Fresh off the heels of a busy showing at the 2013 HIMSS Conference and Expo, Franklin-based Parental Health is looking to raise $3 million in a series B fundraising round, said founder Scotte Hudsmith.
Most of the money raised would go toward adding 10 to 12 full-time employees at the company to beef up its sales and marketing force.
Parental Health, which makes a care management platform that connects patients, clinicians and family members, launched in 2009 and debuted its product for general release in 2011. The system, which can run on any Windows device, sells directly to payors, as opposed to consumers.
Rules governing tele-health reimbursement are still gray, but as an FDA-classified Medical Device Data System, the Parental Health system is reimbursable for physicians under some state tele-health laws.
In the years since its launch, the company has narrowed its focus, concentrating on three key sectors of payors for market growth: workers compensation programs, health/hospital systems and Medicaid.
“Three years ago I would have told you Medicaid wouldn’t be a fit, but with so much being pushed back to the state level, it makes sense now,” said Hudsmith.
The company is in talks or working with 22 state Medicaid plans, some directly and some through third-party administrators. He sees Medicaid as the biggest growth opportunity for 2013.
“The growing theme is everyone is realizing the need to save money and costs on managing this population,” said Hudsmith of the company’s Medicaid push.
The platform relies on regular access to tablets and a computer, which may seem at odds with Medicaid patients, but Hudsmith said that the company is looking at innovative ways with partners to overcome that. One client, for example, gives out inexpensive notebooks to patients to use for a certain period of time. Parental Health also has a partnership with U.S. Micro, a company that refurbishes old corporate computers for new use.
Parental Health completed a Series A funding round in December 2011, led by Memphis-based Innova, and included two TNInvestco funds.