COURTESY OF SEAMUS GOLF
SILICON
FOREST
gaming studios, bringing in some
$900,000 this year alone, they
say. They figure they have enough
on hand to keep operating solo
for another year.
The ClutchPlay founders say
building their business in a
shared space is beneficial, just by
virtue of working in close proximity with others facing similar
early-stage challenges.
“You hear people’s pitches
over and over again, and, just
by osmosis, it helps,” says John
Worsley, 35, another ClutchPlay
founder. On this morning, he is
working on a new title they are
calling the “skull game,” in which
a skeleton wanders around trying to recover his treasure. Eight
empty cans of Red Bull are lined
up on his desk, alongside three
unopened ones.
On the other side of the room,
Katie Vahle, 36, one of two cofounders of CoPatient, tends to
her burgeoning database of medical records. It’s the key asset in
the company’s arsenal.
Hiring people to handle medical
billing and pursue potential savings is not new, but the idea behind
CoPatient is to crowdsource the
data: Ordinary people are invited
to scan their bills and send them
HUFFINGTON
11.10.13
in. With the information, CoPatient
can amass a picture of what medical procedures are covered from
community to community, and see
which procedures are covered by
insurance companies and at what
rates of reimbursement.
The company farms out individual cases to current and former
medical professionals who are
familiar with different aspects of
care, and the professionals seek
out errors and overcharges. While
CoPatient does not charge a fee, it
hangs on to 30 percent of whatever savings it finds, and kicks out
a portion to the advocates who
work on the cases.
“We want to be the trusted
The office
space of PDX
Challenge
winner
Seamus Golf.