Nashville Technology Council

Joe Ferro founded the company in August of 1998. While Mr. Ferro was working as a hospital revenue cycle consultant, ClaimTrust started as a conversation between Mr. Ferro and his wife Kathy, a healthcare software developer. Together they pioneered web-based automated claims and coding compliance, which is now widely accepted in the healthcare industry. Prior to ClaimTrust, Mr. Ferro worked for QuadraMed, Zimmerman & Associates, Inc., and Health Communication Services, a division of Trigon Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Mr. Ferro received his B.B.A. in economics from Middle Tennessee State University.

Nashville Tech Story (3/24/10)

By now we have all heard about the Health Insurance Reform package passed late Sunday evening.  We have been looking for a good summary.  Deloitte sent us the following link to help us keep up with the progress of the bill as the Senate reconciles its version to the House Bill that was passed.  We didn’t think you wanted to read all 2,400 pages of the bill.  The market responded positively yesterday, but there are many tanning salons looking for new revenue streams this morning.

http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Insights/Browse-by-Content-Type/Newsletters/health-care-reform-memo/315a3bd377587210VgnVCM100000ba42f00aRCRD.htm

The cost of the House reconciliation bill is $940 billion over 10 years. Major expenses are:

• $434 billion for expansion of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Plans enrollment
• $466 billion for subsidies to fund insurance for individuals and families up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level
• $40 billion for small employer tax credits

Among the proposed sources of funding from the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) preliminary analysis combining HR3590 and HR4872 are:

• $60 billion penalties paid by individuals and employers that do not buy insurance*
• $196 billion in reduced Medicare scheduled payments
• $36 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid Disproportionate Share (DSH) payments
• $70 billion from premiums for long-term care insurance (CLASS Act)
• $132 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage Plans
• $32 billion from taxes on Cadillac health plans*
• $103 billion Medicare payroll tax increases*
• $57 billion excise taxes on insurance companies (2014-2018), plus $14.3 billion per year plus adjustment thereafter*
• $31 billion excise taxes on brand name pharmaceutical companies (2010-2019), plus $2.8 billion per year thereafter*
• 2.3 percent sales tax on medical devices*
• $58 billion Pell Grant privatization (unrelated to health reform)

Source: CBO Preliminary Analysis, March 20, 2010

Nashville Tech Story (3/23/10)

NASHVILLE: NOW HIRING

The Nashville Technology Council today announced the release of its Q1 2010 Technology Hiring Trends Report.  After extensive research, the report reveals over 420 technical jobs available in the Middle Tennessee area.  The report was generated from public job postings from large job portals (i.e. CareerBuilder, Monster, etc.), specialty technology sites (i.e. Dice) and local employer sites.

The highest number of openings came from enterprise health care technology companies: Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Health Care Management Systems (HMS), and Community Health Systems (CHS).   In addition, other local industry heavyweights like music, publishing, manufacturing, and transactions continue to post job openings in technology.

The most prevalent technology positions are in Management.  Management is followed by Analyst, Developers, and Network Engineers.  In addition to job openings, the report also illustrates programming languages that are most needed in the today’s technology industry.  .Net, and Java are in highest demand for potential employees, as well as SQL database positions.

“Technology is revolutionizing industries in healthcare, digital content, publishing, and transactions,” said J. Tod Fetherling, President/CEO of Nashville Technology Council. “Nashville’s creative and educational communities are being relied on to assist in transforming music, healthcare, and transactional industries.  This will create exciting new opportunities for employment for the foreseeable future.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “there were 2.7 million job openings on the last business day of January 2010 nationwide. The job openings rate rose over the month to 2.1 percent, the highest the rate has been since February 2009.”

To view the full report, click here.

Nashville Tech Story (12/1/09)

“Having spent 20 years in hospitals and health technology, the Nashville Medical Trade Center represents an opportunity to substantially cut costs in healthcare by bringing products and technologies together in one place for buyers to compare and contrast,” said J. Tod Fetherling, President, Nashville Technology Council.  “Equally important is the opportunity to have technology demonstration projects that are based here in Nashville that represent the best of digital healthcare.” 

EMRs and EHRs will converge over the next 10 years.  Some elements will come quicker, but Healthcare IT is poised to be a leading sector for many years.  Nashville should be leading way in community demonstration projects and in consumer directed value-based healthcare.  This project is another opportunity for us to lead the country in healthcare innovation, not reform.  The city, state, and country need our leadership, now.

