When
I first met Michael Goldman in Las Vegas, he was surrounded by a
large group of NDCHealth resellers all clamoring to see his QMBMasterScan product that interfaces with both
NDCLytec and
NDCMedisoft. Every time I would pass his booth, he always seemed
to be enveloped by a crowd – so I sneaked past and grabbed
his card. He would agree to show me his product at a later date
and a more convenient time for the both of us. Several weeks
later I had my on-line demo of QMBMasterScan – I was
immediately impressed with the software's flexibility and robust design.
Not to mention, Michael is one of the intelligent, good guys in
this business.
I sat down
with Michael this week in hopes of discovering more about his
business, his document management product, and his background.
I was very impressed with his answers.
KB:
Thank you
Michael for spending some time with me this afternoon. I first
met you in Las Vegas with a crowd of resellers at your booth at
the NDCHealth Annual Event. What was that experience like for
you mingling with the resellers there?
MG: Nonstop talking and demo-ing was
both exhilarating and exhausting. It was gratifying to see our
flagship QMBMasterScan product receive such a warm reception,
and confirmed the feedback we have been getting from both
dealers and end-users prior to the show. An easy to use, easy to
implement, easy to train both dealers and users, and very
affordable paperless office solution.
KB: I was certainly impressed with the buzz around your
product. How did you get involved in this industry -- What's
your background?
MG: I had a successful technology
career on Wall Street, and my partner has some Bell Labs
research experience as well. We started a medical billing
service two years ago and almost immediately found ourselves
inundated by paper. We had designed and implemented
scanning/document management systems to handle Brokerage Account
and IRA application forms so we knew we could solve our own
paper problem. We use NDCLytec in our billing service so we
naturally integrated to the Pervasive database in our first
efforts. Our Lytec dealer was excited by what we showed him and
strongly encouraged us to make a commercial product out of what
originated as a utility for our own use. We see this industry as
ripe for innovation and believe our background using
leading-edge technologies gives us a significant advantage.
KB: I really enjoyed my demo of QMBMasterScan – how
would you describe that product to our readership?
MG: A full-featured paperless office
solution that is much easier to implement than a high-end EMR
product and is much less disruptive to the existing way in which
physicians work. Virtually any document, including scanned
paper, faxes received over a fax gateway, lab reports,
transcriptions, Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, etc. can be
organized in virtual file cabinets. A large percentage of paper
today is patient-oriented so presenting each patient as a
Windows Explorer-like folder makes a lot of sense. For power
users there are more advanced ways of searching the database as
well.
KB:
That's exciting - I like the idea of virtual file cabinets.
MG: What distinguishes our product
from other scanning & imaging systems we’ve seen is the really
tight integration with systems such as Lytec, Medisoft, and
AltaPoint. Create a patient in the practice management system
and that new patient is instantaneously available as an indexing
field. Apply a payment in the practice management system and
QMBMasterScan automatically cross-references the scanned EOB to
every patient on that EOB. There are many other integration
points as well, all intended to eliminate the need for duplicate
data entry and export/import between systems.
KB: How do you see QMBMasterScan being utilized in a
doctor's office – what problems can it help overcome?
MG: I’ve seen estimates that
anywhere between 20 and 40% of staff time is spent filing,
searching, re-filing, etc. With MasterScan you file only once
and never re-file, multiple people can be viewing
simultaneously, doctors can access documents from any internet
location such as a hospital or a second office -- all these
benefits add up to substantial productivity gains for physician
as well as staff. No more running from room to room trying to
locate a misplaced chart, no more digging through old boxes to
satisfy an audit or subpoena request.
KB: Document management can be an overwhelming process
for any practice.
MG: Absolutely. In terms of
physical space, valuable square footage occupied by cabinets and
boxes can be freed up for revenue-generating activities. And
MasterScan helps practices adhere better to HIPAA privacy
requirements with password protection and full audit trail of
who even looked at a document.
KB: Do you view your product as complimentary to
high-end EMR solutions or competing against those products?
MG: That’s an interesting question.
On the one hand there are definitely overlapping benefits in the
reduction of paper and overall productivity gains. On the other
hand we have customers that have implemented EMR solutions and
still feel the need to address administrative paperwork with our
product, e.g. for insurance cards, patient registration forms,
EOBs, etc. So, MasterScan can be used to complement an EMR
system.
KB: I can see that.
MG: Implementing QMBMasterScan can
be an easy first step in the long-term direction of a high-end
EMR. At a much lower price point, and requiring just a fraction
of the time to train users, we offer “Paperless without the
pain.”
KB: Currently, what products do you interface with? If
someone doesn’t have one of those products, can they still
utilize QMBMasterScan?
MG: As I’ve mentioned in some
previous answers we have integrated with Lytec, Medisoft, and
AltaPoint. QMBMasterScan also runs stand-alone with either a
Jet-engine (MS Access mdb) or MS SQL Server. There is an import
feature and several users have exported their patient master
lists from ASP-based systems, then imported into MasterScan. We
will integrate with additional practice management products
based on market demand.
KB: Michael, tell me a little bit about your reseller
program – what kind of margins do resellers get?
MG: Full service resellers, who will
install, train, and support our products receive 40% discount
from retail price. For dealers not ready to do implementations
we offer 20% finders fee just for making qualified referrals –
in this case we do remote installation via the internet. We
provide resellers with materials such as flyers and postcards
they can use for a mailing to their customer base to generate
leads.
KB: What other products do you offer?
MG: SBGen, our superbill generator
product, allows a physician to click CPTs and diagnoses on
screens that look similar to his existing paper superbill. SBGen
uses an existing appointment scheduler to prompt for patients
requiring creation of a superbill and guarantees that no
superbills “fall through the cracks” by comparing superbills
created versus the scheduler. The other main benefits are that
no superbill can be created without at least one CPT and one dx,
and billers no longer need to decipher which items have been
circled or checked.
KB: SBGen definitely provides a solution for a big
problem. What else do you have?
MG: AccuLink is another of our
products. It extracts claims from a practice management system
and sends into AccuScrubber® to guarantee clean claims before
submitting to insurance. It checks for appropriate CPT/dx
combinations, potential undercharging versus Medicare
reimbursement rates, inclusive/exclusive CCI edits, etc.
KB: I love that.
MG: Finally, QMBReporter is a
reporting catalog and framework for cataloging custom reports
not included in a user’s practice management system.
KB: You have got some great products that will provide
another nice revenue stream for our subscriber base. Thanks Michael for
your time and all of the good information.
-- Kevin Burdick, InvestMed, LLC
