In this interview, Nitesh Shroff, PhD (CEO and Co-Founder of Arintra), shares the inspiration behind the company, its mission to solve inefficiencies in medical coding, and its vision for transforming RCM through AI. Learn how Arintra is improving the financial health of hospitals and addressing key challenges in the healthcare revenue cycle.

Q: What inspired you to create Arintra, and what gap are you addressing in the market?
Arintra CEO: Our mission at Arintra is to improve the financial health of hospitals through AI automation. This is directly tied to making healthcare more affordable and accessible. In today’s landscape, navigating the complexity of the revenue cycle is a massive challenge for healthcare providers. Payers are making it harder for hospitals to get paid, which impacts their financial stability. At the same time, there is a critical shortage of skilled medical coders, leading to delayed claims and revenue losses.

A personal experience sparked our journey. My co-founder had to visit the emergency room and was shocked to receive a $19,000 bill for a relatively uneventful four-hour stay. Upon investigation, we discovered multiple billing errors, which, when corrected, significantly reduced the bill. This incident exposed the inefficiencies and inaccuracies in the revenue cycle. We realized this was not just a critical problem but also a fascinating challenge for AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP). That’s when we began building Arintra to automate medical coding, ensuring faster, more accurate claims that improve hospitals' financial outcomes.

Q: What are the key features that differentiate Arintra from other medical coding platforms?
Arintra CEO: At Arintra, we are tackling high-volume ambulatory care claims that demand full automation, not just assistance. Here’s what sets us apart:

• Seamless EHR Integration: Our solution operates entirely within EHRs like Epic and AthenaHealth, with zero workflow disruption.
• Explainability: We prioritize transparency, providing a full audit trail that ties every automated code back to the original clinical documentation.
• Extensibility: Our architecture enables rapid scaling across specialties, allowing us to support various medical domains quickly.

By ensuring a user-centric design, our platform simplifies adoption while addressing critical challenges in coding accuracy and reimbursement timelines.

Q: What is your long-term vision for Arintra?
Arintra CEO: Our vision is to become the leading clinical AI platform that healthcare trusts to solve administrative inefficiencies. We have started with medical coding, and aim to expand into other areas like denial management, clinical documentation improvement (CDI), and utilization management. Our goal is to reduce administrative burdens, enabling healthcare providers to focus on patient care while ensuring financial stability.

Q: What are your top business goals for the next year?
Arintra CEO: In the coming year, we are focused on three priorities:

1. Partnering with new customers, including health systems and large physician groups.
2. Delivering more value to customers by expanding into additional specialties and addressing challenges in other parts of the RCM workflow.
3. Continuously enhancing Arintra’s position as the trusted leader in medical coding and RCM innovation.

Q: What values or principles are at the heart of your brand?
Arintra CEO: Simplicity, empathy, and trust define Arintra. Our goal is to deliver solutions that are impactful and precise, avoiding unnecessary complexity. We empathize deeply with the challenges faced by healthcare providers, and we are committed to being a trustworthy partner by delivering on our promises with authenticity and transparency.

Q: How do you plan to make an impact with Arintra?
Arintra CEO: Arintra’s mission is to strengthen the financial health of hospitals, making healthcare more affordable and accessible. By focusing on AI-driven tech innovation rather than traditional service models, we address the root causes of administrative inefficiencies in healthcare. This approach not only enhances hospital operations but also supports their long-term viability in delivering quality care.

Q: Where does the name “Arintra” come from?
Arintra CEO: Interestingly, the name originated from a conversation with a leading pulmonologist who described our initial concept as an “Artificially Intelligent Triage Assistant.” The acronym “ARINTRA” inspired us, and its phonetic alignment with Indian cultural roots resonated personally. Although it may take some getting used to, the name encapsulates our mission beautifully.