CoverMyMeds, a web-based prior authorization (PA) service for pharmacies and physician offices, is reporting record growth since receiving a $250,000 investment from
JumpStart in 2010.
Co-founder Matt Scantland says the company “had around 10 employees and under a million in revenue” three years prior. “Today we are at about 50 employees and 20 million in gross revenue.
Scantland launched CoverMyMeds in 2008 with Sam Rajan who had previously headed MemberHealth’s clinical operations. The two met through a business collaboration with Scantland’s then-health care technology company, Innova Partners. “At the time, we were building a Medicare Part D plan,” he recalls. “We learned that patients were having trouble getting the medications they needed due to problems associated with the prior authorization process.” Scantland describes a PA as a permission slip the doctor has to send to your insurance company before they will cover the drug.
Scantland credits the company’s success and introduction to JumpStart to their two homes – Northeast Ohio and Columbus. “When we started the business, the environment for the startup community in Northeast Ohio was perfect,” he boasts. “So we started introducing ourselves around the area and learned about Jumpstart. They helped us by not only awarding us for the grant monies, but also with connections and building relationships for expeditious growth to our business.”
Now, CoverMyMeds' service is used by “well over half of all the pharmacies in the country, and is used by more than 100,000 physicians,” helping more than two million patients receive the drugs they need. Scantland estimates reaching more than four million patients this year alone.
“It’s a really important time in healthcare, and I think we’ll see more change in the next decade than we saw in the last 30-years,” he predicts. “The challenge facing this country is really how we continue to create great clinical innovations while stopping the rapid expansion of expenses.”
Source: Matt Scantland
Writer: Joe Baur