When managed care changed the rehabilitation landscape, owners in private practice scrambled to adjust protocols and care delivery. It was a difficult struggle.

Learning to contract with managed care payors proved to be an even greater challenge.

“Many [therapists] signed agreements that weren’t in their best interest,” recalls Jaxene Hillebert. “They didn’t have the time and knowledge base to go through the managed care contract process.” As a result, many suffered financial losses.

As the marketing director for a large physical therapy practice, Hillebert witnessed practice owners making the same mistakes repeatedly. Clearly, they needed help navigating this unfamiliar terrain.

So in 1992, she founded the Phoenix-based PREFERRED Therapy Providers—a national network of 900 providers in 35 states—which helps practice owners negotiate the managed care process.

The company’s main duty is to introduce managed care agreements, primarily those of preferred provider organizations (PPOs), to private practitioners. Therapists aren’t bound to any contracts, explains Hillebert. But PREFERRED Therapy representatives offer them advice on the selection process.

While her company isn't necessarily the first to offer this type of service, Hillebert says, it’s the first to reach a national network of providers. The company stands out in another way as well—PPOs have approved every practice submitted by PREFERRED Therapy Providers.

What’s enabled the company to succeed where others have failed? Hillebert credits hard work and a willingness to listen to therapists’ concerns and needs. Among those concerns are claims being delayed and/or paid incorrectly, the appeals process, marketing to referral sources, technology issues and most recently, HIPAA compliance and deadlines.

Fifteen years of experience in the industry helped as well. “I knew a great deal of people when I started,” she recalls, “which is how I was able to move forward and attract small practices throughout the country.”

Hillebert says an intelligent, hard working staff bolsters her company’s success. PREFERRED’s three senior staff members come from various backgrounds, which offer a wide range of perspectives to the contract process, explains Hillebert.

One, who has spent a great deal of time working for PPOs, helps the company understand the processes and challenges payers face.

Another, who has extensive experience in health care, provides the company with excellent provider advocacy skills. And the third helped Hillebert from the start when she struggled to get her fledgling company off the ground. This other valued employee is Hillebert’s daughter, who’s involved full-time with the company.

Reflecting on the challenges she’s faced throughout her career, Hillebert says the biggest obstacle is obtaining a good reimbursement methodology when negotiating contracts. “Because so many plans negotiate in so many ways,” she explains, “we have to make sure everything is equitable and fair to all parties.”

Remaining open is the solution. “We’re very flexible in terms of our infrastructure and how we create relations with so many different companies in the health care industry,” says the entrepreneur, who works 50-hour weeks. Ultimately, the company isn’t held back by its own bylaws.

Hillebert’s management style reflects this attitude. With an open-door policy, she’s committed to empowering her employees by being there for them at all times. “I’m their resource, their cheerleader and sometimes even their surrogate parent,” she says. Other than that, “I communicate my expectations from the start, turn them loose and let them shine.”

Clearly, it’s working. “We’ve had explosive growth and it hasn’t slowed yet,” says Hillebert.