Hospital consultant Martin Rushford quit his job as a physician to start medical billing company MedoSync. Talking to John Kinsella About the entrepreneurial itch he just had to scratch it
Very few hospital consultants jump out of their full-time day job to start a business. Martin Rushfordan expert in emergency medicine, has not completely given up his profession but now most of his focus is on achieving success MedoSyncwhich he founded in 2019 with co-founder Seamus Cooley, is the technical brain behind the project.
MedoSync has developed a platform that integrates hospital and insurance company systems to enable accurate and effective medical billing in real time. The solution has been approved by the Bon Secours Hospital Group and in Afidea and Laya Clinics, and used to file 50,000 claims in 2021.
The venture was initially funded by the founders and the Rochford family, and last year the hat was passed on for more seed capital. The company took in €850,000, so there’s no going back now for Rochford and Cooley, even if the pace of progress doesn’t quite match their expectations.
Rochford says founding MedoSync scratched the entrepreneurial itch that had stayed with him throughout his medical career. Like his consulting peers, Rochford has made great efforts to advance in this profession.
He spent five years in Australia to complete his emergency medicine training program before returning to Ireland in 2009 to take up the role of Traumatology at Tallaght Hospital, where he headed the unit from 2014 to 2016.
The problem with the entrepreneurial itch is that it is not easy to find a worthwhile business idea in terms of the potential rewards related to the risk and graft required in setting up a business.
“I had a lot of ideas, but I always knew the problem was the most important thing,” Rochford says. “You need to find a problem that everyone cares about. If no one wants to pay to solve that problem, it’s not much of a business idea. In my case, the problem was under my nose.”
As Rochford says, medical billing is a major challenge for hospital finance teams. There are thousands of procedures and hundreds of health plans, and when the payment is billed to the health insurance company, if the coding or patient details are incorrect, the insurance company will stop the money transfer.
Incorrect details can also result in the insurance company being paid less than expected, and Rochford estimates that garbled billing results in 6-9% of revenue leaking to hospitals.
Rochford explains: “As the complexity of patient care increases, so does the management of healthcare bills that pay for that treatment. Patients show up multiple times for different treatments and from different physicians. Existing systems cannot handle the huge volume of information captured about a patient that is required for ease of billing. .
“Insurance companies struggle with the changing landscape of healthcare as much as hospitals. The lack of confidence in the current system caused by inaccuracies leading to higher or lower fees means that insurers have to allocate huge resources to making sure they pay the right amounts for the care of their members. This creates additional requirements for hospitals, and each insurance company has made its own demands on providers.”
MedoSync aims to improve or eliminate billing errors by uploading all treatment and health plan codes into the backend of its platform, and then doctors, consultants and other treatment providers log in to MedoSync and enter the required details.
The patient’s journey through the facility, and charges, are recorded every step of the way, resulting in a complete billing picture of whoever bills the insurance company.
Over time, this information can be useful to patients as well. Rochford notes: “When you ask some people what they thought a year ago and who treated them, the usual response is ‘Ask my wife.
Rushford’s idea would have been dead without it Seamus Cooley Agree to take a risk, too. The company’s chief technology officer has a background working at Ingersoll Rand, Microsoft, Facebook and LinkedIn. However, before Cooley wrote computer code for the MedoSync database, he and Rochford first had to listen.
“At first, we spent a lot of time with the bill breakers who understood what the problems were,” says Rochford. “We knew that if you didn’t understand the problem, you definitely couldn’t solve it.”
seed financing
Initial funding of €100,000 in 2020 was obtained from Louise Cox, wife of Martin Rushford, Brendan Rochford, his brother, and MedoSync accounts for this year’s start-up losses totaling €114,000. “Louise told me you have to do it,” Rochford recalls. “If you want to do it, let’s stop talking about it — just do it.”
Cooley had a MedoSync product ready to roll out in early 2021 and the first adopter was Richard Egan’s MyMedical, who operates three urgent care centers for Laya Healthcare.
Egan was so impressed that he invested €50,000 in the Rochford project and, in addition to running MyMedical, is now chief operating officer of MedoSync.
The company raised 140,000 euros in equity financing in March 2021, and in August 2021 tapped ten investors for 575,000 euros. was among them Jim Hannon And the Alan Coleman who was a hit with Britebill and Michael Hardingwho has experience with insurance technology platforms.
According to Rushford: “We were very clear about the type of investor we talked to. We wanted people who could help and advise us. We didn’t really go out looking for money like that. It just happened through personal introductions.”
as well as fetch Richard Egan In the position of COO, earlier this year, I hired MedoSync Evan Eustace For the role of Customer Success Manager. Eustace previously worked for ad agencies Dentsu and Core, and is tasked with ensuring that MedoSync users get the most out of the technology.
“When we were looking for financing, we asked ourselves what do we really need to make this venture a success? We asked someone with good business pedigree who understands billing and how to run a business,” Rochford says.
“Communication is incredibly important. You can have the best product ever, but it won’t be useful if no one can use it. You need someone who is really good at making sure you have an excellent customer experience.”
Three years into the MedoSync journey, Rochford recently explained that while the startup’s outward perception is that progress is fast-paced, the truth is that success is more than a formula.
“Momentum cannot be underestimated, and when momentum slows it can shrink and deflate,” Rochford wrote in the company blog.
“During slow periods I started shoveling coals and started moving things around. Even a positive meeting with a potential collaborator can have a motivating effect. This is an important lesson for me and the people I work with – looking for small gains because they are greater than the sum of their parts.”
In the conversation, Rochford explained that when things don’t go well, entrepreneurs need to drive just to get out of bed in the morning and go to the office.
“There are bad days when you feel like things aren’t moving as quickly as you’d like. When you don’t know what to do next, just meet someone and ask for advice. From my medical experience, I learned a long time ago that someone else knew the answer.”
MedoSync is fully integrated with Ireland’s three private health insurers, and the arrangement with Bons Secours should help build product confidence with other private hospital operators. The product has the potential to export to the UK and Australia, although each market has its own unique billing issues.
MedoSync was recently accepted into a file GKV: Accelerator Pulsea German program looking for digital solutions to process payments more efficiently.
Hosted by Bitmark, an IT and managed services provider that works with 80% of statutory health insurance companies in Germany.
Rochford says: “We are delighted to join this prestigious Accelerator programme, and to be the only Irish representative to compete with eight others across Europe. We look forward to the opportunity to showcase our solution to some of Germany’s largest healthcare providers.
“In terms of momentum it has been great this year. I have always wanted to start a business and I have no regrets. I think anyone with that desire should do it, because life is short. You have to do what you love to do as opposed to what people want you to do. you do”.
Photo: Martin Rushford, founder of MedoSync. (Photo: Chris Bello/Vinyl Photography)
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