Spokane, Washington-based healthcare tech startup Medcurity recently raised nearly $700,000 in seed financing to streamline HIPAA assessment and compliance tracking for clinics and hospitals, Geekwire reports.
Hospitals and clinics have “a lot of anxiety around meeting regulatory requirements,” said Joe Gellatly, CEO and co-founder of Medcurity, according to the outlet.
Leading the seed round was Spokane-based angel fund Kick-Start III, with contributions also from the Spokane Angel Alliance and a loan from Ignite Northwest’s Technology Growth Fund. Mind to Market, an entrepreneur-focused program, also invested around $50,000 in pre-seed financing, according to Geekwire.
Gellatly cites rising interest in Spokane tech as a boon to his company. “There’s a lot of momentum right now around the startup ecosystem in Spokane,” Gellatly told Geekwire.
Medcurity is borrowing a page from TurboTax’s strategy by walking users through what can otherwise be an intimidating or byzantine process and assessing HIPAA compliance using a series of questions to determine an organization’s administrative, physical and technical risks, Geekwire explains. From there, the company generates a list of action items that can be assigned and tracked.
Formed last summer by Gellatly and co-founder Amanda Hepper, the company officially launched in December.
Smaller clinics and hospitals face more hurdles for compliance due to a lack of resources. The person responsible for compliance at these organizations are often multi-tasking. “They don’t have the time to dive in and learn this inside and out,” Gellatly explained to the outlet.
Fines for non-compliance can be severe, ranging from $100 to $50,000 per medical record. Aside from the financial repercussions, breaches can also negatively impact a company’s reputations, notes Geekwire.
Clients for Medcurity include hospitals and clinics in Washington state, Oregon and Maryland, with the majority being small practices. In addition to hospital and clinics, Medcurity’s target market includes businesses that work with hospital as they also must adhere to HIPAA.
