Oregon’s economy has gained international note for its suffering, but a dedicated group in Ashland has defied this gloom with creation of technology that is building one of the healthcare industry’s fastest growing firms.

Plexis Healthcare Systems now employs 62 people occupying five large buildings in a town first attracting attention as the home of the Shakespearean Festival.  This booming enterprise was begun in a garage nine years ago by Jorge Yant, who immigrated from Mexico at age 13.  Yant chose computer technology as his educational emphasis while attending the Universities of New Mexico and Southern California.  He began designing and building information technology systems in California and became chief information officer for one of the largest law firms in the nation before tiring of the urban rat race.  He moved his young family to Ashland, known for tourism, not technology.  Working as a self-employed tech consultant, Yant spawned an idea that has turned into a multimillion-dollar business.

The rapidly growing healthcare industry was his inspiration.  Yant discovered that the technology used for healthcare claims processing was badly impaired.  He rounded up $4.5 million from venture capitalists and organized a team to build a new software solution to a majority of claims processing problems.  They achieved their goal with a revolutionary software product, the Claims Manager marketed by Plexis.

Critical aid for Managed Care

Plexis software serves provider, patient and physician with claims processing so swift it can calculate payments so fast that it can have the bill waiting at the receptionist’s desk and deposit the doctor’s fees into his account before the patient leaves the physician’s office.  Yant’s firm is one of the top companies in its category.  The Claims Manager is now used by insurance companies across the nation and in English-speaking countries overseas (a non-English version will soon hit the international market).

The Plexis staff has increased 60% in the last nine months, with a payroll 
generating a $2.7 million monthly impact on Ashland.  In the first six months 
of 2003, Plexis closed new business transactions in excess of 200% of last 
year’s total sales volume.

“We have a superior product that has produced excellent results for our 
clients,” Yant claims, “and we support that product by what I’m proud to claim is the best employee team in the healthcare industry.”

“Plexicans” are a happy group

Team spirit is a focus of Yant’s attention.  Plexis encourages casual dress, 
flexible work schedules, family picnics, company retreats, raft trips and has 
a warehouse structure devoted to recreation badminton, foosball, billieards, 
ping pong and a Yoga class taught by Yant himself.  Yant claims “I’m not a 
Taoist, Buddhist or an anything—ist.  We created a work environment that 
encourages creativity, where people like working together and enjoy what they do.  Their jobs don’t own them, they own their jobs. I strongly encourage a balanced life, where work is a component, but not the whole life.That’s where our success comes from.”

This philosophy attracts computer-savvy talent that embraces an opportunity to share ownership.  Investor skittishness following 9/11 gave Yant the opportunity to buy out startup investors who owned 62%.  Now Plexis is now employee-owned with the exception of two local investors owning a mere 5%. 

“When our original investors allowed us to buy back our company, our employees worked virtually for free for three months,” Yant reports.  “Every employee is an owner through stock options.”

Expansion continues apace

Yant is considering additional financing with a public offering “after the 
financial markets straighten out.”  Plexis recently acquired a competitor, 
Logical Claims Solutions, based in the Chicago area, with clients nationwide. 

Yant considers his company “recession-proof” because the demand for health care will increase with an aging population.  “Our health care delivery system staggers under increasing demand and costs,” he declares.  “The continuing Plexis mission is to deliver solutions that enable health care organizations to reduce costs, streamline and automate claim payments…while meeting governmental regulations.”

Yant and Plexis are a shining example of how capitalism prospers with creative guidance, and a reminder that providing immigrants with a place to learn and grow (not steal),  is what the so-called “American Dream” should  be about.

© 2003 Oregon Magazine