Edgewater firm founded by two Navy grads gets $45M contract

Reef Point will work with bigger firms on improving military’s health care

When Christopher Landon and Jeremy Toton opened Reef Point LLC in 2008 in downtown Annapolis, they had a goal to improve the military’s health care system.

Graduates of the Naval Academy Class of 2000, Landon said the two had a passion to update and help create a system of treatment for service members that would end up serving themselves.

“Being a Navy guy, I’m still in the reserves,” Landon said. “I’m still a patient in the military health system.”

The company was recently awarded a $45.8 million contract to help optimize the processes and procedures involved with military health care.

Landon said the improvements expected by the Department of Defense include shortening wait times in military hospitals, and bolstering the efficiency and quality of care.

“We are looking for improved outcomes, not just reductions in time, and that’s what health care wants,” Landon said.

This contract is tied to changes to be brought about by a $4.3 billion contract to modernize electronic health care systems across the Military Health System. It was awarded to a group of companies — Leidos, Cerner, Accenture and Henry Schein — last year.

Liedos described the contract as “an initiative designed to modernize the military’s health care system in a meaningful way, enabling patients and clinicians to capture and share health data” for service members and their families.

Landon said Reef Point will play an on-the-ground role in helping to integrate those changes. The company will examine the time it takes to order lab work and transport patients around the hospital, and interactions between clinicians and patients.

“This is a big win for our company,” Landon said. “This is, by and large, our biggest prime contract to date.”

He also stressed how important it was to the company’s employees, the majority of which are active or former military members.

“It’s great for our company because I think … 75 percent of the company is former military [or] active duty,” he said.

The Department of Defense has stressed its desire to rely on the private sector for the overhaul.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Jonathan Woodson told Healthcare IT News last year that “a commercial product gives us the opportunity to take advantage of private sector innovation.”

He added that the department’s decision not to use the Department of Veterans’ Affairs proprietary software helped to reduce the cost of the work, a key issue with veteran and military health care in recent years.

For Reef Point to be included in optimizing this new system, Landon said, is a “very good sign for small business in health care improvement in this field.”