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A health care technology company with a focus on the working uninsured is finding its footing in the Magic City after a recent relocation from Atlanta.
BrightPay Health Corp. offers technology that provides patients a way to understand, plan and and pay for health care. It works to expand access to primary and preventative care for 1099 gig workers, contractors, consultants and small business owners and employees. Those individuals don't always have access to an employee-based benefit structure, which is how most people get health insurance.
"They don't get anything and a lot of times they just hope that they don't get sick," said Shielvonda Haith, co-founder and CEO of BrightPay. "And so we really created technology to be able to help address that."
BrightPay recruits doctors to join its network and set a cash-based upfront monthly fee. Patients can then view a directory of providers who offer various plans that can include primary care, preventative, telehealth therapy and more.
"The goal was to give access to primary care and prevention services, and by doing that we can hopefully help manage the small problems before they do become those costly big problems and large medical bills that are unaffordable," Haith said.
The company, which was founded about two years ago, relocated to Birmingham over the summer after participating in Prosper's healthtech accelerator's spring cohort. Since then, Haith said the platform has recruited Birmingham-based doctors and beta testers.
Haith said she made the move to Birmingham due to the support from the community and the chance to test the market during the Prosper accelerator.
"There are so many providers who care about making sure that they can find ways to deliver health care and health care services for Birmingham residents ... so that was a big thing for us — that what we cared about and our mission very much aligned with many of the providers here, so we weren't having to fight people to understand the impact that we're trying to have, because they were already doing it," she said, adding that before coming to Birmingham, she didn't understand why it was called the Magic City, but now she does.
And Haith founded the company as an experienced health care veteran. She holds a Master of Health Administration and has spent 15 years working at health care organizations and startups. And her startup's founding stemmed from a personal experience.
"I myself had a experience as a patient just trying to navigate through the health care system," Haith said. "I'm highly educated in this area I've studied in this area. I've worked in health care and ... somehow or another, the system still failed me. I still had a humongous bill at the end of it even though we were well-insured. I still ended up with an out-of-network provider even though it wasn't clear that they were out-of-network. ... I guess you could say I was frustrated with the fact that as knowledgeable as I am in that area, I still could not navigate it in such a way where I didn't end up with some type of surprise bill or some type of unexpected financial impact regardless of how well I plan."
Haith knew that others must be having the same trouble and wanted to make a change. She found that many people even avoid getting necessary medical care because of fear surrounding surprise bills and lack of transparency in pricing.
Since founding, the startup has raised about $615,000 after bootstrapping until that point.
As for the future, BrightPay is gearing up to launch its app with 41 contracted providers in our network and the ability to deliver care across 25 states via telehealth and five in-person. Haith said she is also planning to expand into additional speciality areas.