Happy 2018 all you Valorians!
Our 2018 Valor Health Tech Corner kicks off with Ken Comée, CEO at Carecloud. We’ll talk with Ken about CareCloud’s evolution, our dynamic Medical & Health Tech economy as well as what we can expect from CareCloud in 2018.
Let’s get right to it:
I actually was on CareCloud’s Board of Directors for the first three years starting back in early 2012. I came in shortly after Norwest Venture Partners invested. About three years ago, they asked me if I would be interested in taking over the helm. The company saw very fast growth but hit the classic early stage stall. While I may not be a 20+ year health care veteran, I am a cloud software guy who knows how to build and scale companies. So, when I came on board as CEO, it was really about getting back to the basics, slowing things down, recognizing that not all growth is good growth and focusing on the fundamentals of the business, which is developing great products and not just product itself today, but where the market is going and what are the products we need to be developing for the next one to three years.
The second leg of this stool is the trend towards larger practices. As physician costs rise, and as payments and reimbursements decrease, the only way for physicians to get out of that dilemma is by getting more efficient or aggregating and taking advantage of economies of scale. If you’re starting to acquire different practices, you can’t succeed with on premise systems — you have to be on the cloud.
The third is the rising importance and influence of the consumer. CareCloud always has been focused on delivering incredible software to the people who deliver healthcare, whether it’s clinicians, practice administrators, billing professionals or others in the practice. With the paradigm shifting from a payer-provider to a provider-patient focus, we’re building technology that allows patients to have the same kind of technology that they have in other parts of their lives, whether its booking a restaurant, checking in for a flight or paying their bills online. In 2017, we took a big step in capitalizing on this trend by launching Breeze, our patient experience management platform. This is patent-pending transformative technology for both our customers and their patients and we’ve only just begun to tap into its potential.
The fourth is the move from fee-for-service to value-based care. Those practices that don’t reengineer their technology systems to demonstrate they are delivering quality care will be penalized. Those that do embrace new technology will be rewarded with higher reimbursement. CareCloud is sitting right in the middle of these technology needs with our ability to provide the level of visibility and clarity into patient-based outcomes that payers are demanding.
I joined CareCloud because we have an exciting opportunity to build the health technology platform that will serve physician practices – and their patients — for the next decade. We really are having a nice run in terms of winning new business because we’re bringing a modern, next generation ambulatory platform for healthcare.
We will stay ahead by applying state-of-art enterprise cloud technology from other industries through strategic collaborations with companies like First Data. I think our open API strategy is another important competitive advantage in that it allows us to plug and play with telehealth, care coordination, patient engagement platforms and really whatever our customers need, fast and in a way that is integrated with other workflows and technology platforms.
● Offering the opportunity to be part of something bigger than yourself — transforming healthcare.
● Being willing to take advantage of talent wherever they are.
● Hiring those who will complement the skills and backgrounds of others on the team. Doing so taps into the diversity of experiences and ideas that you need to be successful in this complex and changing environment.
● Offering opportunities for employees to stretch and grow, promoting from within wherever possible. Facilitating cross team mentorship is a big part of this strategy; this approach lets employees know there are different places to land within the company.
● Facilitating a culture of entrepreneurship within the company and creating the environment for employees to flourish.
I expect that by the end of next year, we will have made incredible advances in how we are supporting our customers in the transition to value-based care, which requires an entirely new approach to business infrastructure and technology.
I also am excited about the work we’re doing with First Data and their channel partners to bring Breeze to their network of physician practices.
We are very well positioned to capitalize on where the market is moving, particularly as groups evolve to accountable care organization business models and accelerate growth through mergers and acquisitions. I fully expect that we’ll continue to grow along with our customers – and that we’ll deliver some more breakthrough technology into medical practices in 2018.
KEN COMÉE
Ken Comée is Chief Executive Officer at CareCloud, responsible for the strategic and operational performance of the company. Mr. Comée joins CareCloud following a successful track record of helping cloud-based technology innovators to secure and extend market leadership. He brings more than 20 years of executive management experience in both private and public companies.
Mr. Comée was formerly the CEO of PowerReviews, the world’s largest social commerce network, which powers customer conversations on over 5,500 websites including Staples, REI and Toys“R”Us. He oversaw the scaling of its operations and fast growth in the market. Prior to PowerReviews, Mr. Comée was CEO of Cast Iron Systems, growing the company into the #1 brand in cloud integration. He took the company from a start-up venture to a global leader in the cloud integration sector, leading to a ten-fold increase in revenue and a strategic acquisition by IBM to bolster its cloud strategy in April 2010. Previously, Mr. Comée held executive positions at CollabNet, a software development pioneer in the cloud, and at product lifecycle leader PTC. He has also held several various high-level management positions at Amdahl/Fujitsu in Europe and the U.S. Mr. Comée is a graduate of Santa Clara University and received an MBA from the London Business School.
