Los Angeles – Irvine, CA, and Woodland Hills, CA – Kareo, the leading provider of easy and affordable medical billing software for physicians in the United States, and Broadleaf Health, a leading medical billing service serving more than a dozen specialties, are pleased to announce that Broadleaf Health has selected Kareo as its medical billing software solution.

“Kareo’s benchmarking and reporting functions allow me to understand exactly what’s going on with a client’s revenue,” says Paul Bernard, president and owner of Broadleaf Health. “The way the data is presented enables me to slice and dice the numbers and frame the data so clients understand how we can maximize reimbursement.” Paul says that Kareo also facilitates better operational efficiencies. “Because of Kareo’s web-based platform, we can do the work wherever it can best be performed. Employees in California and Michigan can easily collaborate on any client account to help ensure the best outcome.”

Broadleaf Health is a full service, multi-specialty medical billing company providing billing and revenue cycle management for a large number of specialties and practice types across multiple states. Based out of Woodland Hills, CA, Broadleaf Health serves clients in specialties including Maternal Fetal Medicine, Radiology, Dermatology, Clinical Psychology, Family and General Practice, Pathology, Sleep Centers, DME and more.

Kareo web-based practice management/medical billing software with integrated electronic claims processing is the most user-friendly, easy-to-buy, and easy-to-set-up solution on the market. Kareo is popular with physician practices from 1-8 providers and medical billing companies with 1-100 providers. Users can schedule appointments, verify insurance eligibility, send electronic claims, receive electronic insurance payments, manage collections, store documents online, print custom reports, and more.

“We are very pleased to have been selected by a leading company such as Broadleaf Health as their medical billing software provider and even more pleased to hear that it was because we meet their reporting and financial management needs.” said Dan Rodrigues, CEO of Kareo. “We strive to make financial management easy for our users, whether they are a medical billing service or a physician practice, because it is vitally important to the health of the business.”

About Broadleaf Health

Broadleaf Health is a full service, multi-specialty medical billing company offering coding and diagnosis analysis for maximum allowable reimbursement, electronic claims submissions, denials management and payment posting, dedicated and relentless insurance follow-up, patient statements and patient-centric support, provider enrollment support, standardized reporting, and customized accounts receivable and revenue cycle financial analysis.

About Kareo

Kareo is a leading provider of easy to use, affordable, web-based practice management and medical billing software to thousands of physicians and hundreds of medical billing companies. Kareo’s user-friendly and quick-to-implement solution enables physicians to get paid faster by storing patient records, verifying insurance eligibility, submitting electronic claims to insurers, posting electronic insurance payments, billing patients, managing accounts receivable, and much more. For more information on Kareo, please visit the website.

Houston, TX – A regional health information organization formed by four Texas hospitals could serve as a model for electronic health record adoption in rural areas across the country, say its participants.

Officials said the RHIO, which flipped the switch on a ChartAccess Comprehensive EHR from Houston-based Prognosis Health Information Systems in October, is showing that small community hospitals can band together to tap into the clinical and operational benefits associated with EHRs—and work toward reaching the meaningful use milestones required to receive incentive funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Ted Matthews, who until last month served as CEO of 45-bed Anson General Hospital, helped establish the RHIO with Rick DeFoore from 25-bed Stamford Memorial Hospital, Debra Meador from 20-bed Stonewall Memorial Hospital in Aspermont and Randy King from 14-bed Throckmorton County Memorial Hospital.

The CEOs at the four hospitals—which are located within 35 miles of each other—put aside competitive concerns and are banding together to overcome the financial and operational hurdles typically associated with technology implementations.

“It’s been a little difficult at times,” said King, who also works as a nurse practitioner. He said he expects the group will help iron out some of those difficulties, and Prognosis is also working with the hospital leaders to smooth out the wrinkles.

King said there had been documentation issues, but Prognosis agreed to implement changes in a December revision.

“They listened to us,” he said.

To jumpstart the initiative, Matthews wrote a grant proposal and secured about $500,000 in funding to help overcome some of the initial obstacles to implementing an EHR system.

The four hospitals will maximize efficiency by learning from each other and standardizing training, protocols, procedures and policies.

“There is strength in numbers and by coming together we can accomplish so much more,” Matthews said. “Instead of developing protocols for an EHR four times, we just do it once. Instead of conducting four training programs, we have the same training program at all of the facilities. We are putting aside our competitive concern to become stronger and to better carry out our clinical care missions.”

