Lazy is a small, Rockville, Md.-based startup that competes in the extremely lucrative healthcare IT market, which is poised to be valued in excess of $228 billion by 2020 according to MarketsandMarkets. Co-founded by Chris Millet, Bobby Jones and Dolly Singh, the small company recently graduated from the newly established Relevant Health business accelerator.
"In healthcare, software developers and vendors are working to transform the way data is captured and presented to users. Lazy makes it easy for healthcare's software developer community to use data to track cost, quality and performance against metrics based on evidence," Millet, an graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, said.
While perhaps unknown to most, Lazy focuses on something called healthcare quality measurables. More specifically, Lazy helps in the process of making these quality measures easier for hospitals and doctor's offices to comply with. In short, there's massive potential for a company capable of streamlining this cumbersome task, explained Millet.
Over the last several years, a revolving, in-house debate concerning the way that healthcare should be valued and ultimately billed to patients (and their insurers) is challenging the status quo. That conversation can be summed up by a push from many within the industry to shift from a "fee-for-service to value-based reimbursement" model.
"Quality measures are so important because they are the backbone of every big transformation in the healthcare industry from payment reform to value based care. In fact, measures are the value in value based care," Millet said in an email, Wednesday.
In essence, this changing revenue landscape could see healthcare providers get paid based on the quality of their services and tests rather than simply by the number of visits and tests they bill. Clearly, the move could be a big deal for the larger industry as Medicare expenditures have ballooned with an aging baby boomer population growing and Medicaid skyrocketing at a faster rate than previously predicted.
Quality measures are important because they are the "backbone of every big transformation in the healthcare industry from payment reform to value based care, said Millet.
These measures effectively define “value” in value based care. Yet though critical to the system, measure remain difficult to manage and especially so when a facility cares for numerous patients and is constantly ordering new products.
"Reporting quality measures is burdensome. They're so many measures, they’re confusing and implementing them is so disruptive to how healthcare system works. Lazy's approach to integrate measures into existing tools, such as EHR systems, practice management systems, or billing systems significantly helps to reduce this burden on hospitals and practices," Millet told DC Inno in a phone interview.
Millet, Jones and Singh met at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg. At the time, Millet and Jones were studying healthcare technology systems and business, respectively.
Millet worked closely with a Pittsburg hospital during the course of his senior thesis, which looked at improving the way that healthcare providers can adopt emerging technologies to, among other things, cut costs. The biggest lesson learned at the time for Millet was that a real and palpable gap existed in the market for a solution like Lazy.
To date, Lazy has launched the first version of their first product, which offers a measures recording tool. It is being used by a small group of beta customers. Today, they hope to launch a new product, which expands upon the platform, by the end of May. The bootstrapped company is in active talks with private equity investors though Millet declined to name individuals. Lazy is cash flow negative and the team continues to operate from the Relevant Health accelerator, based in Rockville, Md.
The Relevant Health accelerator is backed by BioHealth Innovation in partnership with ProductSavvy, the Montgomery County Economic Development group and Rockville Economic Development Inc. The accelerator focuses on fostering the development of health tech startups, many of whom do not need to navigate the usually complicated and stringent regulatory standards that, for example, biotech firms must meet. In exchange for a five month training program and $50,000—designed to build viable products and an early customer base—Relevant Health scoops an 8 percent equity stake per firm.
Given it's location, Revelant Health is positioned to take advantage of the growing cluster of medical tech-related talent that calls Bethesda, Rockville, Gaithersburg and Columbia, Md., home, while it also boasts direct connections to the FDA, the National Institute of Health (NIH) and a number of top medical universities that are local, CEO Rich Bendis previously told DC Inno.
