The healthcare consultancy sector has witnessed robust growth in recent years, resulting in increased healthcare access and coverage across the country. This creates an opportunity and an increasing demand for services; however, it also brings in new challenges for healthcare service providers.
Grasping this scenario, healthcare consulting facilitates the organizations to navigate the usual and novel challenges and actively assists them with immersive strategies to overcome the adversities.
Consultants are also experts in data, analytics, and technology. They offer a unique approach to solve the challenges by creating a data-driven approach to improving operations and increasing revenues. They also provide recommendations on the best viable technologies to stimulate organizational growth.
Whether a consulting team is implementing new HIT systems to improve efficiency or modelling and projecting revenue cycles, they build tools to enable healthcare providers to improvise their operations eventually.
This is where JTS Health Partners shines as an exceptional healthcare management consulting firm. It is focused on enterprise Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), Health Information Management (HIM), Health Information Technology (HIT) and Healthcare Analytics as a Service (AaaS).
Under the leadership of Julie Stewart, CTO and Co-founder, JTS offers consulting and operational services that align with performance improvement initiatives of healthcare systems, hospitals, and physician practices.
In an interview with Insights Care, Julie sheds light on the company’s legacy, her professional tenure, and valuable opinions on the company’s future.
Please brief our audience about JTS Health Partners and how it is currently positioned as a trusted revenue cycle management organization.
JTS Health Partners was established in 2009 under its holding company, JTS Ventures, Inc., (est. 2002). Our internal goals are simple; every client is a reference, and we pride ourselves on having 95% referrals over the past decade.
As a company, JTS is determined to assist healthcare executives with the delivery of the highest quality of services (internally and externally) with a focus on a “best in class” customer service model. Because the complexity of the healthcare environment continues to grow, JTS continuously improves and expands our expertise so we can remain “trusted advisors” for our clients.
Tell us more about your offerings, through which you have ascertained your stronghold within the industry.
JTS serves as a trusted advisor to executives and management teams and remains focused on providing our clients with tremendous value and level of service. Our trademark is client satisfaction, and our client representation remains within many of the top nation’s healthcare organizations.
Utilizing our Revenue Cycle Management historical expertise, JTS created RCM Analytics, nCREAS™, a proprietary, predictive, prescriptive solution for enhancing operational and financial performance. JTS applies nCREAS™ to consulting, operational support and/or EBO solutions for clients to enable greater productivity, focus with precision and revenue goals.
A substantial portion of our Revenue Cycle Management service is through our Extended Business Office (EBO) solutions. Our EBO solutions provide expertise, support, and staff augmentation in healthcare revenue cycle. JTS can support a particular interim goal or partner to drive greater efficiency and outcome for your revenue cycle organization by partnering to reduce accounts receivable inventory.
Our Health Information Management services and solutions offer consulting, coding, auditing, auditing education, interim management, staffing support, outsourcing and co-sourcing models for the acute and physician settings. We combine business operations with information technology to procure, analyze and secure vital protected health information (PHI).
Health Information Technology (HIT) is another area in which we offer consulting, workflow engineering, project management, implementation, cyber, privacy and security for all phases of enterprise implementation.
Our experience within the HIT industry positions us to provide expert evaluations and recommendations to clients that will help to reduce spending, mitigate risks, and improve the overall operational efficiency of their HIT-related workflows.
Julie, tell us about your professional tenure in the industry and your contribution in scaling JTS Health Partners’ success to greater heights.
I have spent the better part of three decades creating business solutions combining consulting and technology. I have enjoyed creating solutions that enable accurate and time effective business decision opportunities for business leaders.
My background in software design and development, solutions design and implementation, network operations, project, and program management, as well as organizational management, helps me lead both internal and client-oriented services and solutions.
In addition to leading the rollout of the analytics platform, nCREAS™, I lead the Technology and Operational organizations to ensure effective and secure workflow processes. Managing the risks of our clients and the privacy of their patients is one of my top priorities, which includes managing the methodology around People, Process, and Technology.