Market Center Management Company (MCMC), the management company of leading international trade centers and trade events around the world, today announced the location for its $250 million Nashville Medical Trade Center project: the site of the current Nashville Convention Center at 601 Commerce Street in downtown Nashville.

“This project will create a large number of new jobs in our city right when we need them most,” said Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. “In addition to building on Nashville’s preeminence in the health care industry, the reuse of the Convention Center and the proposed improvements to the center’s physical structure will be a significant contribution to our vital and robust downtown.”

The Nashville Medical Trade Center, the world’s first global health care marketplace, will meet the changing needs of the international medical community by featuring permanent manufacturer showrooms, temporary exhibition space, and conference facilities within a 2 million square foot complex.

“Nashville is the perfect home for this dynamic marketplace,” said Bill Winsor, president and CEO, MCMC. “Its pro-business environment, a convenient location, and leadership in health care are unmatched. Health care suppliers and providers from around the world will travel to Nashville to access the latest medical technology and services.”

Market Center Management Company will begin construction as early as mid-2010 on a new 12-story tower on top of the existing convention center site, as well as develop a new plaza across the street from the historic Ryman Auditorium. In addition, the Broadway-facing side of the property will undergo a redesign.

“This announcement means Tennessee will be home to an important new concept in the marketing and procurement of medical equipment, technology and services,” said Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. “The health care industry is a significant economic engine for our state and this project expands that footprint, representing a major investment in our state’s health care economy.”

Custom space for more than 600 medical companies will be available at the Nashville Medical Trade Center, creating an efficient, transparent marketplace for health care providers and attracting more than 150,000 estimated annual visitors to Nashville.

The project is being designed by Nashville-based Gresham, Smith and Partners, a leading multi-disciplinary design and consulting firm. Construction will be managed by the Nashville office of Turner.

PureSafety Continues Aggressive Growth Strategy
Taps Avondale Partners to identify acquisition opportunities

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Nov. 10, 2009 — PureSafety, a leading provider of results-driven software and information solutions for workforce safety and health, is ramping up its acquisition strategy and has engaged Avondale Partners, a full-service investment banking firm, to assist in identifying potential opportunities.

PureSafety’s scale, market leadership and momentum make it well positioned for additional growth and a prime candidate to further consolidate the industry.  The company is seeking highly capable and committed teams as well as complementary software solutions and service partners within the workforce safety, health, environmental and risk management sectors.

This heightened focus on acquisition growth is in support of PureSafety’s vision to create the industry’s most comprehensive suite of web-based software and information solutions to address compliance, risk management, governance and culture needs.

“Our ability to help our customers protect their most important assets and drive meaningful business results has never been stronger,” said PureSafety President and CEO Bill Grana. “We are looking for like-minded people and companies that share this vision.”

The company’s successful acquisitions to date include the December 2008 acquisition of Unique Software Solutions, Inc. (USSI) and its Occupational Health Manager® (OHM) software suite and PerDatum’s Prognos® software application in November 2006.  

“We are excited to partner with PureSafety on this engagement, and already have multiple indications of interest outstanding to acquire complementary firms,” said Chris Calton, director, Investment Banking at Avondale Partners.

About PureSafety
Born out of a workplace tragedy in 1999, PureSafety empowers its customers to protect their organization’s most valuable assets: their people and profits. PureSafety provides comprehensive, web-based software and information solutions that support compliance requirements, overall risk management needs, and the enhancement of governance and company culture through improved programs, processes, awareness, understanding, visibility, and accountability within workforce safety and health.  The company’s growing team of 160 employees serves more than 2,000 companies operating in more than 20 major industries including manufacturing, construction, distribution, energy, and healthcare, and encompasses 34 percent of the Fortune 500. Headquartered in the Nashville-area, PureSafety has an additional location in Colorado Springs, Col. To learn more, visit www.puresafety.com or call 888.202.3016.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Amy Gray, APR                        
Gray Public Relations                        
615.497.1799                                    
agray@graypr.com     

PURESAFETY ANNOUNCES PERSONNEL CHANGES AND NEW CLIENT-FOCUSED GO TO MARKET STRATEGY

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Oct. 27, 2009 — Bill Grana, president and CEO of Franklin, Tenn.-based PureSafety, a leading provider of training, safety, occupational health and medical management software solutions, today announced the promotions of Marshall Martin and Mike Kroll and the addition of Allison Pullen to the PureSafety team. These changes come as a result of the company’s decision to adopt a new, more market and customer-focused go to market strategy.

