December 19, 2011 – Jacob Geiger via WorkITRichmond
When politicians talks about changing health care in the 21st Century, a frequent phrase is “bending the cost curve,” i.e. finding ways to get more — or better — care while spending less money.
But those same politicians are often vague on the specifics of how to do that. And that’s where Richmond entrepreneur Sanjay Mittal, and his company, eHealthObjects, enter the picture.
Mittal has built a 20-year career as a consultant, computer programmer and information technology expert. In the past decade he’s worked at hospital chains and health insurers. Until July 2010, when he moved to running eHealthObjects full-time, he was serving as director of enterprise architecture for Coventry Healthcare, responsible for designing business and health care software for the company’s health care management and pharmacy lines of business.
Today one of eHealthObjects’ signature products is its Health Information Exchange (HIE), designed to consolidate medical data in a secure, electronic format, helping medical providers from pharmacists to primary-care doctors to emergency room nurses see a unified and complete health history for patients.
The company was founded in 2006; Mittal and his partners worked part-time on the company’s software and programs while maintaining full-time jobs, then moved to eHealthObjects when the HIE was ready for market.
“All of this runs on our infrastructure, not the infrastructure of our clients,” Mittal said. “This is a private cloud network, which helps us meet health IT guidelines and HIPPA patient privacy rules.”
eHealthObjects is also working on a case-management software. One client is a behavioral-health practice that provides counseling and mental-health services to patients. Because many of the patients receive Medicaid assistance, the practice is subject to stringent, paperwork-heavy audits.
“Without all of the paperwork in place, they can lose payments or even their license,” Mittal said. “Most of the big software firms don’t care about small practices, that $20,000 to $50,000 client account. We fell this is a niche market we can serve.”
Mittal noted that there are 4,000 health-care practices in Virginia alone; the firm has already made inroads in Texas, Illinois, Maryland and Georgia. And he said eHealthObject’s smaller size helps it be 25 percent to 30 percent cheaper than larger IR firms.
The company has 17 employees, including several based outside of Richmond. And the firm is winning recognition from business groups, with the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce awarding the firm its Vanguard Award of the Year earlier this month.
Mittal said the firm hopes to partner in the coming year with a company that sells health care computer hardware, a move that would help broaden its sales network. But even as the company eyes national distribution, Mittal says Richmond will be home.
“Virginia gave me everything, and I think we can help the Commonwealth be at the forefront of health care technology.”