A Chattanooga-based group started last year that aims at growing health care companies has made its first majority stake investment and moved the business to the city.
Transparency Health, the investment group, entered into a partnership with PYA Analytics, a company that originated in Knoxville, to create the firm NTELLISIGHTS.
David Paschall, a founding partner of the investment group, said NTELLISIGHTS helps hospitals improve patient satisfaction and quality of care, optimize care coordination strategies and minimize penalties from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary readmissions.
"We went out with a very strict code to acquire majority stakes in companies which already had customers," he said. "We ran across this relationship in space we're very passionate about."
The company has eight employees now, but plans are to roughly double the staff annually over the next three years or so, Paschall said. The business currently is operating out of the Fleetwood Building on East 11th Street, he said.
"We'll have to find more space at the Fleetwood or elsewhere," Paschall said.
He declined to give company revenues or the investment amount.
The company started with PYA Analytics, which used technology built by former Oak Ridge National Laboratory data scientists. Paschall said the rebranded company, NTELLISIGHTS, has the analytics, while Transparency adds a service layer and the business development side, he said.
"We already have the analytics side built out," Paschall said. "What we're building out is the service components, the work flow to assist care coordinators."
Rebekah Sharpe, NTELLISIGHTS' chief operating officer, said the business is aimed at providing health care organizations with tools to better manage the identification of patients at risk for early readmission and enable better health care coordination after they are discharged from the hospital or other health care facility.
"More than 25 percent of readmissions that occur within 30 days of discharge are due to conditions unrelated to the initial admission," she said. "Therefore, a holistic approach to patient care post-discharge is important."
NTELLISIGHTS has brought on Leigh McCormack as chief analytics officer, who provides insight on building, maintaining, and integrating predictive models to enhance clinical strategy, operational efficiency and consumer experience, according to the company.
The investment group looks nationally at acquiring and investing in lower middle-market businesses. It's led by founding partners Paschall, Sharpe and John Riley.
They have 45 years of combined professional experience in health care technology, most recently at TractManager.
Transparency has committed capital from investment management group Noon Management LLC in Chattanooga.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.