MediConnect Global today joins thousands of people from many different groups and organizations volunteering their time and services in support of the people and clean up of the Gulf hurricane disaster areas by donating digitized back up copies of archived medical records to those who may have lost their paper medical records due to the storms.

MediConnect has retrieved or received requests to retrieve thousands of medical records from organizations in the areas most affected by Hurricane Ike, Hurricane Gustav, and Tropical Storm Fay. MediConnect will donate digitized copies of medical records to individuals, physicians, hospitals, law firms, insurance carriers or independent agents located in the designated disaster areas who submit a request accompanied by a HIPAA-compliant patient authorization. Those who need their records can go to www.mediconnect.net to begin the process of getting any records that may be in MediConnect’s archive.

MediConnect’s donations join many relief efforts from people, churches, and other organizations providing help in the devastated areas.

MediConnect has an extensive archive of digitized medical records—records that were previously retrieved. If people or healthcare organizations within the disaster areas need to replace any medical records, MediConnect will donate free of charge any that it contains in its archives.

Simply go to the MedConnect Web site and click on the Hurricane Ike link. Fill out and submit a simple form and a MediConnect representative will contact you to coordinate any archived records the company may have.

If you a regular user of MediConnect’s RapidRetrieve, you’ll be very happy to know the company has recently updated the interface and added new features to make it easier than ever to use the system to quickly order, retrieve and manage your medical records.

Next time you login one of the first things you’ll notice is a picture and contact information of your assigned account manager. This should make it easier for you to reach your AM and adds a personal touch so you know better who you are working with. You will also notice navigation is more intuitive as you place your orders.

In addition, new features have been added including:

• Excessive Fee Batch Approval/Denial–This feature allows you to set an approved provider fee limit associated with your pay-as-you-go payment options. If the provider fee of a medical record will be over the approved set fee, your approval will be needed. When this occurs a window opens allowing a user to approve or deny fees in batches simply by clicking convenient check boxes.
• Mouse-over notes–Whenever you place your mouse over the Request ID number within RapidRetrieve, you’ll automatically see the last three notes on the request. This is beneficial for the Excessive Fee feature and enhances the ability to quickly review “need more information” notes without opening additional windows.
• Inter-Office Notes–You can now write inter-office notes directly in RapidRetrieve. This allows you to write notes to others in your office to coordinate activity, or as a reminder to yourself.
• Electronic Invoicing–You can now choose to receive electronic invoices in RapidRetrieve. The electronic invoices are easy to read and understand, summarize all outstanding invoices for efficient invoice tracking, can be downloaded in either PDA or CSV format, and are automatically encrypted and decrypted for secure delivery. (A small fee will now be charged for paper invoices.)
• Pay-as-you-go–RapidRetrieve now provides a convenient pay-as-you-go payment option making it faster for you to access ordered records. You can choose either auto-pay, which automatically bills a cred card on file, or manual pay, which bills a credit card when records are ready to download.

For the second year in a row, MediConnect Global was recognized in Inc. Magazine’s annual fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2008/company-profile.html?id=200806790 MediConnect was number 72 in Inc.’s Top 100 Business Services Companies.

The company is pleased to once again be recognized by Inc. as one of the fastest growing private companies in the country. The company contributes its on-going growth to increased services to its key markets, its professional staff, and its intry into other markets such as the consumer market. www.mediconnect.net

During the course of the next few weeks, MediConnect Global will be building and launching a new social forum geared for open discussion on topics important to you. Whether it’s the latest large pharmaceutical case, or other personal injury cases, the forum will be a place where you can chat with colleagues and experts in the industry.

There will be a few surprises in the forum that you may be interested in. Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/mediconnect and here on our blog during the next few weeks for more details and for the formal launch of the forum.

MediConnect Global recently (yesterday) began experimenting with Twitter. You can follow MediConnect at http://twitter.com/mediconnect. Those who follow MediConnect will get updates on information and news from the company as well as insights and discussions regarding trends in the legal, life/health insurance and healthcare provider industries.

Twitter is another one of those social phenomenons we’re seeing a lot of these days—along side Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin and others. To understand it completely you really need to just try it out, but in simple form it is a social network that allows you to answer the simple question, “What are you doing?” You write whatever you’re doing or whatever you want to say in 140 characters or less and post it. Your friends and colleagues who follow you can see all of your updates. You can also follow your friends’ updates.

