Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Mary Tucker, CEO of UPIC Health, LLC., located in Virginia Beach, VA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
UPIC Health, LLC is a woman-owned, woman staffed, 100% virtual medical admin call center providing one-stop-shop patient services on behalf of their healthcare providers - both individual practices and networks. The COVID era has exposed critical gaps in care management with long call center queues, bottlenecks in reimbursements, and technology that struggles to meet all the needs of the care ecosystem. Outsourcing to UPIC is the first step in transforming your care operations.
Tell us about yourself
My career has been serving the tech sector through continuously evolving in complexity consumer contact centers (or call centers, but that doesn't exactly describe the scope of what call centers do these days, UPIC included!). I started working with a national health network as a consultant just after the Affordable Care Act had been signed into law. The deeper I got into health center operations aligned with the mandates in the ACA, the clearer it became a new model of virtual care was necessary.
From there, we modeled our service offering after the consumer markets who - American Express being a great example - had long learned with training, empowerment, and tools; virtual patient centers could easily serve most customer needs in one call (vs. bouncing them around). In the immediate term, investment is necessary so that the long-term gains in high levels of patient engagement, brisk reimbursements, and stabilized (and often reduced) patient admin costs are realized.
I'm motivated by the team UPIC - I've never been more fortunate to have the team working with me. They are astonishing in their professionalism, stamina, quality of care delivery, and teamsmanship I've ever had the privilege of working with.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Well, being in business and still going strong for eight years feels pretty good! We are a very strong company financially with no debt and a spectacular banking relationship. We also have an investor who is a mentor and friend to me, without whom we wouldn't be able to lay claim to our many successes.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Interestingly this one is easy. Our largest client was a Federation with state affiliates and approx. 1/3 of them outsourced their operations to UPIC Health. We handled over 1.5M patient interactions annually. We launched a teleadmin service two years before COVID, where we provided presurgical administrative tasks (compliance, signatures, insurance capture, verification of insurance, etc.) over 10,000 per month and provided tele financial transparency and assistance in the midwest.
This network of affiliates represented 2/3 of my company's revenue. They were not good clients - very difficult, misaligned with UPIC in care intentions, and placed many strains on the business and my employees. There came a time when I had to make a decision whether to continue or downsize and restart anew with our remaining 1/3. I decided to sever and share with my team, 65 of whom were losing their jobs in 6 months. Like my current team, they were and still are amazing women, never letting the quality of their care be impacted. It was extraordinarily difficult to say goodbye to so many fine women - and to say goodbye to the revenue! But the impact on the business was too great not to. Best decision we ever made.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
I can't stress enough - if you can have a mentor to help you avoid common pitfalls, commit to one. Our first four years were remarkably challenging, and a mentor - who has been there - can help you stay above the deep challenges and keep moving.
Next, have a budget and a waterfall (my mentor and I called it the "going out of business chart") - it lends structure to your sales objectives and timelines and instills a financial discipline combined with your cost management is critical for you to continue to grow.
And last, focus on your employees. This year UPIC eliminated PTO in favor of "take the time you need" - not a single person is taking advantage. We pay 100% of major medical and 70% of salary for three months of maternity leave (and wish it could be one year - our clients have to sign on for that!). Employees are everything and should be treated as such.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.upichealth.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UPICHealth
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marytucker/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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