Beaverton software developer makes big strides in the mental health arena
When Ramana Reddy first started his Beaverton, OR software company EnSoftek, Inc. in 1999, “meaningful use” had no useful meaning for him — yet.
The company did regional software consulting and contracted with several government agencies, including the Oregon Department of Transportation, the city of Portland, Providence Health & Services, Nike Inc. and WebMD. It built up its federal contract work in the mid-2000s, after receiving a business development certification for minority-owned firms from the Small Business Administration.
Then President Obama in 2009 signed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, which provided $18 billion in incentives to hospitals and other providers for showing “meaningful use” of electronic health record (EHR) technology to improve quality, safety and efficiency, among other goals.
Reddy spied an opportunity.
“We quickly started building a system,” he said.
The result was DrCloudEHR™, for which the company expects to soon receive a stage 3 certification, having already notched them for stages 1 and 2. It quickly bid on, and won, a contract to provide an EHR system to the Armed Services Retirement Home, which provides long-term care centers for distinguished veterans. In the face of competition from much bigger firms, including Epic and Netsmart Technologies, EnSoftek has now created a niche: EHR software for the mental health and substance abuse space that can be integrated with primary care.
The company has 55 customers in 22 states, including the Peace Corps, Washington County, a host of mental health and substance abuse providers, psychiatric hospitals and federally qualified health clinics. It employs 31 employees in Beaverton, but 110 altogether in other parts of the U.S. and India.
EnSoftek is currently looking for a strategic partner, such as a population health provider or insurer, to support its continued growth.
“Our strategy is being a homegrown company. We have a robust solution that is competing with the top products in the market,” Reddy said. “We’re looking for some strategic partners to bring in industry knowledge.”
Building a product
Originally from India, Reddy came to the U.S. in 1984 and graduated from Michigan Technological University. He worked in the auto industry around Detroit, then came to Portland when his wife was hired to work on the Pentium design team at Intel Corp. He received his masters degree in computer science from the Oregon Graduate Institute and worked for Protocol Systems, which makes bedside monitors.
EnSoftek has evolved over the years. After the company built a custom product for the Armed Services Retirement Home, Reddy decided to focus on mental health. Those providers need primary care to be integrated into the system, which can be a complex process.
“That’s how treatment centers felt we were bringing uniqueness to the field,” Reddy said.
This led to a bid for a white label product to serve the Peace Corps, which was looking for a way to track the wellbeing of volunteers scattered among 75 different posts around the world. Each has a small clinic and medical office.
The Peace Corps initially awarded the contract to a firm with no health care experience, Reddy said. EnSoftek protested, the agency put out a new call for bids and the company won out over half a dozen other players. The white label PC Medics product rolled out to all the Peace Corps’ posts over the last six months.
Despite that plumb contract, EnSoftek is hardly the dominant player in the outpatient mental health-EHR space. Netsmart, which has been in business for about 25 years, has 70 percent market share, he said. Qualifax is the No. 2 player. Reddy estimates 30-35 products are out there that cater to the space, and EnSoftek competes primarily with eight of them.
Revenue fell to $8 million last year from about $10.5 million the previous year, as the company transitioned to a pure EHR software provider for behavioral health and away from the health IT consulting projects.
Bang, It’s Done
The company’s edge, Reddy said, is that it started in the primary care space, then integrated mental health. “There is a lot of competition and being a small guy with limited resources is challenging,” he said. “Us coming from primary care to behavioral health and with the entire industry moving into integrated care, we’re unique because of the primary care functionality being built-in. Others need to bring in a primary care module.”
EnSoftek hired a company called Open Minds, which offers coaching and seminars to mental health clinics, to evaluate its product and point out gaps. As a result, EnSoftek beefed up its revenue cycle management and now has a complete, end-to-end product. DrCloudEHR handles scheduling, intakes, insurance, billing, charting, patient communication and telehealth appointments, a new feature. It also produces analytics and various reports.
DrCloudEHR can be used on a laptop or mobile device, enabling users to do everything they’d do in the office in the field, an especially useful feature in rural areas. Competitors also offer mobile solutions, but with limited features, Reddy said.
BestCare Treatment Services, a substance abuse services provider in Redmond, Oregon, became EnSoftek’s domain partner several years ago and helped to adapt the primary care software to the mental health environment. CEO Rick Treleaven said the software has evolved to where it’s “state of the art” and allows him to keep up as data demands have tripled in the past five years.
The bed management function has also been especially useful for BestCare, which operates 94 treatment beds spread across three Southern Oregon cities, he said. The front desk and billing functions and customer support are excellent, documentation is easy and meets accrediting body standards, and it’s also simple to create your own forms and report information to the state, Treleaven said.
“With DrCloud, it’s automated, and bang, it’s done,” he said.
Treleaven figures the monthly fee for the software equates to the salary of two full time workers but probably saves him the cost of six.
“It’s one of these rare pieces of software that has decreased my administrative overhead,” Treleaven said. “Usually, software makers claim it will do that, and it doesn’t.”
EnSoftek, Inc. Founder, President and CEO: Ramana Reddy Headquarters: Beaverton Founded: 1999 Business: behavioral health and human services software solutions for commercial and government clients Product: DrCloudEHR Employees: 31 locally, 110 total Revenue in 2017: $8 million
