Friday, February 25, 2011

Interview with Nat Findlay, CEO of Hello Health

Author: Thuc Huynh, MD

I had the great pleasure of talking to Mr. Nat Findlay last week at length about his company, Hello Health.  We talked about what the company is now and where it was heading.

For those who don't know, Hello Health is a web based EMR that launched 2 years ago in 2009.  It was founded by Mr. Nat Findlay, Dr. Jay Parkinson, and Dr. Sean Khozin in an effort to change the electronic medical record space.  And in my opinion, it did.

Before Hello Health, the best looking EMR interface was something that looked like a flashback to Windows 3.1.  With Jay Parkinson's eye for design and photography, the company created a modern, clean, stream-lined EMR that paralleled Facebook and Mint.  Now, more med-tech companies have realized that design is an important part of user function and thus, Practice Fusion and CareCloud were born.



But what has Hello Health been doing in the last 2 years?  I've learned from Nat that the answer is : A lot of listening, refining, and enhancing of their platform.

From that, Hello Health has become the new proposed business model for primary care; one that helps doctors get paid for all the work they do.

For doctors, that's an important but very often, hard task to achieve.  Why?  Well, because traditionally, emails, text messages, and video chats haven't been priced and automated yet but it's something that doctors are increasingly using to engage their patients.  Hello Health is making that easier.

In addition, there's no one system to do everything.  Currently, you need an EMR, a PHR, a practice management system, a billing system, and sometimes even a scheduling system in order to run your practice.  Nat says that their company has changed to meet that need.  They are even working to create an online check-in system for when patients arrive at the doctors office.  Similar to what Phreesia is doing on a tablet, which is checking in a patient as they arrive to the doctor's office and capturing their credit card for payment at the point of care.

The biggest change I've seen from my interview with Nat Findlay, and for the better, is Hello Health's business model.  Gone are the percentage transaction fees that concerned many physicians.  Now, there are two kinds of plans :

  • If you're a practice that accepts insurance, a monthly fee of $199 is imposed.  Yes, that means that Hello Health has plugged into multiple insurance companies to help doctors get reimbursed via one platform.
  • If your practice is membership based, Hello Health charges each patient $3 per month to use their platform.  Physicians may use the platform for free.

Hello Health is a small startup of 36 people.  Nat has some interesting companies investing in their firm.  People such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, 24 Hour Fitness, the inventor of Crocs Shoes, and even Molson Beer, my favorite kind of beer actually.  They have a new, very impressive investor in the works; one in which I'm privileged to know but not to say.  However, I will divulge that this investor has a market cap of over 92 billion dollars and 26 years of industry-related experience.

My interview with Mr. Nat Findlay ended with me wanting more and more information which he promised to give me sometime this week.  Our next visit will reveal a demo of the Hello Health platform in its current version.  When I know more, you'll know more.

About the author:

Dr. Thuc Huynh is CEO of ScrubdIN, a startup company that aims to help health professionals and patients choose their next medical app. Her main interest lies around how medicine can play a role with web 2.0 and social media. Dr. Huynh is currently Chief Resident at her Family Medicine Residency in Rapid City, SD and received her B.S. and M.D. at the Medical University of the Americas.

2 comments:

  1. Nice write up. We should promote healthy lifestyle

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  2. Thuc, great article. It is interesting to know what it going on with Hello Help. Thanks for the update!

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