Milt Capps
Published Tuesday, July 5, 2016 3:15 pm

HealthQRS, the e-commerce platform supporting consumer decision-making and payments for medical care chosen from organically grown services networks, has raised more than $1MM from its startup investors, said Co-founder/CEO Earl Winter.

Winter is the Nashville-based entrepreneur who founded and for more than a decade led Nashville healthcare retail payments startup Revpoint (previously nTelagent), prior to that company's 2014 sale to Florida-based Availity in 2014 on undisclosed terms.

Year-old HealthQRS's current investors have appetite for further personal investment in the startup, said Winter, who added that the company would certainly consider accepting investment from strategic partners that have established substantial market footprints.

CEO Earl Winter

Winter said he knows of no direct competitors for its current offering.

HealthQRS is designed to serve as the nexus not only for front-end review of required direct consumer payments, but also for service pricing and out-of-pocket transparency, patient engagement, risk management, medical services inventory and pricing management, and other functions.

Platform adopters can be hospital systems, medical group, insurance plan managers, employers and others.

The CEO confirmed that the beta-stage company has received approaches from would-be strategic buyers -- more than one offer has been declined -- as well as from individual and institutional investors.

Given the company's view of its prospects in the Healthcare sector (via branded and white-labeled offerings) and its potential future targeting of other verticals, it is premature to price the company, said Winter.

The co-founder said the company's suitors have typically been surprised to find that HealthQRS's broad solution is market-ready.

With a laugh, Winter noted that, including his years with nTelagent/Revpoint, "when you think about it, I've spent since 2005 working on it. It's not like this is my first rodeo." Winter's LinkedIn profile is here.

HealthQRS projects reaching breakeven-or-better in six to 12 months on the strength of its pipeline and business developments Winter said are in-train for completion this year.

During beta, demonstrations of the platform are by reservation, but Winter described its app's user experience as similar to that of robust popular consumer hospitality and travel sites, adding that its solution works on smartphone, iPad and PC.

He explained that, much as was the case with nTelagent, only he is stationed in Nashville, while 10 FTE developers and other staff are located at or near Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus, as well as in Kentucky and North Carolina.

B.J. Yurkovich

Winter's Co-Founder and EVP is Robert Lane, who also cofounded nTelagent and is based in Columbus. Lane leads marketing and product management.

HealthQRS's CTO is B.J. Yurkovich, who's also an OSU researcher.

Current investors include two who were first-in: Nelson Crowe and wife Amber McAdams, Nashville-based principals in real estate investment-oriented Fortuna Partners, according to their LinkedIn profiles. They were also initial investors in nTelagent, Winter confirmed.

Other investors include strategic advisor Matt Seefeld, a Del Mar, Calif.-based venture partner with Analytics Ventures; and, Richard Traczyk, DPM, Oklahoma City.

The company's advisors include attorney Don Moody at Waller Lansden and accountants with BKD.

HealthQRS banks with Renasant and it recently sealed an agreement with Long and Associates Marketing, based in the Louisville area.

At the time of its 2014 sale, Revpoint technology enabled providers to settle patients' retail accounts prior to services being rendered, whether insured, uninsured or charity cases.

Venture Nashville research suggests the Revpoint transaction, completed during the term of then-CEO Hal Andrews, was probably valued somewhere in the $25MM-$35MM range. The sell-side advisor was Brentwood Capital Advisors.

A Mississippian by birth, Winter acknowledged that, as indicated on his LinkedIn profile, he has also conceptualized another for-profit business in the mental and behavioral healthcare sector, dubbed Your Safe Harbor. That concept has been set aside indefinitely while pursuing HealthQRS, but he said he is likely to pick up that opportunity and the pressing healthcare needs surrounding it, at some point in the future.

Winter, 60, and his wife reside in Davidson County and have several adult children.

"QRS" in the company's name is for "Quick Response Service." VNC

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