The Challenge: Medical Records Became a Bottleneck

Ethical surrogacy requires rigorous screening, medical, psychological, and legal. Yet, the process often begins with an unpredictable hurdle: gathering a complete and accurate medical history.

“Many prospective surrogates don’t remember their OB’s name, or they omit key parts of their medical history, sometimes unknowingly, sometimes not,” says Angela Richardson-Mook, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Alcea. “And if you’re talking to a surrogacy agency, you’ve likely already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to have a child. We need to be a safe space, in every way imaginable.”

Previously, Alcea’s team relied on in-house staff or external vendors to collect medical records, a process that took weeks, sometimes over a month. The delay was costly: promising candidates would move on to faster-matching agencies, and Alcea risked wasting thousands of dollars per candidate on additional screenings that could’ve been disqualified earlier.

The Solution: A Predoc-First Screening Model

Angela and her team hypothesized that improving medical record retrieval would reduce delays and lower costs by identifying medically disqualified candidates sooner. This was critical, as medical screening is only the first of many expensive steps, which also include psychiatric evaluations, background checks, and home assessments.

When Alcea implemented Predoc, the goal was simple: improve speed without compromising integrity.

‍“We wanted to move medical review to the very front of our process because we knew it could disqualify candidates we might otherwise spend a lot of time and money screening.”

What stood out about Predoc wasn’t just the speed, it was the ease of use. The platform allowed Alcea’s team to focus on patient relationships, while giving them access to complete and verified records without relying on the surrogate to collect them.

“We needed something simple and reliable. With Predoc, there’s one point of contact. The surrogate is protected, and we get the full picture, fast.”

The Impact: Faster Records, Faster Matches, Lower Costs

Since partnering with Predoc, Alcea has reduced medical record turnaround time by over 70%. This allowed them to re-engineer their intake process, prioritizing medical review before any other investment in screening.

The results were immediate and measurable:

• Time-to-match reduced by nearly 50%
  
• Screening costs dropped, with fewer late-stage disqualifications; decline rates fell to just 8%, compared to the industry average of 25–35%
  
• Operational margin significantly improved as more candidates were medically disqualified before expensive additional screenings

“For our margins, this is incredibly impactful,” says Angela. “We’re not wasting time or money. And because we screen meticulously, our entire process feels more authentic, never transactional.”

Faster decisions, higher trust

By partnering with Predoc, Alcea Surrogacy transformed a slow, error-prone process into a streamlined, strategic advantage. Faster records led to faster decisions, fewer mismatches, and more successful journeys; for intended parents, surrogates, and the team guiding them.

“When you screen thoroughly and move with empathy, you build trust. That’s what matters most.” — Angela Richardson-Mook