PatientPay could be getting plenty of attention from some powerful people next month.
The company, a Durham startup focused on medical bill payments, is a finalist for an award at an upcoming innovation summit that features Warren Buffett as its keynote speaker.
Other high-profile speakers include former Vice President Al Gore and Steve Levitt, author of Freakonomics.
They are three of the top names on the agenda for the Innovation Project event March 20-21 at Harvard University. The conference is put on by PYMNTS.com, a web and news site focused on innovation in the payments industry.
PatientPay is one of five finalists in the “Best Debit” award category, having been selected for its “easy online healthcare payments.”
Launched in 2008, PatientPay works with physician practices and healthcare providers to accelerate and easy payments. It offers customers a revenue-sharing plan to participate in the service.
The company has won three patents for its technology.
“PatientPay’s selection as a 2013 PYMNTS Innovator Award finalist in the Best Debit category is validation of our drive to change healthcare billing, an area marked by tedious, slow and complex manual processes,” said Tom Furr, PatientPay’s founder and chief executive officer. “In the past 12 months PatientPay applied its three significant patents, innovations on their own, to change healthcare billing and balance management for healthcare providers and their patients.”
PatientPay launched its service in 2011 and changed the company name from Zepherella to reflect that product.
The online system is designed to integrate with management systems already in used by doctors and their practices.
