hudson, Companion’s national MedicWare product manager.
The initial version of the software, ready in 1994 after an infusion of $4 million, was essentially a clinical chart. Ichwan, who previously had a software consulting practice, realized after attending an American Association of Family Practitioners conference that there was an interest in the tool. “It was a turning point,” he said.
Ichwan sold his first piece of software in 1995 and since then the company has placed its product in 1,000 offices nationwide. He projects revenues this year of $1.2 million.
Customers mostly include practices with a handful of physicians, although the company is now aiming at larger ones. With a database of 130,000 drugs and templates that assist in the diagnosis of various maladies, the software is intended to replace paper in every function in a doctor’s office.
Receptionists can schedule appointments, nurses can triage patients, and doctors can order tests, chart a diagnosis and write prescriptions. The one area Ichwan has shied away from is billing, which was a well-established, highly competitive field by the time the company got started.
To input data, doctors can use a traditional personal computer, a laptop, a touchscreen computer or a wireless Palm or other PDA. Existing files can be fed into the system as scanned graphical files.
Offices can either license the software for $17,000 and then sign up for a maintenance contract that includes updates, or, with the newest version, subscribe via the Internet for a per-user fee that comes out to about $7,000 annually for an office of two to three doctors and support staff.
Dr. Lori Kemper, co-owner of a Phoenix-area osteopathic practice that also trains residents, has been using MedicWare since 1998, carrying her laptop to patient visits. She says there was a tough six-month transition period during which the office converted most of its paper files. But now, she says, she wouldn’t practice without it.
MedicWare allows her to easily read past charts “the handwriting of doctors is typically not outstanding” she says complete her own charts in seconds, but most importantly document patient visits in a complete, standardized fashion.
Effective back-up
Those concerns arose out of high-profile government prosecutions in which medical providers were accused of filing fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims.
Ichwan says the software avoids any appearance of impropriety by helping doctors satisfy guidelines established set forth by the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) computing how much Medicare should be billed for a visit from elderly patients.
It’s also compliant with new federal regulations that will take effect over the next few years and are intended to safeguard patient privacy, regulations that will even bar the use of traditional sign-in logs in doctor’s offices that publicly disclose patient names.
Despite its growing acceptance, MedicWare has made barely a dent in its market. It is estimated that only 3 percent of the nation’s doctors’ offices use EMR software, with older doctors leery of the systems and many practices questioning whether the investment is worth it.
Zan Calhoun, a health care consult and vice president with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, says that historically EMR vendors have oversold their system. But he said that the roughly $7,000 monthly cost for MedicWare’s online system is approaching what doctors would be willing to pay.
PROFILE:
MedicWare Inc.
Year Founded: 1991
Core Business: Electronic medical records for doctors’ offices
Revenues in 1997: $100,000
Revenues in 2001: $1.25 million (projected)
Employees in 1997: 4
Employees in 2001: 13
Goal: To reach $10 million in revenues by 2005.
Driving Force: Government and insurance industry
rules and regulations requiring medical practices to safeguard patient privacy and better document reimbursement claims.
