As a company, Databound offers a unique blend of three components: Customer service, technology and healthcare innovations. All three on their own are essential components of the Finger Lakes’ economy, but Databound’s technology has proven to be critically important during the coronavirus pandemic.

Databound provides software and services for healthcare organizations to improve business efficiency and generate more revenue by automating and executing billing and claims processing tasks related to the management and collection of patient service revenue. This includes robotic process automation, automated coverage discovery, and intelligent claim follow-up. These solutions deliver hospitals and health systems a quick return on investment while allowing administrative, financial, and IT staff to do more with less effort.

Paul Martin, Databound CEO & CTO

Paul Martin, the President of Databound, started and founded the company in 1999. It’s been a long, steady rise for the entrepreneur who says his ability to relate to the people he worked with, played a vital role in finding his success. “Like many entrepreneurs, I wore several hats, including sales, support, and client success,” he explained. “As we grew, we helped many clients on Siemens Medical System terminal applications to automate integration, reporting, work-listing, and dozens of other use cases.”

This technology would prove crucial to finding sustained growth and opportunity. “As Databound continues to grow, my focus has shifted to providing strategic and technical guidance and ensuring that we continue to provide outstanding client value,” he explained, noting that his company has developed a reputation of dependability and reliability. That dependability and reliability is happening right here in the Finger Lakes- and is being led by a dedicated team of individuals based in Ithaca, N.Y.

The Ithaca team is focused on being part of an effort that is absolutely crucial to improving care and positive outcomes in the U.S. healthcare system. “It is estimated that the US system of healthcare experiences over $265 billion in administrative waste every year,” Martin explained. “That is a lot of money that could be better spent on improving healthcare. Our mission is to alleviate as much of this waste as possible through automation. We support hospitals nationwide, including several here in upstate New York.”

For the Finger Lakes region, Martin says it’s a no brainer to stay put and lean into the good that’s happening locally. “The Finger Lakes area is a great place to live and raise a family,” he added. “Plus it’s growing economically as well. This makes it easier for us to draw on a skilled workforce with strong technical and service experience. This helps us fuel our growth as we continue to find qualified team members who fit in with our culture of building trusted relationships with our customers and with each other.”

Martin understands that his company is something of an outlier in the region’s economy. It represents a technical niche that isn’t found in every community. To that end, Databound helps achieve diversification in an economy that sometimes appears tourism-centric. “A diverse economy helps ensure stability of the workforce and improves our quality of life by enhancing shared experiences,” he added.

Some of those shared experiences took on a different appearance in 2020, though, with the coronavirus pandemic creating some different challenges. Being an innovator and leader in healthcare optimization was absolutely paramount as hospital systems struggled with their own bottom line, as well as maintaining operations during surging levels of demand amid the COVID-19 crisis.

For that workforce, which has become largely remote in the Ithaca and Syracuse-areas, Martin says the transition was smooth. “We have remote staff across the country, so we were already pretty well-prepared for our new reality of a telecommuting workforce,” he explained. “Since having a partially remote team and understanding the importance of team communications, so much of the work around equipping team members for working from home was already done when the pandemic began.” He says the result has been a team that continues to thrive and find success each day. “Our team is collaborating more than ever and taking full-advantage of the opportunity to develop products that further enhance the client experience. As a small business we feel very fortunate to be in this position, as we navigate our new normal.”

All that said, those experiences offered in the Finger Lakes region before and after the pandemic are tough to match. And the Finger Lakes will rebound in a way that could be even more spectacular than pre-pandemic times. That’s why Martin says it’s such a draw. “There’s a quality of life here that just can’t be beat,” he said. “Then when you factor in the area’s economic diversity and steady growth, it’s also a great place to grow a company.” He says Databound is working hard to be one of the most sought-after employers in the region- and remains excited about pursuing that vision in the years to come.