At first glance, you may wonder what good this is. In fact, FutureLawyer, Rick Georges, shares the sentiments of many who first encounter Twitter when he says on his blog, “Do you really want to know what I am doing 24-7? I didn’t think so.”

Yet, we’re seeing more and more excellent examples of how Twitter can be used in business to keep customers, clients, partners, and colleagues informed of information from a company in a sort of mini blog format. This is MediConnect’s goal. If you’re a twitterer, we hope you’ll follow MediConnect’s tweets. We’ll follow yours too!

Yet, we’re seeing more and more excellent examples of how Twitter can be used in business to keep customers, clients, partners, and colleagues informed of information from a company in a sort of mini blog format. This is MediConnect’s goal. If you’re a Twitter-er, we hope you’ll follow MediConnect’s “tweets.” We’ll follow yours too!

After months of anticipation, Google today made its Google Health platform available to the public. Google Health is a new product that helps users store, organize, and manage their medical records online. (www.google.com/health) MediConnect Global, Inc. announced today an integrated service (www.mediconnect.net) on the Google Health platform that helps Google Health users get access to all of their medical records including those that are electronic and paper-based through its time-proven medical retrieval system.

“MediConnect’s medical record retrieval service allows people to have access to information from their personal health history from anywhere in the world at anytime,” said Amy Rees Anderson, MediConnect Global CEO. “Decisions about our healthcare are the most critical decisions we make. Consumers should be able to get intimately involved in decisions regarding their personal healthcare.

“For this to happen, it is vital that the consumer be given an easy way to access their medical records. They also need to have someone assist them in understanding the data within that record by having it pulled out and presented in a simple, organized fashion. This is exactly what the MediConnect service will be offering to Google Health users and we are thrilled to be a part of the launch,” said Ms. Anderson.

Once consumers reach the MediConnect login screen from Google Health, they simply create a username and password and agree to link accounts, thereby allowing MediConnect to obtain medical information from the Google Health user’s profile upon their consent.

For a service fee, MediConnect then directly contacts the user’s healthcare providers to obtain their medical records. Once the records are obtained, MediConnect digitizes them and then gleans key information—such as prescriptions, doctors names, diagnosis and procedures, vital signs, hospitalization dates, immunizations, test results, alerts such as allergies, and other information—and then automatically forwards them to the user’s Google Health account. Users can also download PDF files of their actual records to store on their computer and/or to give to other healthcare providers/practitioners of their choosing.

MediConnect’s medical record retrieval system is HIPAA compliant ensuring consumers’ medical records are retrieved in the most secure and private means available.
Note: GOOGLE and GOOGLE HEALTH are trademarks of Google Inc.
Wall Street Journal Health Blog, eWeek, PC Magazine, IDG News Service

Amy Rees Anderson, CEO of MediConnect Global, today said the key to becoming great in business is to surround yourself with greatness at a luncheon held in her honor as the MountainWest Capitol Network’s 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year. Ms. Anderson is the first woman entrepreneur to receive the award and spoke to about 200 business and community leaders. www.mediconnect.net,  www.mwcn.org

“Education, research, data, and spreadsheets are all great things,” said Ms. Anderson during her acceptance speech. “But in the end, you should listen to the people who have been there, done that, made the mistakes, and learned what actually works firsthand.”

(Listen to Ms. Anderson’s Speech) 

(See Amy Rees Anderson on KSL Eyewitness News) 

Most people give up on the threshold of succeeding she said. “Successful people just don’t give up. They keep trying different approaches to achieving their outcomes until they finally get the results they want.”

“It is a tremendous accomplishment for Amy to win this prestigious award from MWCN,” said James Lee Sorenson, world-renowned entrepreneur and MediConnect chairman of the board. “She has led MediConnect’s progress from a struggling yet promising small U.S. company to a growing and thriving global organization.”

Each year the MountainWest Capital Network recognizes a Utah business executive who has built a successful Utah-based company, and inspired others to participate in the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship.

“Amy is a powerful leader in the business community, whose impact goes far beyond her own industry or the community,” said Devin Thorpe, MWCN president. “She is an inspiring example to entrepreneurs from all walks of life.”

As the first woman recipient of the award, she reiterates the award is a reflection on the entire team at MediConnect Global. She continually looks forward to sharing her expertise with other people, and especially hopes the award will inspire other people to have a passion for entrepreneurship.