To support the model, the hospitals are collectively tapping into the ChartAccess Comprehensive EHR, a shared, Web-native EHR solution. Delivered via a cloud-computing model, where the software applications are made available as a service over an encrypted health information network, the EHR provides clinicians with a complete view of patient data. Users access the system thrpugh a standard operating system and a secure browser.

King said the hospitals had reviewed four options. One appeal of ChartAccess was its access via the Internet, he said.

The fact that all four hospitals tap into one centralized solution remotely has made it much easier to get the system up and running, Matthews said. Because Prognosis is hosting the solution in a HIPAA-compliant environment, the ChartAccess support team maintains all applications.

The EHR is also integrated with billing, laboratory, pharmacy, radiology and other ancillary systems at each hospital, which allows it to serve as a data repository for all clinical information. The system is designed to provide a continuum of care for patients not just as they receive care in one hospital, but as they receive care across the entire region. Within the year, the information also will be available electronically at outpatient clinics in the area, making it possible for various providers to share information.

“The fact that these four rural hospitals are leveraging the technology to truly improve clinical care in their communities illustrates just how much can be accomplished when the right technology is utilized in the right way,” said Ramsey Evans, CEO of Prognosis Health Information Systems.

PASADENA, CA – Central Desktop, provider of the industry-leading cloud-based social collaboration platform for businesses, today announced strong momentum and significant customer growth in 2010. Central Desktop continues to achieve year-over-year growth in revenue (gross bookings) despite the economic downturn. The company attributes its growth to continuous product innovation, exceptional customer service and the measurable business value its solution brings to customers.

Key 2010 company milestones include:

• Accelerated customer growth – Enterprise Edition gross bookings in 2010 grew 111% over the previous year. New Enterprise Edition customers also increased by 125% compared to 2009.
• Key customer wins – Hundreds of new Enterprise Edition customers implemented Central Desktop, including WD-40, Whole Foods Market, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Sesame Workshop, Anna’s Linens and United Way Worldwide.
• Central Desktop 2.0 – In February 2010, Central Desktop launched a new version of its social collaboration platform that featured a redesigned, intuitive user interface to deliver an improved customer experience.
• Expanded platform and functionality – Central Desktop introduced Central Desktop for Office, a Microsoft Office collaboration tool with simultaneous co-authoring capabilities, and Online Diagrams, which allows users to create professional quality diagrams directly from within Central Desktop.
• Record employee growth – Central Desktop added new jobs to the economy in software engineering, customer service, human resources and sales and marketing, growing staff by 155% in 2010.
• Strengthened management team – Central Desktop rounded out its management team with the addition of Laurence Sotsky (Vice President of Sales), Linda Souza (Associate Vice President of Marketing) and Mark Fordham (Director of Client Services).
• Inc. 500 recognition – Central Desktop was recognized as No. 180 on Inc. Magazine’s annual Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies.

“We’re pleased to report our company’s strongest year yet in the face of these challenging economic conditions,” said Isaac Garcia, CEO and co-founder of Central Desktop. “We attribute much of our growth in 2010 to our continued traction among mid-market customers, particularly in key verticals such as marketing, consumer packaged goods and entertainment. Our strategy as we head into 2011 is to continue to listen to the needs of our market and solve our customers’ business challenges by delivering the strongest, most comprehensive cloud-based social collaboration platform.”

About Central Desktop:

Central Desktop delivers a cloud-based social collaboration platform that revolutionizes how people connect and share information to drive profitable business results. Businesses of all sizes use Central Desktop’s complete online collaboration solution to manage projects and documents in the cloud with colleagues, customers and partners. Key Central Desktop customers include the Humane Society of the United Sates, CBS, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Netflix, Gymboree, Workday and Harvard University. Founded in 2005, Central Desktop is a privately-held company with headquarters in Pasadena, California. For more information about the company, visit the website.

 

uSamp’s New SampleMarket 2.0 Panel Access Platform Serves Up Millions of U.S. Survey Respondents for GutCheck’s One-on-One Moderated Research Chats

ENCINO, Calif. (January 24, 2011) – uSamp, one of the world’s fastest growing technology and online sample companies, announced today that it has teamed up with GutCheck, an innovator in online qualitative research, to provide the automated delivery of screened and qualified participants for moderated, online qualitative market research studies.

Powering the partnership is uSamp’s recently announced SampleMarket 2.0, the next generation of its market-leading sampling platform, which offers real-time, self-service access to uSamp’s U.S. proprietary panel of more than three million screened and vetted survey respondents.

