The Kitcoin Club

The entrepreneur is commonly seen as an innovator, a source of new ideas, goods, services, and business or procedures. In such a scenario we are with Dr. Karun Philip, who is the Chairman & CEO and a co-founder of Tranquilmoney, Inc. to tell us how to become a true leader.

1.           Which according to you is the primary rule to becoming a successful entrepreneur? How are you instilling it?

Play to your strengths. There is always a myriad of opportunities where new businesses are needed by the market. Your strength could be the business network you have, and knowledge of what problems that the end-users your market have. Your strength could be software development, or some other specific skill.

My specific skill is programming. I built a home computer from a hobby kit that an uncle of mine had brought into India in parts when he travelled to Singapore and back one time. When I finally got access to an IBM PC-compatible running DOS, I was in heaven, and wrote myriad programs myself.

The primary rule for my new entrepreneurial debut was “Keep Learning.” And keep training others in what you have learnt so that you can move to the next level. 

2.           Why do you think if physicians handle their medical billing in-house the errors will be extremely high? How are you addressing this issue?

The cost of in-house documentation of the diagnoses and procedures, structuring it in the format required by each TPA – a Third Party Administrator – and auditing the whole process daily, is extremely high. In-house Practice Managers are very highly skilled, though, but many of those who know the domain do not know enough about technology to automate it. There are over 400 Practice Management Software companies and many more Medical Billing companies that the Practice Manager can use to manage claims properly and follow up on disputed claims.

Tranquilmoney’s Practice Tracker is one company that provides both practice management software as well as medical billing services in one complete package. Our technology uses the process I helped design, of AI and domain experts in a continuous loop until rules defined in the software determine that the claim is complete and ready to submit. The input we get can be paper or a large variety of electronic formats. Claims submitted can be either electronic or paper may be required in some cases. For instance, a TPA may say that their electronic system can handle only 4 Procedure Codes, so if more than 4 procedures were used, then it must be submitted on paper. This may be due to shortcomings in the TPA’s software, or simply in their interest to delay payments while holding on to the money that they collect anyway each month from the Healthcare Insurance Plan. When a TPA pays a claim, that can also come with a paper Explanation of Benefits document of Remittance Advice document, which describes the eligible payments, and the rules of the plan that the Provider or Patient has subscribed to. Again, PracticeTracker™ uses the “AI - domain expert loop” to check whether the TPA has processed the claims correctly, applied the contracted rate for payment of each procedure, and are quoting the correct rules that apply to the particular plan that the patient has subscribed to.

independent modules, each of which comply with HIPAA and HITECH Act. For each medical specialty, we can define a screen where only the diagnoses and procedures that a Physician of that specialty needs. That forms a Library of Templates for every new Physician we take on. Each Template is them further customized to that particular Physicians business. The modular architecture allows each person to be assigned a particular role: Physician, Practice Manager, Coder, Biller, AR Follow Up Staff member, etc. All platforms are supported as long as they are capable of hosting a browser, but desktops and tablet computers are the most used now. Mobile devices will be the near future.

4.           As an entrepreneur what is store for the future?

Physicians have always complained about the amount of paperwork involved in the US Healthcare system. Now with everything going electronic, it ironically takes even more of their time. We solve it now by telling them to put their Practice Manager on the software system and continue to use paper forms until we customize their mobile or table interface so that there are just check boxes to click or touch. In the future, especially with Telehealth being made essential by the COVID-19 crisis, my coders can just sit in on the procedure as it is going on (with proper permissions, and privacy guaranteed). The complete claim with complete documentary evidence can be completed before the patient leaves the facility, and we handle the follow up and collections.

5.           How are you inspiring other entrepreneurs?

I am the author of the book Zen and the Art of Funk Capitalism It is available on Amazon and the Publisher, iUniverse, author site. The reviews of the book call it a proposal for a new kind of Libertarianism. When all people must be free, it is also every person’s responsible not to coerce any other individual. And it is a judicial system that must enforce a ban on coercion of various forms, that are specified by specific laws enacted by legislature. I call it “Libertarian Maternalism.”

The conclusion of the book is how Job Skills Training is the most important thing that is prevalent all over, but not structured on centrally accessible in any way. I have started a Social Project named ‘’The Kitcoin Club” (http://kitcoin.club) which aims to be a not-for-profit social resource for anyone who wants to increase their income.