Steven Mason has decades of experience in starting, operating and growing leading technology and services companies in the health and human services market. As the new president and chief operating officer of medical software firm ChartWise Medical Systems of Wakefield, he is excited about the company’s bright future. Selected as the top coding-documentation improvement solution by health care information technology data company KLAS Research for the past three years, the firm saw 143 percent revenue growth in 2016.
PBN: Explain a bit about your dealings with ChartWise Medical Systems while you were in your former position at MedeAnalytics.
MASON: I was introduced to ChartWise through a shared private-equity investor who was also an investor in my previous company, OnFocus Healthcare, which was acquired by MedeAnalytics in 2014. While I was at MedeAnalytics, I worked with our CFO [chief financial officer] on a product-integration partnership with ChartWise. However, before we could get the partnership going, MedeAnalytics was acquired by a private-equity firm, and I was asked to focus on other priorities. So, I’ve had a lot of interactions with ChartWise over the years, and I have always been impressed with their team and their product’s success in the marketplace.
PBN: Where do you see trends now or trends heading in health care technology?
MASON: Specifically, with regard to the segment of the market in which we focus, there are several changes to the health care services and reimbursement model that will require providers to implement coding-documentation improvement software to improve documentation and coding, identify gaps in risk-adjusted patient severity and reduce audit risk. This technology will be mission critical to organizations who are subject to risk-adjusted payments and increased auditing requirements by payers.
PBN: What are some of the challenges in the industry now?
MASON: Expanding on the previous question, the new value-based reimbursement models use risk-adjusted payment methods that now require accurate severity risk assessments and very precise clinical documentation to determine how much providers will get paid for their services. Providers who can’t ensure accurate documentation and audit compliance will experience a significant negative impact to their bottom lines. And it’s not only just a matter of improved clinical documentation that’s required to address these new mandates, but providers also need to do it efficiently by using comprehensive technology like ChartWise, to ensure full reimbursement while keeping their cost down.
PBN: ChartWise has won PBN’s Fastest-Growing Company honors a few times now. What can other companies – no matter the industry – learn from ChartWise?
MASON: Your primary and ongoing focus should be on developing a superior product that is second to none in your market. There are a lot of distractions and competing priorities that all companies face as they mature, but as long as you keep reinvesting and focusing on product excellence, the growth will come.
PBN: What specifics do you see ahead for ChartWise in terms of growth, expansion, direction or new areas of focus?
MASON: We are ready to invest in building out a sales organization in order to expand our customer base. In addition to an increased sales and marketing effort, we are also releasing several new product features in 2018 … Our overall plan is to stay focused on what we do well, to bring the benefits of our software to more providers and to keep expanding product features that help our customers with better documentation, reduced denials and full reimbursement for the services they provide.
Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributing writer.
