“You wouldn’t rely on a doctor to manage your checkbook, why would you rely on a clinical system to manage your revenue cycle?” asks James Dudley – CEO, Parathon. He found that many health care providers were forfeiting millions in compensation because they were relying on their clinical system to manage their RCM. Being a software developer and technologist, he realized that the workflow of engineering clinical systems was not equipped to handle RCM. He resolved to develop the most robust and comprehensive RCM system for healthcare providers. Thus, Parathon was born.

Parathon can manage the entire revenue cycle of even the largest providers as a single enterprise using the legacy EMR as a raw data warehouse. Dudley designed Parathon to be a middleware data aggregator that overarches legacy system EMRs. It enables the providers to control their entire financial desktop as a single enterprise even if it is comprised of many disparate facilities operating on multiple legacy EMRs. In this way, Parathon allows the providers to realize economies of scale and efficiencies from operating on a virtual single-enterprise system.

First of its kind

Parathon is based on a proprietary first-to-market “Parallel Database,” or “PDB”. Dudley has coined the term and trademarked it. PDB transforms the entire patient accounting system of legacy EMR into a single enterprise platform utilizing state of the art, cloud-based technology. The key benefit is that with Parathon’s PDB the provider gains complete control of their legacy RCM and can better manage revenue without being constrained by their EMR’s deficiencies.

Dudley firmly believes no clinical EMR system can match the RCM functionality and value proposition of Parathon as their clinical focus overshadows the requirements of RCM needs. “RCM pathways are intrinsically dissimilar from EMR, and the development mindset and culture for these pathways is radically different”, says Dudley.

He sees a greater role for the likes of Parathon as mergers and acquisitions are occurring at a rapid pace producing larger, and far more complex Provider organizations. Emerging Accountable Care Organizations, Pay-for-Performance, and Value-Based Reimbursement models also add a significant degree of complexity to Provider operations. They need the level of technical support that only a pure development firm like Parathon can deliver. “Shrink wrap” RCM solutions are heavily dependent on third-party bolt-on applications that legacy clinical systems offer and, as such, cannot meet these needs.