By Pat Shaver
Photos by Rachel Jessen
CORALVILLE—A Coralville company is doubling in size.
MediRevv announced in June that it will construct a second building not far from its current office.
MediRevv is a healthcare revenue cycle management company that specializes in helping hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers and physician groups improve their cash flow and grow their revenue. Employees focus on four key areas: patient satisfaction, productivity, quality and key performance indicator reporting.
Last September, the company moved into a larger building at 2600 University Parkway in Coralville, allowing for the rapid growth. It wasn’t long, though, before the 18,000-square-foot, $2.4 million building wasn’t enough, said Brad Baldwin, vice president of operations at MediRevv.
“We’ve been fortunate to grow far more than our expectations. That’s a great problem to have,” he said. “Our CEO Chris Klitgaard never wants our growth to be limited by physical space.”
After a round of new hires during the next several weeks, Mr. Baldwin estimates the building will be about 80 percent full. MediRevv serves clients from all across the country, which was a factor when considering where to build the second office.
“We spent a lot of time thinking about the advantages of a second facility in a different time zone,” Mr. Baldwin said. “But it came down to a couple things: the people we have access to here and the support we have here, we didn’t think we could match or match easily.”
Although leaders at MediRevv anticipated the first building would manage their growth for three to five years, Mr. Baldwin said they were lucky to build at a site that had additional space for development.
“We were looking at different existing commercial space but we couldn’t find anything we wanted. We knew we wanted to be in this general area,” he said, adding that employees commute from Cedar Rapids, Williamsburg, Mount Pleasant and Durant. “We felt this general area was right for us.”
The new building will be next door to the 2600 University Parkway office, creating a campus environment. The company estimates it will result in an approximate taxable value of $3.2 million. The new office will be about 22,000 to 24,000 square feet and have space for about 200 employees. Plans are to break ground on the project in October and be moved in by August 2014, Mr. Baldwin said.
The second building, they estimate, will last the company another three to five years, given growth projections, Mr. Baldwin said.
“Hopefully we’re wrong again,” he said.
Both the city of Coralville and the state have supported the expansion plans. The Iowa Economic Development Authority awarded the company $150,000 in June.
The company plans to initially hire 80 employees to work in the new office.
“We’ve never done traditional recruiting because we’ve got a pretty good reputation and our staff loves working here; they’re our best recruiters,” he said.
The company, founded in 2007, has been on the Corridor Business Journal’s Fastest Growing Companies list twice.
“Our target is to grow at roughly 30 percent rate (each year). Last year, we grew 85 percent,” he said.
Mr. Baldwin said the company’s culture was also an important part of choosing a second location for MediRevv. It was recently named one of the Coolest Places to Work in the Corridor.
“You’ve got to work hard at company culture. It’s easy to lose sight of as you continue to grow,” he said.
A main reason for MediRevv’s growth is hiring hard-working employees who “do what they say they’re going to do.”
“This is not the sexiest job in the world. It’s hard work. What we do is difficult and the expectation for the staff is very high,” he said. “But because of that hard work we’re all going to win as a result.”
MediRevv’s clients include: Texas Children’s Physician Services Organization, University California Irvine Medical Center, University of Iowa Community Medical Services, Baylor College of Medicine, among others.
“The company grew from an idea to now close to 150 employees,” Mr. Baldwin said.
