Five Questions With: Justin Savage

Justin Savage is CEO of EveryBill, an East Providence firm specializing in Web-based enterprise payment management software for companies. / COURTESY EVERYBILL
Justin Savage is CEO of EveryBill, an East Providence firm specializing in Web-based enterprise payment management software for companies. / COURTESY EVERYBILL

Justin Savage, CEO of EveryBill in East Providence, talks with Providence Business News about his firm, which specializes in Web-based enterprise payment management software for companies, and how it recently received a Tech10 award from Tech Collective. Award winners will be recognized at a Nov. 19 event.

PBN: Congratulations on the Tech10 award. Why do you think EveryBill was chosen?
SAVAGE:
Tech10 recognizes individuals who are either trying to create real value by innovating or by helping others innovate. That is why you see a lot of winners who are using technology to streamline existing industries. EveryBill has always been very focused on creating value. We want to sell technology that makes it cheaper and easier to run a business, and we want to solve problems that really frustrate people.

PBN: Where did you get the idea for EveryBill?
SAVAGE:
I was very fortunate in that my parents involved me in their professional lives, exposing me to the inner workings of a variety of different businesses. It always seemed backward to me that a lot of otherwise sophisticated businesses did not accept payments online. A big part of the reason for that, I discovered, was that existing payment options weren’t suitable for the companies that needed them most. I created EveryBill to change that. We make the payment component fit into your existing workflow rather than changing your workflow to let you accept payments. This makes a world of difference for our clients.

PBN: How do you help individuals and businesses with payment pro-cessing?

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SAVAGE: EveryBill studies the role payment plays in businesses. We look at the reasons customers pay or do not pay and how much the collection process costs, and build products and services based on our findings. The payment process is, like marketing and customer service, a critical point of communication between buyer and seller. Done well, customers pay frequently, quickly and at low cost.

For most small companies, we create super-simple online payment websites and advise on how to maximize customer adoption in their specific industry. For most large companies, we offer a constantly-improving payment management platform that streamlines and integrates payments online, at points-of-service and by telephone. We help them maximize the number of customers who pay through the least costly channel (often online), and work with them to reduce the barriers to payment that their customers face.

We are most excited about our work on patient payments in the health care space because it’s a real opportunity to help people. About half of the Rhode Islanders we ask tell us at least one story about receiving a medical bill that they could not understand, felt confident was incorrect, or thought they had paid. Many said they refused pay as a result. We have actually started cataloging these stories to keep track.

We are building a platform that will let people receive, manage and pay all of their bills in one place, and most importantly, will explain the items listed on those bills (which are not usually written in plain language). Users will be able to assign access permissions to people they trust, which we think will make a world of difference for people who are managing care for a sick or aging spouse or parent.

This won’t just make life a lot easier for patients, but it will also provide real value to health care providers. Our research indicates that confusion about medical bills among people who are otherwise able and willing to pay contributes significantly to medical debt, which makes up more than half of the files that get sent to collections agencies nationally. Given the size of the numbers we are talking about, even a 5 percent reduction in bad debt would mean millions of dollars in savings for hospitals.

PBN: What kinds of businesses do you work with – are they all in Rhode Island?

SAVAGE: We serve a variety of manufacturers, professional services firms and health care providers in 21 states, including Rhode Island. Our product is built around complex businesses that operate in heavily regulated environments, but it really works well for any business that traditionally bills its customers.

PBN: Where do you see the business in five years?
SAVAGE:
I can’t talk much about our product road map, however I will say that I chose to locate in Rhode Island for a reason. We have broad goals when it comes to product development, and some of them require us to maintain broad participation within a specific market. Rhode Island is a perfect environment to do just that, as Rhode Island businesses like to buy from other Rhode Island businesses. Our area also shares a lot in common with Silicon Valley before the rise of the semiconductor industry. It has natural beauty, a strong identity and proximity to larger cities. It actually is almost the exact same size, too.

The reality is that great turnarounds start with a lot of doubt, and, with the widespread changes in personnel and approach across state government, Gov. [Gina M.] Raimondo will be more successful in turning this state around than any of us can imagine. Warren Buffet has a saying – to “buy when everyone else is selling” – and when it comes to Rhode Island, I’m buying. A lot of people are buying.

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