GutCheck provides a breakthrough alternative to traditional market research focus groups, creating an entirely new way for companies to access their target markets instantly and effectively. An online qualitative research tool, GutCheck connects businesses, agencies and marketers with research participants supplied by uSamp’s panel, for one-on-one chat interviews that produce valuable insights while eliminating the timelines, costs and potentially imbalanced group dynamics associated with conventional focus groups.

“There’s no better match-up than uSamp’s meticulously screened panel featuring millions of highly engaged individuals, and its technology leadership that created a powerful collaborative tool like SampleMarket 2.0,” said Matt Warta, co-founder and CEO, GutCheck. “This winning combination is why we selected uSamp to provide the online participants for GutCheck’s one-on-one qualitative research chat interviews.”

“uSamp has an entrepreneurial culture that permeates all levels of the company,” Warta said. “When you have a groundbreaking technology like ours, it’s industry innovators like uSamp’s Matt Dusig and Gregg Lavin who understand the vision and get on board. They’re transforming the online delivery of participants for quantitative research and now, with GutCheck, the same can be said for qualitative research.”

GutCheck enables users to set demographic- and custom-screening questions, along with geo-targeting preferences, to recruit target audiences ages 18 and older from within uSamp’s U.S. panel. Once a qualified respondent is identified, GutCheck conducts a secondary validation to ensure the individual fits the desired profile. Confirmed within minutes, the respondent is placed in a queue, ready to be interviewed in a one-on-one chat interview session. The private and anonymous chat interview setting allows the respondent to speak freely, while the user can control the online conversation through a chat guide prepared in advance. Access is provided to the interview transcripts for later analysis and collaboration with colleagues.

“GutCheck is an ideal complement to SampleMarket, as both bring a do-it-yourself platform to anyone who wants to collaborate more powerfully with customers,” said Matt Dusig, co-founder and CEO, uSamp. “Together, the result is transformational: a turnkey DIY alternative to focus groups. Not only does this obliterate barriers of time, cost and access but it also enables considerably more people to gather market intelligence in real-time. It’s a very exciting time for the industry, and we’re delighted to be partnering with GutCheck.”

uSamp’s SampleMarket 2.0 is the next step along an evolutionary path to fully automated delivery of market research sample, harnessing technology to expand the marketplace for quantitative research — and now, with GutCheck, for qualitative research as well. The platform makes it easier for market research firms, businesses, organizations and even individuals to create and manage research projects online — from concept testing to attitudes and usage, and volumetrics. uSamp offers collaborative solutions throughout the lifecycle of a studied service and product. The full featured API provides the seamless integration of SampleMarket 2.0 with users’ own products and technologies to drive panel access within their own website, application or administrative tools.

About uSamp™

uSamp (uSamp.com) is one of the world’s fastest growing technology and online sample companies, providing global survey panelists and an innovative sampling platform for use in market research. uSamp develops collaborative market research tools to foster more rewarding, profitable relationships between organizations and the people they serve. Founded in 2008, uSamp acquired DMS Insights in June 2010 from AOL and now has 160 team members worldwide and approximately 4.7 million global market research panelists. The company’s web-based panel platform is transforming the management and delivery of online panel for market researchers, offering unprecedented access to online panelists. uSamp’s deep well of proprietary technologies includes SampleMarket™, PanelNet™, PanelShield™, Opinion Place® River and real-time Panel Book Search— cutting-edge solutions for accessing, branding, sampling and managing panels. uSamp is based in Los Angeles, with offices in Dallas, London, New Delhi and Trumbull, CT.

About GutCheck

GutCheck provides agencies and marketers with instant access to their target market through a DIY web application where  they can affordably capture qualitative insights in a matter of minutes. GutCheck is a privately held company, backed by Highway 12 Ventures, Village Ventures and several notable entrepreneurs from the market research industry. GutCheck is headquartered in Denver, Colo. For more information visit the GutCheck website.

Give your business the IT edge with expert explanation of key IT concepts and discussion of the latest trends. Includes the latest technology news and product reviews relevant to business big and small.

http://www.skynews.com.au/video/?vId=2118952&cId=Programs&play=true.

About Sky News

Sky News is owned by Australian News Channel. Started in 1996, it is the first and only Australian produced television news channel. Sky News is available in more than 2.5 million homes and locations across Australia and New Zealand on the FOXTEL, AUSTAR, Optus and Neighbourhood Cable pay television networks and on the Sky pay television network in New Zealand. Sky News also delivers content across other digital media platforms, including 3G mobile, podcasts, SMS and online.

