If Rich Maradik were a musician, he’d write a song he thought would rocket to No. 1 on the country music charts.
The former Gaylord Entertainment executive has the same strategy in business.
Now the CEO of Clarus, Maradik wants to quadruple the number of medical practices using his company’s call management software by 2026, from more than 2,000 to more than 8,000.
Clarus’ software-as-a-service platform provides medical call management to physician offices and health systems in 40 states, which is used by more than 13,000 physicians and staff. Instead of routing after-hours and daytime patient calls to voicemail or a call center, Clarus is able to keep records of the content of the call for electronic health record-keeping, while efficiently communicating those messages to a physician.
But Clarus’ platform doesn’t just improve communication between doctors and patients, it targets physician burnout. The nation’s 250,000 physician practices will perform approximately 900 million patient visits this year, he said, with each visit requiring three or four pieces of communication outside the office, such as scheduling, prescriptions and patient questions. That’s more than 3 billion pieces of communication.
The problem has only become more acute since the pandemic, leaving doctors and staff overwhelmed, Maradik said.
Which is why his goal to quadruple is about more than growth for growth’s sake — Clarus need to be first.
“Those 250,000 medical offices are going to pick some technology, we believe, over the next five years to try and improve this,” Maradik said. “What we’re doing at Clarus is we’re investing heavily now, to go get as many of those 250,000 under contract with us over the next five years. Call it a first-mover advantage to be the technology those offices choose to fix their communication problems.”
To do that, Clarus’ owner, Nashville-based Graham Healthcare Capital, will invest between $5 million and $10 million over the next three years to fund growth, Maradik said, including the reinvestment of Clarus profits.
Clarus is targeting three market segments to add new clients: physician networks inside health systems, private equity-backed independent physician practice rollups and independent physician practices. The company is hiring a national sales team with vice presidents in four regions of the country to win accounts in the first two segments, he said. Two of the spots were filled earlier this month with the hiring of Jamie Anderson as vice president for enterprise development for the Southeast and John Riley as vice president for enterprise development for the Midwest. Clarus is using traditional B2B marketing to add independent physician practices.
Maradik expects to hire about 10 new employees by the end of the year. The company currently employs approximately 35 people.
“[Physicians] are saying, ‘I can’t answer the phones, it’s overwhelming. And I can’t hire enough people because I don’t have the money or I can’t find them. I give up.’ And providers are like, ‘I have paperwork to do. I’ve got billing. I’ve got prescription challenges. I can only do what I can do and I can’t do any better,’” Maradi said. “Everybody is throwing up their hands. When you see that you know something’s got to give. … You’ve got to bring technology into health care to solve those problems.”