“Utah is blessed with a substantial number of dynamic and talented people who are a major factor in driving business development and growth in Utah, and Amy Rees Anderson is one of our very best,” said Mark E. Lehman, chair of the MWCN Entrepreneur of the Year committee. “We are honoring Amy as the Entrepreneur of the Year because she exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit that adds so much to our community and enriches us all in so many ways that can never be fully measured.”

Under Ms. Anderson’s direction, MediConnect launched an aggressive domestic and international expansion and posted four consecutive years of record sales growth more than doubling revenues year over year.

Before becoming CEO of MediConnect, Ms. Anderson began an Internet healthcare technology company with only $23,000 in seed capital and went on to raise over $12 million of venture funding she used to develop the nations first 100 percent Web-based medical practice management system for physician offices.

Most of Ms. Anderson’s success has come despite tremendous obstacles. She was a single mother of two for a good portion of her career. During that time she learned to be successful while balancing motherhood and being the sole financial support of her family, with the demanding responsibilities as CEO of a growing international company.

“I firmly believe there is always a way to make things work if you look at it hard enough and open your mind to the idea that there are limitless possibilities to get you to the end result,” said Ms. Anderson. “I guess I’m not afraid to try, and I can only fail if I stop trying.”

Designed to help health insurance carriers complete medical chart risk adjustment before submission, MediConnect Global, Inc. (www.mediconnect.net ) today announced its patented medical record retrieval service is now available to Medicare Advantage Plans. The service allows plans to retrieve large volumes of medical charts quickly and economically to ensure complete and accurate diagnosis coding which dictates proper reimbursement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

“MediConnect provides carriers with a single source solution for retrieving and digitizing mass volumes of medical records from any or all of their providers,” said Amy Rees Anderson, MediConnect CEO. “Retrieving these records allows them to perform risk adjustment review either before submitting to Medicare for reimbursement or after the initial submission in order to appeal any underpaid reimbursements. A Medicare Advantage plan that does not retrieve and review these records is likely to leave significant money on the table in their reimbursements from CMS.”

Carriers simply provide MediConnect with a list of patients, and patient providers, whose records need to be retrieved. MediConnect then works directly with healthcare providers and clinics to retrieve and digitize all medical charts. MediConnect organizes all record requests by medical group (or individual providers), validates the medical group and provider contact data (as needed), and removes duplicate requests if any.

MediConnect then indexes the records, hosts the digitized record copies online, and transmits the records to the Medicare Advantage plan to ensure complete and accurate diagnosis coding is performed for submission to CMS. This allows carriers to be properly reimbursed for each plan member.

MediConnect’s patented technology and processes are streamlined and time-proven with national and global reach, and can scale up or down quickly depending on the needs of each carrier. The system is able to complete the retrieval of a high percentage of medical records for multiple purposes fast and inexpensively.

In Utah, being recognized in the 2008 class of the vSpring Capital Top 100 venture Entrepreneurs (v|100) is quite the business honor. To be recognized on the v|100 five years in a row is something more like a business dynasty!

That’s exactly what happened to MediConnect CEO, Amy Rees Anderson recently. For the fifth year in a row, Ms. Anderson was recognized on the v|100. The list is compiled annually by vSpring Capital, a Salt Lake City early-stage venture capital firm.

The v|100 recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who have ties to the State of Utah. Each year vSpring asks members of the Utah business community to nominate individuals who are most likely to lead a successful startup technology venture in the next five to seven years in a c-level executive role. Those nominees who garner the most votes from their peers in a nominee-only second step of the annual voting process are then elected into the v|100.

As CEO, Ms. Anderson has led MediConnect Global through a phenomenal period of growth with a more than 847 percent revenue increase during the past four years and is currently increasing the company’s global presence as a leading powerhouse in medical record retrieval services for the legal, life and health insurance industries, and healthcare provider services.

In addition to the v|100, Ms. Anderson was also recognized by:

• Inc. Magazine—MediConnect was ranked number 311 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.
• Ernst & Young—Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2007 Award, was given to Amy Rees Lewis, MediConnect CEO, for Business Services in the Utah region.
• Utah Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth—2007 Dealmaker of the Year Finalist.

We here at MediConnect Global congratulate Amy on this recognition.