Cloud computing stocks are up roughly 60 percent since January 2010. And venture capitalists continue to pump millions of dollars into cloud computing start-ups. The result: We’re in a cloud bubble, according to a key venture capitalist that has multiple cloud and technology investments. But the bubble isn’t cause for panic, according to Scott Maxwell of OpenView Venture Partners.

“There is definitely a cloud bubble going on right now,” Maxwell says. “This is not necessarily a bad thing, however, as there is an amazing amount of innovation going on and each company is helping to build the awareness and interest of companies that will eventually moving more of their resources to the cloud. There are some very high valuations out there, however, and it will be interesting to see if the markets develop fast enough to warrant those valuations.”

Indeed the Talkin’ Cloud Stock Index rose more than 7 percent during the first two weeks of 2011, and the index is up more than 60 percent since January 2011.

More Money

Despite the potential bubble, investments in cloud computing companies continue. OpenView Venture Partners has a longstanding stake in Intronis—the online backup company that works closely with VARs and managed services providers. More recently, OpenView invested in Skytap, which builds cloud automation solutions.

“Our investments focus on markets that can allow a company to get to $100 million in revenue, which can be a limiting factor for some companies, but the cloud companies that we have seen so far meet this criteria,” says Maxwell. “The particularly interesting companies provide infrastructure that enhances private or public clouds or provide a useful service of one kind or another. Our general belief is that there is a megatrend toward the cloud compute architecture that will continue over the next 10-20 years and we are aggressively looking for companies that are capitalizing on this new architecture by offering unique products and services to their customers.”

Still, the recent recession impacted OpenView’s investment horizon. Generally speaking, OpenView is a long-term investor. And the recession “The recession made it more difficult for many companies to have high growth rates, so it probably added a year to the timing of liquidity events. That said, perhaps the next couple of years will have much higher growth and companies will catch back up. Hard to say.”

Strong Optimism

Either way, Maxwell remains upbeat about the cloud computing business model. “My view is that all technology companies should consider the cloud architecture and how they can use it to improve their value proposition and competitive advantage to their target markets and, perhaps, new target markets,” he says.

“The cloud, when combined with APIs, Uis (mobile/tablet/laptop/etc), and applications and information of others has an almost endless number of possibilities for value and competitive advantage and every technology company should have some angles to compete. My best advice to those companies is to consider the possibilities and act on some of them. My second best advice is to contact me if they are looking to raise capital!”

Powered by uSamp’s PanelNet™ Technology, Kiplinger Custom Panel Will Launch This Month

ENCINO, Calif. (January 20, 2011) — uSamp , one of the world’s fastest growing technology and online sample companies, announced today that the Kiplinger organization has chosen it to power a custom online market research panel bearing the acclaimed publisher’s name.

Kiplinger is a Washington, D.C.-based publisher of business forecasts and personal finance advice, available in print, online, audio, video and software products. The online research panel, drawn from the business decision makers, investors and professional financial advisors attracted by Kiplinger’s online traffic, will be available to uSamp clients for market research surveys.

Launching this month, the panel is being developed through uSamp’s PanelNet technology, a tool for building branded online panels customized to meet the specifications of any worldwide brand. PanelNet is a component of uSamp’s SampleMarket, a next-generation web-based panel access platform that allows clients to use, track and monitor online panels.

The Kiplinger panel is part of uSamp’s B2B panel growth strategy, furthering the cultivation of a first-class B2B panel for market research studies. uSamp has previously built custom online panels for J.D. Power and Associates, Buzzback Market Research and many others.

“Kiplinger is a highly respected name among both financial services professionals and consumers,” said Gregg Lavin, cofounder and President of uSamp. “Kiplinger recognizes the tremendous value in branding itself and getting closer to its customer base.”

“In selecting uSamp as our partner to build the Kiplinger online panel, we benefit from the most robust and advanced technology in the industry,” said Wallace Ryland, Kiplinger’s Director of Digital Business Development. “Equally important is uSamp’s best practices in panel management, from recruiting and retaining panelists, to customer service and communications. They offer unique benefits and compensation to readers who choose to participate.”

uSamp technology gives market researchers and brand managers the ability to create an online panel for their own use without the cost and complexity of building a website, managing server infrastructure or developing a custom solution. Each online panel site can be fully tailored to meet the exact specifications of any global brand, with a look and feel that matches the brand — even as uSamp provides the underlying site hosting and security.

