Alicare Medical Management started 10 years ago with a handful of employees and $100,000 in revenues. This past year the company had 60 employees and $4.5 million in revenues, said Claire Levitt, the company’s president.

The focus of the company is to help patients receive the health care they need while reducing medical costs.

According to a 1998 National Center for Policy Analysis study, over the past two decades the cost of health care has risen at twice the rate of increase of the gross domestic product.

“The major reason that costs are rising is that when patients and physicians get together, they are spending someone else’s money rather than their own. In hospitals 95 percent of expenses are paid for by someone other than the patient,” the study said.

Alicare, an affiliate of New York City-based Amalgamated Life Insurance Co., makes its money through contracts with union trust funds, self-insured employers, health maintenance organizations and other medical insurance companies.

It employs 40 nurses who staff a 24-hour seven-day-a-week telephone help line designed to give patients information and advice.

About 96 percent of the company’s employees are women. Only two employees are men. “It just kind of happened that way,” Levitt said. “It isn’t really by design; it is just that the nursing field is predominantly women.”

The idea behind the nurse help line is to give information so the patient can decide when – and when not – to seek medical attention, Levitt said.

“The idea is not to discourage people from going to see a doctor. The idea is just to give them information to make their own decision. Sometimes you not only save money, but lives, by telling them to go to the hospital right away.”

She used the example of a man who called the help line because his wife had a headache and wanted to know whether he should take her to the hospital. The nurse urged him to take her to the hospital right away. As it turned out she had meningitis. That saved the couple some money, but it also may have saved her life.

The company also audits medical bills. They find billing errors on 80 percent of the bills they audit, said Theresa Sapienza-Cote, the company’s director of medical cost containment services.

“That may seem high, but an itemized hospital bill is pages and pages of information,” Sapienza-Cote said. But simple typesetting errors can make a big difference. “We had someone who had a cochlea transplant, but because of an innocent error the hospital charged him for two.” A cochlea – part of the inner ear – costs $25,000.

Alicare is paid about 20 percent of the total dollar amount of the error, Levitt said. “If we don’t find any errors then there is no fee.” Alicare is not paid until after an agreement with the hospital is reached.

Other services include case management, disease management, access to an audio health information library, and patient referrals to an insurance network for doctors and hospitals.

Alicare has been growing steadily over the past 10 years, Levitt said. The company has expanded from its core business of union trust funds to larger insurers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield providers.

The key to the company’s success has been its ability to find and retain qualified health care professionals, Levitt said.

The labor market has been tight, especially for those seeking professionals like registered nurses, but Alicare has been able to draw in employees by offering flexible schedules, benefits for part-timers, and a supportive work environment, said Annette Duclos-Watson, the company’s vice president and chief operating officer.

“Working in hospitals is not easy,” said Duclos-Watson, who is also a registered nurse. “The people here work hard, but the stress level is different.”

“It is a friendly environment here and they are helping people,” she added.

Brad Leighton can be reached at 594-6446