Jeff Blankinship grew up in Plano, Texas, and graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1986. He started in healthcare in 1989, in Los Angeles, California, as he was a part of the group that started Pain Relief Network, a regional pain management facility covering Southern California and Arizona. In 1994, when moving back to Texas, he ran several home health companies before entering back into the ASC space. In 1996, he was hired by Amedisys, out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to run and develop an ambulatory surgery center in Houston. In 1999, he met his wife, who was a transcriptionist in Dallas; at that time, they created Surgical Notes, an integrated internet medical records service and software company, which grew organically and developed many useful applications such as ScanChart, SnCoder and SNChart.
Having control of Surgical Notes for over 20 years allowed them to take advantage of many other business opportunities within the healthcare industry, ranging from patient funding and merchant services to narrow networks of ASCs for self-insured employers and municipalities to reduce the cost of surgical procedures. In July 2019, they sold controlling interest to a private equity group in order to start the SmartHealth PayCard Mastercard, the first and only restricted access credit card designed specifically for patients to only use for healthcare expenses.
The SmartHealth PayCard began to take shape in 2013, when Blankinship was working with self-insured employers and municipalities. During that time, he had the privilege of being able to negotiate surgical procedures for companies such as Walmart, Dollar General, Kroger, Pilot Flying J, UPS and Southwest Airlines. The ability to direct care was almost impossible under the current environment, which was not favorable for surgeons or ASCs. The goal of the SmartHealth PayCard is to empower the consumer with the ability to have a safety net of financial credit to pay providers at the time of service without charging them fees or recourse.
“In today’s landscape, the Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable for consumers or favorable for providers. The COVID-19 pandemic and political atmosphere have destroyed the livelihood for millions of Americans, who not only lose employment or businesses but risk losing health insurance. The shut down of our economy and healthcare will result in record losses in healthcare revenue and appears to be continuing well into 2021,” Blankinship says. “The changing landscape is the propensity for the consumer to be able to afford healthcare and surgical procedures, since 90% of all Americans with insurance are not able to cover their deductibles the day of open enrollment. The SmartHealth PayCard was designed to provide a credit line to individuals from $3,000-$50,000, never exceeding 18% APR.”
When it comes to ASCs specifically, Blankinship believes a current challenge is obtaining new patients and collecting patient payments responsibly, but he feels there is a real opportunity with the ability to perform more surgical procedures and prove the positive outcomes of quality care at an affordable cost. He also believes centers can work on patient acquisition, communication, retention and the ability to allow patients the ability to pay in full at the time of service, all things that can promote strength and sustainable growth.