“To better serve our clients, we aligned the business with our two primary client personas — occupational health professionals and safety professionals,” said Grana. “The new structure will allow for greater operational nimbleness and focus, while continuing our strong record of customer service and support. Most importantly, organizing our business and overall market strategy around the people using our solutions ensures a deeper understanding of their challenges and opportunities, which helps us to better meet their needs, both now and well into the future.”

Mike Kroll has been promoted to executive vice president, general manager, of PureSafety’s new Workforce Safety and Training Management Solutions business unit, which will focus on delivering innovative software and information solutions to today’s busy training, safety and risk management professionals. Kroll has more than 17 years of corporate training sales and management expertise. Prior to joining PureSafety in January 2003, Kroll served as the Senior Director of Sales for eLearning at Ninth House, Inc. and as a National Sales Director for Vcampus Corp.

Marshall Martin has been promoted to executive vice president, general manager, of PureSafety’s new Workforce and Occupational Health Management Solutions business unit, which will focus on delivering innovative software and information solutions to today’s busy occupational health and medical management professionals. Martin has more than 15 years of senior-level management experience in strategic planning, accounting, operations management and business process reengineering. Prior to joining PureSafety in July 2008, he spent three years as chief operating officer at Juris Inc.(now LexisNexis) and held senior leadership roles at US Xpress Enterprises, Olan Mills Portrait Studios and Harrison Direct.

Allison Pullen has been hired as senior marketing manager, Workforce and Occupational Health Management Solutions business unit. She brings more than 10 years of marketing, public relations and corporate communications experience in the technology, healthcare and occupational medicine sectors to the PureSafety marketing team. She has held marketing management and consulting roles with Fortune 100 companies as well as smaller entities, including Merck Pharmaceuticals and Intergraph Corporation. Most recently, Pullen served as marketing manager of Strategic Communications at Autodesk, a global 2D and 3D design software and services company.

About PureSafety
Born out of a workplace tragedy in 1999, PureSafety empowers its customers to protect their organization’s most valuable assets: their people and profits. PureSafety provides comprehensive, web-based software and information solutions that support compliance requirements, overall risk management needs, and the enhancement of governance and company culture through improved programs, processes, awareness, understanding, visibility, and accountability within workforce safety and health.  The company’s growing team of 160 employees serves more than 2,000 companies operating in more than 20 major industries including manufacturing, construction, distribution, energy, and healthcare, and encompasses 34 percent of the Fortune 500. Headquartered in Nashville-area Franklin, Tenn., PureSafety has an additional location in Colorado Springs, Colorado. To learn more, visit www.puresafety.com or call 888.202.3016.

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The Nashville Tech Story (8/6/2009)

The Nashville Technology Council hosted our “Naked Hospital” event this morning.  The event revolved around health care reform and transparency.  Our second speaker was U.S. Congressman Marsha Blackburn who provided the audience with a legislative update on the health care reform issue.

Congressman Blackburn is concerned by the state of confusion revolving around patients.  She fully believe’s that it’s frustrating to both employers and patients because the system is currently not as transparent as it should be.  Many individuals have issues with simply finding where to go when they don’t understand the paperwork they recieve from their physician, hospital or insurance provider.

While transparency is extremely important, one of the components that cannot be overlooked and must also be transparent is the educational aspect.  Patients need to be able to understand their insurance policies, bills being sent to them by their doctor ’s, and what the information means that hospital’s are giving them.  With education will come the discussion to start making patients liable.

Everyone agrees that costs are too high, access is very limited and tort reform needs to take place.  Currently, some of the conversation taking place in government revolves around making individuals more responsible, which includes something as simple as following a doctor’s orders and taking prescription drugs as they are prescribed.   

Health IT is also a very important component that needs to be addressed.  The benefits that Health IT can provide can provide an enormous source of savings and efficiency.  One example of this is taking advantage of Electronic Medical Records (EMR).  Congressman Blackburn is a big believer that every patient should own their medical record, which would create a huge cost savings for the health care industry.  The best example of this was after Katrina, which would have saved cost had individuals had access to an EMR. 

