One on One With the Claro Group's Mark Hargis

No stranger to the pages of Consulting Magazine, the Claro Group has seen explosive growth since it was named one of our annual Seven Small Jewels in 2008. Since then, the owner-operated legacy financial, economic and management consulting firm, started by former Arthur Andersen partners in 2005, has been aggressively growing its healthcare practice, tripling revenue from $5 million in 2010 to $17 million in 2012 with projections to reach $25 million by the end of the year. "We have chosen to focus on hospitals and health systems, and we provide services to help them to meet one of their most critical strategic issues, which is to make money on Medicare," says Venanzio Arquilla, a Managing Director with the firm. "We help our clients in three main areas of service: cost reduction, demonstration of quality and revenue cycle. We can help hospitals with large, comprehensive and integrated transformation projects that deliver $20 to 50 million in annual bottom line impact or we can also deliver point solutions in our core delivery." Consulting One on One spoke with Managing Director Mark Hargis about the firm's growth, future prospects, and the ever-increasing demands of clients.

Consulting: Talk about the time since the Claro Group was named one of our Seven Small Jewels in 2008.

Hargis: Obviously we went through a fairly significant recession, but we were able to grow pretty steadily and significantly through that entire period. We've refocused and expanded our healthcare practice to include more offerings, added the government contracts practice we've increased the depth in our disputes claims investigations business. We were around 55 people in 2009, I think we're probably close to 130 and plan to add another 15 to 20 this year. It's been a pretty positive story. Consulting: Where do you guys see opportunity on the horizon this year?