#USA #New York #healthcare #Tennr #Patient Referral

Revolutionizing Healthcare Referrals: Tennr's Bold Move

In a significant breakthrough for the healthcare sector, Tennr, a company dedicated to enhancing the visibility of patient referrals, has secured $101 million in a Series C funding round. Led by notable investors like IVP, Andreessen Horowitz, and Lightspeed, the funding will be instrumental in launching the Tennr Network, aimed at addressing the pervasive problem of patients disappearing into the referral system.

This issue has long plagued healthcare providers, where primary care doctors frequently refer patients to specialists, only for them to seemingly vanish into a metaphorical black hole. As perennial bottlenecks form within the system, patients often face significant delays, leaving them in precarious situations while awaiting necessary care.

The Extent of the Problem

Statistics reveal that each year, over one-third of Americans are referred for specialty care, imaging, or treatment. However, the methods of referral—through fax, email, or e-portals—often lead to chaos. Providers frequently must engaged in cumbersome hours of manual reviewing and follow-ups. The result? Backlogs, missed patients, and unnecessary denials that further complicate the patient experience. Tennr is designed to change this by optimizing and automating these processes.

Tennr believes the patient experience can be profoundly improved without overhauling existing workflows. Trey Holterman, co-founder and CEO, stated, "Patients really shouldn't vanish into a work queue... We flipped that thinking and are now creating visibility for the patient flow without changing how people work." This innovative approach not only streamlines workflows but also aids in converting more patients and curbing denials, which is a significant win for healthcare practitioners.

Introducing the Tennr Network

Tennr's latest initiative, the Tennr Network, offers real-time visibility to patients, referring doctors, and specialists. This dynamic coordination layer allows:

• - Referring providers to monitor the status of referrals in real-time, eliminating confusion and unnecessary phone calls.
• - Receiving providers to track the progress of referrals and identify documentation needs, streamlining their workflow and enabling them to prioritize patients effectively.
• - Patients to access information regarding their referral's acceptance, scheduled appointments, and any out-of-pocket costs they should anticipate.

This level of transparency in healthcare is similar to what consumers have come to expect from services like e-commerce or food delivery.

The Technology Behind Tennr

At the heart of Tennr's innovation is a sophisticated enterprise orchestration engine complemented by specialized language models, referred to as RaeLM. Unlike standard large language models, RaeLM is tailored for the complexities of medical documentation, enabling accurate evaluations against stringent payer criteria. This targeted training allows it to highlight potential issues before they become significant problems.

Ty Barnett, CIO at Norco Inc., shared, "Tennr has revolutionized our fax-to-intake workflow, eliminating hundreds of hours of manual effort each day... It’s not just about moving faster; it's about serving healthcare practitioners and patients more effectively."

A Vision Born from Experience

The vision for Tennr emerged from the experiences of its co-founders. Trey Holterman was enlightened to the chaotic nature of patient referrals through his mother's work in family medicine, and Diego Baugh encountered the difficulties of the system first-hand when delays in specialist appointments led to an emergency room visit during his college years.

Realizing that previous attempts to alter healthcare referral processes through forced changes had largely failed—the Tennr team has created a solution that integrates seamlessly with existing systems without demanding significant alterations in how referrals and documentation are handled. This empathetic understanding of both front-line healthcare workers and patient needs ensures the software’s usability and effectiveness.

Conclusion

In a landscape where patient experience is often compromised by operational inefficiencies, Tennr's advances represent hope for a more coordinated and patient-friendly healthcare system. As the Tennr Network makes waves in the industry, it paves the way for improved communication among all parties involved in patient care, enhancing the overall experience for patients and providers alike. For specialty providers looking to foster better outcomes, collaborating with Tennr could be the key to unlocking unprecedented levels of efficiency and patient satisfaction.