Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA Lebanon-based startup wants to build a call center here and add up to 300 jobs, but state and local officials are struggling
with a big obstacle to keeping the company here: a lack of early-stage venture capital.
VoCare Inc. has designed a service that can provide 24-hour-a-day remote monitoring and live communications between home-bound
seniors and their primary care doctors. It is trying to raise $4 million in capital to launch its service.
Since it can provide the service from anywhere in the country, VoCare is mulling a move to South
Carolina, Florida or Texas. But the company is also talking to economic officials in Indiana, said company
spokesman Tim Tuttle.
“It really is a national program. So they
could put it anywhere,” Tuttle said. But, he added, VoCare founder Steve Peabody “would truly
like to stay in the Indianapolis area.”
VoCare recently signed
a pilot partnership with Indianapolis-based American Health Network, a 200-physician practice, and researchers
at Indiana University, who will help test its TeleHealth System. Also participating in the pilot is Wisconsin-based
Marshfield Clinic.
In a statement, VoCare officials said they would
make a location decision in the next 120 days.
“We have strong
ties to Indiana and the Midwest, but we need to look at all options in determining the best place for
our business,” Peabody said in the statement. “We need to operate in the most cost-effective environment possible
to keep the cost of our VoCare TeleHealth System affordable.”
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.