Ruth Coleman always knew she wanted to own a business. Not only does she come from a long line of entrepreneurs — her father owned an engineering firm and her brother owns a sheet-metal contracting company — Coleman started laying the foundation of her company 10 years before she incorporated.
The right lineage and methodical planning resulted in Health Design Plus, a health care management and administrative consulting firm.
Coleman, a nurse with a master’s degree in communication, saw first-hand how HMOs operate from her experience as a vice president of Doctors Hospital, Alliance City Hospital and Western Reserve Health Plan. She knew she could create a better mousetrap.
“There were a lot of things we had done well and there were some problems with the HMO model,” she says. “I knew I could go out to employers who self-fund their health benefit plans, provide managed care and bring in the good things and leave out the problematic things.”
Health Design Plus, based in Hudson, has about $5 million in sales and 70 employees. With just 12 clients, the company’s strategic plan is to service a very limited number of mid- to large-size companies that self-insure their health care benefits, Coleman says.
The services the firm provides are high end, and its administration fees are, well, not cheap.
“We’re far from the low price spread,” Coleman admits. “Our market is not price driven at all.”
Coleman’s theory is that if you pay for first class services, such as a nurse for every 3,300 employees, an 800 line staffed by medical professionals and a progressive disease state management program, you save in the long term on the big ticket item: claims reimbursements. And for a self-insured company, the 10 percent management fee is just that: only 10 percent of the total expense.
How to reach: Health Design Plus, www.hdplus.com
