Extrakare Scores on Inc. 500

NORCROSS, Ga.—HME provider Extrakare has made the 2009
Inc. 500 list of America’s
fastest-growing private businesses. According to the magazine, the
company grew 834.6 percent between 2005 and 2008, with revenue
jumping from $493,371 to $4.6 million.
 
Co-founded by Scott Lloyd and Kevin Godwin in 2004, the full-line
HME serves metro Atlanta with an emphasis on home oxygen and
PAP therapy. What differentiates the company, Lloyd said, is
providing “innovative, patient-friendly products” like
newer technologies in oxygen, such as Invacare’s HomeFill,
and auto-titrating PAP devices as standards of care.
 
“When we started the company, we used non-delivery as the
basis for our operating model in our oxygen business because at
that time we felt like reimbursement would continue to decline,
which has certainly been the case,” Lloyd said.
 
“We feel like having a non-delivery model allows us to grow
faster than we otherwise would be able to because it simply
requires less human resources.”
 
In addition, he said, “There has been a lot of genuine demand
for some of the new oxygen technologies that exist, both from
patients and referral sources.”  
 
Lloyd acknowledges the non-delivery model requires a large upfront
investment, “and we’ve only been able to do that
through vendor financing programs.” Because those programs
can range in terms from one to three years, he said, “really
now, five years into the business, we’re beginning to get the
real benefit of that type of technology, financially speaking,
because a significant portion of that asset base is paid off but
continues to have a useful life.”
 
On the PAP side, Lloyd said, “We’ve always taken a
premium product strategy where we offer what we believe are
best-in-class products, including offering auto-titrating products
if they are prescribed. We think that, plus our follow-up program
during the compliance period and our resupply program that we
rolled out last year, has paid off with recent growth in
sleep.”
 
Its founders also attribute much of Extrakare’s success to
“local ownership and management,” which they said
allows the company to be responsive to patients,
caregivers and referral sources.
 
According to Godwin, “Our disciplined operating model has allowed
the company to expand at [a] high annual rate, while
preserving an excellent reputation with patients and the Atlanta
medical community at large.”
 
With one location and 33 employees, Lloyd noted, the company has no
immediate plans for additional branches. “I like being a
local, small business,” he said, adding that he and Godwin
are “pleased to have the hard work of our employees
recognized in a national ranking.”
 
Extrakare’s rank in the Inc. 500 places it as the 271st
fastest-growing private business in America, the 25th
fastest-growing private health care business in America and the 8th
fastest-growing private business in Atlanta.
 
The top company in the “Health” category at No. 13 on
the Inc. 500 list was San
Diego-based MedVantx, which sells an integrated program to help
physicians and patients manage prescriptions.
 
Inc.’s No. 1
fastest-growing private company across all industries: Northern
Capital Insurance, Miami, which the magazine said stepped into the
breach following the catastrophic 2004 and 2005
Florida hurricane seasons.
 
See www.inc.com for the entire
Inc. 500 list.