Yosi Health aims to help patients avoid waiting rooms

Hari Prasad said he had an epiphany when he dislocated his shoulder.

In 2015, Prasad was sitting in an emergency department, trying to fill out paperwork. It was difficult, to say the least, since his shoulder was dislocated. And he was in pain.

“That personal experience motivated me to take a look at the experience of the waiting room,” Prasad said.

Hari Prasad, CEO of Yosi Health

He said that experience helped drive him to form his company, Yosi Health. Based in New York, the healthcare technology company works with medical providers to offer patient engagement solutions, including scheduling and payment. Prasad says the company offers software that helps providers offer a better patient experience at lower costs.

Using Yosi’s platform, patients can use an app to fill out all their paperwork before medical appointments, instead of doing it while sitting in waiting rooms and waiting to see their doctors. “In a post-pandemic world, they don’t have to sit in a waiting room with other sick patients,” Prasad said.

Patients can sign all consent forms and other documents electronically. Patients can also pay any required co-pays before the appointment through the company’s platform.

“Patients are looking for convenience,” Prasad said. “We’ve designed our software to be very easy and convenient to use.”

Yosi Health is now working with more than 400 healthcare providers, including more than 20 different specialties. Prasad said the company is committed to “hyper-personalization.”

“Patients aren’t just patients. They’re empowered consumers,” Prasad said. “As a result, providers are looking for solutions like ours, so they can engage patients in a personal way.”

Yosi Health is focused on offering contactless services, including filling out required forms electronically. That’s something patients increasingly want, he said. Some other platforms offer tablets, Prasad said, but that’s not really contact-free.

“We have gone to the place where patients are, which is their home,” Prasad said.

Yosi Health’s software “adapts to the workflows of each medical practice,” Prasad said. Providers don’t need to change their electronic medical record systems with Yosi’s software, he said. The EMR systems are uploaded in real time.

Prasad said it doesn’t take long to get providers up to speed on using the Yosi Health software. “Onboarding is relatively very short,” he said.

The patient engagement platform is especially useful for pediatric practices, both for doctors and for patients.

“Parents are extremely busy,” Prasad said. “They’re managing a lot of different things. We appreciate how much work there is to provide care for a child. Our software reaches out to parents at home, well before the day of the appointment.”

“When the parent brings their child to the office, all they have to do is interact with the pediatrician.”

If patients spend less time in the office filling out forms or making payments, “it allows the physician to spend more time with the patient,” Prasad said.

In July, Yosi Health conducted a survey of about 1,100 people and nearly half (46%) said the worst part about going to the doctor’s office is sitting in the waiting room, and 14% said it was filling out paperwork in the doctor’s office. The survey also asked about the best change medical practices have made since the pandemic, and 30% said better scheduling avoiding delays in the waiting room.

Yosi Health offers telehealth services for providers as well. Telehealth use has skyrocketed as a result of the pandemic. The federal government said telehealth visits by Medicare beneficiaries rose 63-fold in 2020. Healthcare advocacy groups are pushing the federal government and state legislatures to ensure permanent access to telehealth.

“We do expect telehealth services are here to stay,” Prasad said.

Prasad said the growth of telehealth use also marks a paradigm shift for providers, with patients increasingly demanding more convenient options.

“WIth patients becoming more empowered consumers, it becomes important for providers to offer the experience patients need,” Prasad said, adding, “They have already expressed their desire to switch providers if they don’t receive these conveniences.”

“It is a really good business decision for providers to deliver an exceptional patient experience,” Prasad said. “They can go online and look for other providers. They’re used to conveniences in other aspects of their lives.”

Yosi Health currently employs 70 workers. At a time when companies have struggled to keep top talent, Prasad said the company has succeeded in retaining workers and he is hoping to hire more people.

Prasad said he’s pleased with Yosi Health’s growth and enthusiastic about the company’s future prospects.

“We are excited about what’s to come in the next 18-24 months,” Prasad said.

In the future, Prasad expects more providers will be focused on improving the patient experience, even when patients are first seeking providers for their healthcare needs.

“Providers should know the patient’s journey begins well before they set foot in the waiting room. It begins at home,” Prasad said.

“Making the starting point easy and good is a smart first step.”