With the help of data analytics, Justin Nicols has aspirations of giving healthcare providers, insurance companies, and, ultimately, patients a tool to wade through the murky complexities of medical billing.
Nicols, founder and CEO of Milwaukee-based Sift Healthcare, is entering 2019 in growth mode, powered by a $1 million investment it raised last November. Nicols said he wants to hire more staff for the company, which was founded in 2017 under its previous name, SiftMD.
At its core, Nicols said Sift Healthcare is working to offer up patient-specific data analytics to healthcare providers and insurance companies.
“There is a lack of it in the market,” he said in an interview with Wisconsin Inno. “We’re all about providing payment outcomes. It’s about giving providers and billing companies the tools they need.”
The company’s business model includes providing data solutions to healthcare providers by formulating predictive analytics on patients at risk of not paying bills. The data can be used as a tool for the providers to determine how much a patient is able to pay.
The ultimate goal, Nicols said, is to increase patient payment rates and decrease the number of denials rendered during the claims process.
As 2019 moves ahead, Nicols said the company is honing in on bolstering its team of data scientists.
“We’re focused on the transactional nature of data,” Nicols said. “We’re committed to building out this platform. When it comes to data and analytics, healthcare has kind of been a laggard.”
Sift Healthcare’s growth plans for the year ahead have been given muscle with the $1 million investment, which comes from Neenah-based Winnebago Seed Fund and Wind River Financial, a Madison-based company specializing in merchant payment processing services.
In a statement, Mike Carow, president and CEO of Wind River, said his company’s partnership with Sift Healthcare is a logical one.
“We are incredibly excited to partner with Sift Healthcare,” Carow said in the statement. “Sift’s data platform and data science expertise compliment Wind River’s knowledge of healthcare payment complexity. Together, we will be able to help healthcare systems greatly improve their cash flow operations.”
Another milestone for Sift Healthcare, announced in December, is a partnership with the organization StartUp Health Academy.
“It’s been a fantastic relationship so far,” Nicols said. “They have an incredible Rolodex of relationships in the industry.”
In a statement made at the time the partnership was announced, Polina Hanin, director of StartUp Health, said she believed the academy’s work with Sift Healthcare will provide meaningful outcomes in the road ahead.
“Sift Healthcare is doing some of the most challenging work necessary to revolutionize the revenue cycle and create real interoperability, making real data science possible,” Hanin said in the statement.
