CorVel Corporation CRVL

The business

CorVel makes money two ways. Its Network Solutions arm reviews medical bills from workers' compensation claims, runs provider networks, and handles pharmacy services. Some bill-review arrangements pay CorVel based on performance. Its Patient Management arm is the third-party administrator: it runs the whole claim for a self-insured employer, from first report of injury through case management and return to work. Network Solutions carries the better economics; Patient Management is people-heavy and sticky. When a warehouse worker wrenches a back, CorVel's platform reprices the MRI bill, routes the case to a nurse, and pays the provider, all on one system the client would find painful to leave. The moat is thirty-plus years of claims data, an integrated software stack, and the switching cost of a book of open claims already running on it. Revenue reached $958.5 million last fiscal year. There are no borrowings, and the company pays no dividend.