3 min read
Moxe was born out of a desire to reduce waste in healthcare: It’s at the very core of who we are and what we do. Initially, we weren’t sure exactly how we were going to do that; we just knew it had to happen.
In the early days, as we realized there was huge potential to improve the way payers and providers exchanged data for the good of the entire healthcare ecosystem, we set out to disrupt an industry that was printing countless reams of paper.
I’ll never forget heading to an early sales meeting and noting a white van with a scanner in the same parking lot to “pick up” medical records. I grabbed a picture to memorialize what felt so antiquated—I imagine it was similar to taking a picture of a steamship sailing in 1969, even though we’d already been visiting space for 8 years. Notably, we were still building steamships into the 1980s.
I may have driven in for a close up.
By replacing paper-centric data exchange with an easy, privacy-centric way to digitally move data tailored to each recipient’s needs, we have not only saved millions of sheets of paper, but also time, money, and other resources, like gasoline and postage.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer Ted Glomski has been looking closely at how we can reduce waste internally. He shared some impressive stats with me recently about the environmental impact we’re having. Looking at data delivered, over the past five years, we’ve:
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Digitally delivered 34.4 million PDFs
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Eliminated 412 million sheets of paper, which equates to over 25,000 miles of paper when stacked. That’s the equivalent of running a marathon every day for 2.5 years!
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Saved 41k trees, which translates to approximately 275 acres of forest
While we’re not in business to save the environment, we are in the business of reducing waste, and environmental waste is a piece of that picture. On this Earth Day, we recommit to doing what we can to minimize our own waste and reduce our environmental footprint.
Cutting waste
When we made it our mission to reduce healthcare waste, and therefore costs, we committed to doing things as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. If we want to be part of the solution, we can’t pass on unnecessary costs to our customers. We take that very seriously.
One way we’re working to use our resources as wisely as possible is by using Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) auto scaling. By using auto scaling, our systems can expand to accommodate large volumes—like during Medicare Risk Adjustment periods—and contract when our load isn’t as high. There are times we need two servers, and times when we need 20. AWS is part of a solution that allows us to process things efficiently while ensuring we don’t overuse resources. It also means that as we grow, we can scale quickly. Our recent move to using Kubernetes allows us to even more dynamically adjust the resources we need.
While we’re not in business to save the environment, we are in the business of reducing waste, and environmental waste is a piece of that picture. On this Earth Day, we recommit to doing what we can to minimize our own waste and reduce our environmental footprint.
I’m grateful to our engineers, like Ted, who continuously look for ways we can minimize our infrastructure footprint. Ted estimates we’ve trimmed 15% from our AWS consumption in the past few months by being scrupulous about eliminating resources we’re not using. Reducing our AWS usage and rightsizing all of our resources means we’re continually optimizing our operational efficiency and bringing more value to our customers.
Reducing our environmental impact
In addition to evaluating where we can cut waste internally, we do a couple of less orthodox things to reduce our environmental impact.
When our team members commute to one of our offices, we incentivize using public or human-powered transport. Moxe reimburses for bus rides each month in Madison and for our Boston-based crew to use public transport. If team members choose to walk, run, or bike to either office, they can get a pair of shoes or a bicycle tune-up reimbursed every six months.
We also recycle our retired PCs by wiping them clean and donating them to local nonprofits.
As our team grows, I look forward to continuing to evaluate how we can reduce our environmental impact.
Stronger together
While we’re doing our part to put a dent in the healthcare cost crisis, there is still so much work to do. Estimates still put the cost of waste in healthcare at as much as $300-$600 billion annually in the U.S. Just as one individual isn’t going to solve the climate crisis, one healthcare company isn’t going to solve the waste problem.
All of us in the healthcare industry need to ruthlessly look at where we can cut waste if we want to help drive down costs and leave future generations with a system that’s healthier and more sustainable. If we want to see global change in healthcare, we have to start locally.
We want to hear from you!
Reach out to us to learn more about our unique approach to modernizing Release of Information and reducing administrative waste.