Verisma Systems Inc.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: Introduced RecordJacket.com

INITIAL LIGHTBULB

After a 25-year career in health care, Michael Pugh came across a failing tech startup, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Clinical Information Corp., and grew enamored with the potential of the company's intellectual property. In 2004, Pugh convinced the board to hand him the company's reins as president and CEO. In the two years since, he's renamed (to Verisma Systems) and relocated the company (to Pueblo), raised $2.5 million in capital and guided the launch of its flagship product, RecordJacket.com, in June.

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"Here's the business problem: There are over 50 million requests for patients' records every year by attorneys, insurance companies and other parties," said Pugh. "That is currently very much a labor-intensive, copy-machine type of business." About 2,000 "copy services" operate across the country, typically using Xerox and fax to transmit information between health-care providers.

Most states have fee schedules that dictate what a hospital, clinic, or practice can charge to deliver records, he added, and the intricacies of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) have made it a much more complex process.

IN A NUTSHELL

Verisma brings high technology to the staid copy-service concept. "We have a different business model that combines both technology and back-end services," Pugh said. "We've created an electronic platform that allows a hospital or physician's office to go online to RecordJacket.com and use software online to create a digital record."

RecordJacket.com allows users to easily send these digital records electronically or print them out to be mailed. The software has embedded "knowledge points," said Pugh, to ensure HIPAA compliance.

Since moving the company to Pueblo in 2004, Pugh has operated the 14-employee Verisma as a traditional copy service in southern Colorado and Kansas. That business has allowed for Verisma to do...