About uSamp™

uSamp (uSamp.com) is one of the world’s fastest growing technology and online sample companies, providing global survey panelists and an innovative sampling platform for use in market research. uSamp develops collaborative market research tools to foster more rewarding, profitable relationships between organizations and the people they serve. Founded in 2008, uSamp acquired DMS Insights in June 2010 and now has 160 team members worldwide and approximately 4.7 million global market research panelists. The company’s web-based panel platform is transforming the management and delivery of online panel for market researchers, offering unprecedented access over their panel. uSamp’s deep well of proprietary technologies includes SampleMarket™, PanelNet™, PanelShield™, Opinion Place® River and real-time Panel Book Search — cutting-edge solutions for accessing, branding, sampling and managing panels. uSamp is based in Los Angeles, with offices in Dallas, London, New Delhi and Trumbull, CT.

SearchServerVirtualization.com Selects Skytap Cloud as a Winner for 2010 ‘Product of the Year’ Awards

SEATTLE, WA–(Marketwire – January 20, 2011) – Skytap, the leading provider of self-service cloud automation solutions, today announced that the Skytap Cloud was named a bronze winner in the SearchServerVirtualization.com 2010 Product of the Year awards in the Virtualization Management category. Skytap was recognized for its ease of use and cost model assistance. This honor represents Skytap’s seventh award recognition in the last twelve months.

According to SearchServerVirtualization.com, “Cloud computing comes to fruition with Skytap Cloud. Today’s virtualization battle is all about the tools you use to manage your virtual infrastructure. Understanding these products and how they enhance virtualization management capabilities is key to the success of a virtual environment. This year’s winners in the virtualization management category address monitoring needs, capacity management, the virtual network and better cost models.”

Skytap offers a secure on-demand cloud automation solution built upon industry leading operating systems and standards. Hundreds of enterprises and software vendors are using the Skytap Cloud for application development and test, migration and virtual training projects. Skytap empowers functional users to create cloud based virtual environments easily, run applications unchanged, collaborate globally, and reduce costs by 70 percent or more.

“The focus of our innovation is to empower users such as development managers, test engineers and training mangers by providing a cloud-based self-service data center solution,” said Brad Schick, VP of engineering at Skytap. “This recognition validates our innovation is leading the market and delivers IT agility and cost reduction to all of our customers.”

On the heels of a productive 2010, including raising an oversubscribed $10 million Series C round of funding, this award further positions Skytap as the leader in the enterprise cloud automation market. Evolving from a virtual lab service provider to a comprehensive cloud automation solution, Skytap has achieved 400 percent usage growth from last year, and has received numerous accolades based on the superiority of its cloud technology, such as inclusion on the IDC “Innovative Application Development and Deployment Company to Watch Under $100 Million,” SD Times100 and SearchCloudComputing Top 10 Cloud Computing Startups lists, as well as being named as a 2010 Best of VMWorld finalist.

The Products of the Year awards were presented by editors of TechTarget’s Data Center and Virtualization Media, and judged by the SearchServerVirtualization.com editorial staff, in conjunction with a team of users, industry experts, analysts and consultants. Winners were selected in five categories, including virtualization platforms, virtualization management, backup and storage for virtualization, virtualization security and desktop virtualization — and were evaluated on ease of integration into existing environments, functionality, innovation, manageability, performance and value.

About Skytap, Inc.

Skytap is the leading provider of self-service cloud automation solutions for dynamic workloads. Skytap enables users to run enterprise applications unchanged in the cloud, collaborate securely with global teams, and gain unparalleled business productivity. Additionally, IT organizations can gain visibility and control over cloud projects, align capacity with demand, and reduce costs by 70% or more. Enterprises can securely connect Skytap to their data centers and create hybrid clouds. Skytap is ideal for any dynamic workload including application development, testing, virtual training, application migration and sales demonstration projects. To buy or learn more, visit www.skytap.com.

About SearchServerVirtualization.com

SearchServerVirtualization.com is the best server virtualization resource for system architects and IT managers. Our editors, resident experts and news writers are dedicated to helping IT organizations determine if virtualization is appropriate for their environments and, if it is, use that technology to gain unprecedented data center efficiency. Access the latest news, articles, tips, expert advice, learning guides, white papers, and webcasts covering all areas of server virtualization, such as virtualization platforms, server hardware, managing virtual environments, virtualization architectures and strategies, application issues and more.

SearchServerVirtualization.com is part of the TechTarget network (www.techtarget.com). TechTarget publishes integrated media that enables information-technology (IT) marketers to reach targeted communities of IT professionals and executives in all phases of the technology decision-making and purchase process. Through its industry-leading Web sites, magazines and conferences, TechTarget delivers measurable results that help IT marketers generate qualified sales leads, shorten sales cycles and grow revenues.