I am a metric based, results-oriented executive with information technology, consulting, organizational management experience focused on improving the outcomes of healthcare organizations.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced during the foundational years of the company? What are the most important lessons that you have learned in your career so far?
While assuring the most significant industry expertise to our clients, our earlier years provided lessons on establishing shared company fundamental values and recruiting to meet those values in addition to industry and technical expertise requirements.
JTS has developed and implemented a robust cultural program to ensure the execution of our mission is successful, both internally and with our clients. This enables our employees to have a successful professional and personal experience while providing the highest quality of service to our clients.
The most important lesson I have learned personally in my career is to value and trust my knowledge, experience and decision making. For many of my early career years, both technically and organizationally, when directions were challenged, I spent an exhausting amount of effort questioning accuracy and validity.
While it is extraordinarily important to value collaborative thoughts, ideas, and opinions from colleagues and other experts, age and experience have taught me the value of my knowledge and experience depth, making a more straightforward process toward desired goals and outcomes.
COVID-19 proved to be the biggest disruptor since the Dot-com bubble. What tactics did you apply at your company to continue its operations and growth?
The pandemic greatly impacted all aspects of our economy, and healthcare more than any other. Hospital labor shortages and increased costs continue to impact the industry. As a revenue cycle management company, JTS was fortunate to have remote office technology and processes already in place and the ability to quickly transition more staff to virtual workspaces.
Comprehensive technology and established security processes and procedures for managing PHI and maintaining HIPAA compliance is of utmost importance in the remote work environment. JTS’ ability to quickly pivot and provide staff augmentation and interim management has helped our clients navigate this difficult labor environment.
Additionally, JTS took a long-term approach to the uncertainty of these years. We applied more planning, design, development, and implementation of key analytics platforms to support precise understanding and accurate decision making to leadership in the revenue cycle organizations of health systems.
Analytics are key to improving decisions and enabling an organization to continue forward, even while labor shortages abound. Within HIM and RCM service lines, improving our platforms to provide additional insights has been invaluable to our customers.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to be revenue cycle management services providers in the industry?
New insights and applied learning are vital to both personal and industry success; that concept is not any different for the revenue cycle management space. Healthcare is not only ripe for, but now ready for, modern technologies. For young entrepreneurs, I would encourage them to learn and grow within the revenue cycle space to apply new technical insights to business needs to improve health service providers.
The industry is ever-changing and evolving, and their ideas, knowledge and applied contributions can and will be effective. Making a difference to improve the revenue of the hospital and physician systems enables consistent and improved care to be provided to patients.
How do you envision scaling your company’s operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?
JTS prepared for future growth by investing expertise and development in analytics applied to the whole revenue cycle practice to pinpoint decision making, process improvement initiatives, and consistent education for our clients. The use and accuracy of these tools are critical for the speed and efficiency of revenue deliverables.
As a revenue cycle management consulting firm, JTS is apt to scale staffing for any part of the revenue cycle for our client engagements. The increase in remote work-based arrangements has only enhanced our commitment to apply the right talent for each client to achieve measurable and high-quality results.
Please give us a few testimonials of your clients/customers and awards/recognitions that accurately highlight your company’s position in the market.
“JTS is a client-driven organization. You will have their attention, including reasonable response time from Tom Stewart, and they will make you feel like you are the only client they have.” William Franquet, Vice President, Revenue Cycle, Evangelical Community Hospital.
“JTS Health Partners is a highly professional organization with honesty and integrity. Their change management and information technology leadership and expertise within our Cerner Clinicals, POE, and Physician Adoptions projects were excellent. They truly operate as a ‘Trusted Advisor’ to our organization.” Pam Austin, Chief Information Officer, Ballad Health.
“JTS Health Partners is a true partner. They go significantly further than the typical consulting group to clearly understand your needs, challenges, and specific circumstances to provide the best solution for the situation at hand.” Jann Lefler, Retired – Former Director, Financial Planning and Decision Support.
