When Navicure was founded in 2001, it made sense that the new company would call metro Atlanta home.

Jim Denny, the company’s founder and CEO, was working for a company in Georgia at the time. “We knew there were a lot of people in this market who knew health IT,’’ Denny said in an interview with GHN this week.

Metro Atlanta has long been a hub of health information technology. The Technology Association of Georgia says the state is the nation’s leading home to health IT firms, with more than 225 companies combining for $4 billion in annual revenues and employing more than 15,000 people.

Duluth-based Navicure, a medical claims firm, reflects this growth. The company’s revenues last year reached $51 million, up from $39 million the year before.

And the company, which employs 220 people, added 316 medical practices to its client base during the second quarter of this year.

Navicure’s main product is an online system to help physicians and other medical providers collect claims from insurers and patients. “We serve as a [medical] practice’s electronic advocate,’’ Denny said.

He added that Navicure can help a physician “do a better job of collecting more money.’’

The company was recently recognized as the 85th-largest health IT company in the nation by Healthcare Informatics Magazine. Navicure joined eight other Georgia firms on the list, with Alpharetta-based McKesson Technology Solutions named the nation’s leading company in the industry.

Denny said the trend of physicians switching to electronic medical records is aiding Navicure’s growth. When medical providers purchase a digital records system, they often consider a revenue management system like Navicure’s to go with it, he said.

Navicure hopes to see continued revenue growth at a 30 percent clip. The company has been adding employees at a rate of about 70 a year, and Denny expects at least 30 to 40 more hires this year.

“We are always recruiting talented people,’’ he said.