The healthcare industry is grappling with crisis upon crisis, making it hard for providers to devote time to patients. “We’re seeing a huge fiscal deficit in the healthcare industry, and many medical practices are facing viability risks because of reductions of payments by Medicare and other payers,” Jackie Coult revealed when explaining the landscape current medical providers are facing today. Jackie is a certified healthcare business consultant (CHBC) and founder of Complete Healthcare Business Consulting (CHCBC), a full-service healthcare consulting firm supporting providers throughout the industry for the last 30 years.

As the landscape gets more complex for medical providers and patients alike, it’s essential to stay up to date with healthcare policies, insurance regulations, and more. For providers with their own practice, finding the time can be daunting. They want to spend time with their patients and help them achieve optimal levels of health, but instead, they are often weighed down by insurance disputes, underpayments for services provided, and paperwork . . . lots and lots of paperwork.

A major development that hit the world of healthcare years ago, completely transforming the patient experience, is technology. Providers now use patient portals, track a patient’s chart on a tablet, and rely on electronic medical record (EMR) systems on a daily basis. Paired with the HIPPA laws that every provider must abide by to keep patient data safe, their IT infrastructure must also be airtight. To Jackie, there was only ever one managed IT firm that was up to the challenge: Network Providers, Inc. (NPI).

In her 30 years as a consultant, Jackie has truly seen it all. She’s watched closely as health insurance has changed over the decades, monitored provider trends within the industry, and worked alongside medical professionals to ensure they have enough bandwidth to provide the care their patients need.

Unnecessary Bids

Jackie worked for a large consulting firm for five years before starting her own consulting firm after the founders of that firm retired. Jackie launched Complete Healthcare Business Consulting and has successfully completed 251 practice startups as well as merger and acquisition projects from $50,000 to $5 million, focusing on increasing efficiencies and profitability. Jackie and her team of associate consultants at the firm also help healthcare providers with operational efficiency, optimizing insurance pay structures, monitoring fees, financial analysis, strategic planning, and practice shutdowns (usually when a provider retires).

Jackie has supported a multitude of providersÑranging from specialty doctors to major hospital systemsÑwith several ventures. As part of different projects, she makes vendor recommendations to her clients. She’ll recommend multiple vendors, get a bid from each, and present her clients with their best options.

“There are a couple of vendors that I’m not going to go out and bid on because I’ve already been there and done that. We know who will streamline their operations. Network Providers has always been one of those choice vendors on service, pricing, and security. My clients love them. They always make my job easier,” she explained. For the last 13 years, Jackie has been connecting every medical provider in need of managed IT services with Network Providers. In her opinion, it’s the only option.

Onboarding Network Providers

Jackie has been working closely with Jay Hill and the rest of his team for some time, but she has never had them manage the IT for CHCBC, although they are fully capable of meeting her needs. Her husband was always saying, “‘I will manage your server and all your computers,’ but there were days when he would have to leave work to help us get back up and running again, and finally, I just decided I couldn’t burden him anymore, not to mention tighter security,” Jackie explained.

Although he was slightly reluctant to let go of his IT support role, even Jackie’s husband has been impressed by the capabilities of Network Providers. Jay and the team at NPI are sure to loop Jackie and her husband into significant changes, such as cybersecurity technology, new HIPPA requirements, or software updates to better protect the firm, its employees, and its clients.

If Jackie or anyone on her team has an issue, they simply input a ticket request, and Network Providers respond at lightning speed. “They’re really responsive,” said Jackie. “Anytime someone on my team has an issue, they reach out to Jay’s team. When I check back in with them hours later, NPI has usually already fixed the problem.”

Working with Network Providers is one of the easiest decisions Jackie has made as a business owner, and it’s also one of the easiest recommendations she makes to her clients. If it were up to her, everyone in the healthcare ecosystem would be working with the team at NPI. “I’m on the board of directors for the National Society of Certified Healthcare Business Consultants, and I’m constantly telling Jay that he’s got to become a sponsor and get linked into the organization because there are a ton of consultants across the country that could use a resource like him.”

Prioritizing Prevention

In healthcare, prevention is key, just like it is in IT. It’s easier to stop a cyberattack before it happens, and it’s easier to eat healthy and exercise than to deal with the health risks that come along with not doing that. Jackie has seen what happens when businesses don’t listen to IT professionals, and she makes it a priority to not fall into those traps. “I have seen clients fail to listen to NPI’s recommendations that they need to have secure backups or update their firewalls. Then, they’re left cleaning up the mess when they have a cyberattack,” she detailed.

As a consultant, Jackie focuses on her specialty of prevention. She notices small issues that could become big problems, highlights them for her clients, and provides a path toward a solution. With all technology-related concerns, Network Providers is the solution she prescribes. She may not be a medical provider herself, but along with NPI, Jackie Coult is helping medical practices stay afloat and stay focused on patient care.