“Our hope is that going back you will see a beginning to whittle down and find the areas of agreement to yield efficiencies and savings,” said Congressman Blackburn.  ”We want to be able to move something to the President’s desk by the end of the year that will deal with IT issues and create some reform.”

If you want to learn more about these issues, visit Congressman Blackburn’s website at www.Blackburn.house.gov

The Nashville Tech Story (8/05/2009)

Today, the Nashville Technology Council traveled to visit the offices of Qualifacts. We met with David Klements and his team to learn more about what Qualifacts brings to Nashville, what services they offer and how the Nashville Technology Council could better serve their needs.

Qualifacts is an Electronic Health Record (EHR) software developer provider for behavioral health care. They pride themselves as being known as the largest provider of software as a service (SAS) for the behavioral health industry.  Qualifacts designs their software offering based on the individual needs of their client’s.

Qualifacts is also the leading vendor for internet-based clinical, administrative and financial management applications.  Clients use Qualifacts software to improve services and to become more efficient. Qualifacts software handles the end-to-end process of a medical visit, from the scheduling of an appointment to the doctor’s assessment of the patient to the treatment plan and billing of that patient.

Currently, they are working on a marketing campaign that is based solely online. Online strategies include the use of social networking opportunities such as Twitter to market their company and they also host an online web cast twice a month for thier client base.

As Qualifacts looks to the future they are hoping to move into other areas of health care such as primary care centers and eventually tap into the physical therapy market.

For more information on Qualifacts and how the can help you organization, visit their website at www.qualifacts.com.

The Nashville Tech Story (8/4/2009)

The Nashville Technology Council will be hosting “The Naked Hospital” on Thursday, August 6th at the Hillwood Country Club.  This is a special Super Roundtable event that will be a provocative look at transparency and eHealth.  We will discuss how and why health systems and hospitals should focus on quality and value as part of their business strategy.

The half day event will feature expert speakers including:

• U.S. Congressman, Marsha Blackburn
• Paul Keckley, Executive Director, Deloitte Center for Health Solutions
• David Jarrard, CEO, Jarrard, Cate, Phillips, Hancock

Panel discussions will also be included and focus on Measuring Quality/Value as well as Personal Health Records, Electronic Health Records, and Electronic Medical Records.  Companies represented on panels include: HMS, Emdeon, Healthways, CHS, HealthStream, and Credence Healthcare.

Don’t miss out on this exciting event that is targeted at health care and technology industry professionals. Registration for this event will end tomorrow (8/5) at noon.  Click here for more information

Triple Crown?

While we don’t have a horse in the running for the Triple Crown this year, we do a city trying to pull off a Triple Play.  Nashville is working to position itself as a mecca for Music, Health, and Technology.  Underlying the success of all three industries is the entrepreneurial spirit in Nashville. Can it be done?

Milt Capps reported in his Blog this week about the Washington Post story covering The National Economic Stress Index from the AP.  The story specifically calls out Nashville and our ability to transform the city using the Music City Brand.  Check One.  More and more our city is being held out in national publications as unique.  We need to continue to embrace this as part of our culture.  Visit the index, it is very cool use of data and technology.

Second is our dominance in Health Care.  The work of the Nashville Health Care Council has been exceptional in branding Nashville as the Silicon Valley of Health Care.  And it is true.  The Provider and Payer industries growing out of Nashville is extraordinary and should continue to help the city weather the economic turmoil.

Third is our entrepreneurial spirit.  Approximately 21.6% of economic engine of the city is compromised of self employed/entrepreneurial ventures.  That is amazing.  We lead most major cities in this category.  The history as revealed by Ralph Schultz goes back centuries and continues to drive the economy.  So in building a brand as an entrepreneurial city, we first need to recognize it ourselves and then begin to promote it externally.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with a packed room full of young energetic, smart college students as part of Vanderbilt’s Accelerator Program.  It was facinating to hear their perceptions of Nashville after a great series of presentations from the Chamber, CVB, and local entrepreneurs.  What I learned is that Nashville is experimental city, meaning that when people physically experience what our city has to offer, they are surprised and excited.  They want to stay.  I can’t wait to see what these young minds come up with in Branding Nashville as an Entrepreneurial City.

I am ready to bet on our ability to win the Triple Crown.  How about you?