Past Winner Stories
Repucare
www.repucare.com
Don't put all your eggs in one basket. That's probably the most valuable lesson Billie Dragoo now passes along to others as president of RepuCare, Inc., a PRN (pro re nata or "as needed") registry, providing temporary rehabilitative services to medical facilities throughout Indiana. The partnership, formed with a close friend, began with a successful business plan that resulted in funding through an SBA loan. The premise of the business was twofold: To provide quality health care in an environment that generally focused more on costs, regulations and limited services, and to be the employer of choice for rehabilitation professionals.
RepuCare, Inc., quickly grew and continued to fill increasing needs in hospitals and clinics across the state. RepuCare, Inc. became the top PRN company in the area. Everything was going great until Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act (BBA), changing regulatory requirements and government reimbursements for the medical arena. When the BBA was enacted in January 1999, therapists flooded the market and the need for ancillary PRN workers began to disappear. RepuCare's business dropped 87 percent in one month.
By this point, the growing business had incurred increased overhead that it could no longer support. Dragoo knew something had to be done to save the company. She brought in a business consultant to help her audit, evaluate and re-engineer. Dragoo was advised that the company needed to cut salaries, review vendor contracts, and slash expenses. Even more importantly, RepuCare needed to develop new revenue streams. In a bold move, Dragoo bought out her partner. Then the re-engineering began.
To establish a strong infrastructure for RepuCare, Dragoo first retooled the staff, updated office technology, and re-negotiated vendor contracts, resulting in a 40 percent reduction in expenses. She then began addressing the human resource issues. To gain employee loyalty, she instituted an exceptional, 100 percent employer-paid benefits package. In return: she was able to hire the best therapists to maintain the quality reputation developed by RepuCare.
At the same time, Dragoo began attacking the changing business environment that had so drastically affected the company. With her first step toward diversification, she established an agreement with a national insurance group providing onsite rehabilitation for private companies, reducing their workman's compensation by 50 percent. The agreement was made directly with an insurance payer, avoiding government constraints. Other relationships with local, regional and national payers followed the new business model, strengthening RepuCare's on-site rehabilitation business with the creation of this new entity known as Corporate Dynamics, which provides statewide on-site rehabilitation services, usually offered only at occupational health centers. Corporate Dynamics focuses on innovative ways to assist companies with workman's compensation programs through prevention and rehabilitation. RepuCare's newest division; RepuKids, works with Indiana's First Step program to provide early intervention and rehabilitation for children, from birth to age three, who have been diagnosed with conditions that have a high probability of resulting in a developmental delay.
RepuCare, Inc., quickly grew and continued to fill increasing needs in hospitals and clinics across the state. RepuCare, Inc. became the top PRN company in the area. Everything was going great until Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act (BBA), changing regulatory requirements and government reimbursements for the medical arena. When the BBA was enacted in January 1999, therapists flooded the market and the need for ancillary PRN workers began to disappear. RepuCare's business dropped 87 percent in one month.
By this point, the growing business had incurred increased overhead that it could no longer support. Dragoo knew something had to be done to save the company. She brought in a business consultant to help her audit, evaluate and re-engineer. Dragoo was advised that the company needed to cut salaries, review vendor contracts, and slash expenses. Even more importantly, RepuCare needed to develop new revenue streams. In a bold move, Dragoo bought out her partner. Then the re-engineering began.
To establish a strong infrastructure for RepuCare, Dragoo first retooled the staff, updated office technology, and re-negotiated vendor contracts, resulting in a 40 percent reduction in expenses. She then began addressing the human resource issues. To gain employee loyalty, she instituted an exceptional, 100 percent employer-paid benefits package. In return: she was able to hire the best therapists to maintain the quality reputation developed by RepuCare.
At the same time, Dragoo began attacking the changing business environment that had so drastically affected the company. With her first step toward diversification, she established an agreement with a national insurance group providing onsite rehabilitation for private companies, reducing their workman's compensation by 50 percent. The agreement was made directly with an insurance payer, avoiding government constraints. Other relationships with local, regional and national payers followed the new business model, strengthening RepuCare's on-site rehabilitation business with the creation of this new entity known as Corporate Dynamics, which provides statewide on-site rehabilitation services, usually offered only at occupational health centers. Corporate Dynamics focuses on innovative ways to assist companies with workman's compensation programs through prevention and rehabilitation. RepuCare's newest division; RepuKids, works with Indiana's First Step program to provide early intervention and rehabilitation for children, from birth to age three, who have been diagnosed with conditions that have a high probability of resulting in a developmental delay.