Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jamie Rowley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jamie, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I have several reasons ‘why’ I started my business. One is the fact that someone gave me the opportunity to work as a single mom with a kid at my feet, in the office. They believed in me so much that they helped give me the opportunity to start this business and give other single moms/dads or just people in general that want to or need to work from home.

The other part of the story is that I believe in mental health and the purpose of it. There is so much movement and education coming forth on the importance of our mental health and the different ways people can go about getting help from trauma, addictions, and all other types of issues. I need a therapist in the dark places in my life and I need one for maintenance every now and then too. Life is busy, and the things going in our world and our personal lives can get incredibly stressful. Being able to talk openly about it without judgment is huge for me.

Another important reason is offering a service that is so needed right now. Being able to help private practices get on insurance panels and get their practices off the ground, so they can help more people and so that their patients can use their insurance to make it more affordable is a big deal. An even bigger deal is that we abide by the rules and the ethics of the insurance plans, which is not always an easy task, but one we take very seriously. It is rare to find companies like ours that are willing to go the extra mile to make sure we are researching the laws and rules of each insurance and state and abiding by them.

When people ask me what I do and I tell them, I get a lot of, “oh that sounds boring”. It is the farthest thing from boring. It is always changing, always moving and we have to constantly stay on top of it all. We encourage innovation and create new ways of doing things all the time and we get to help business get off the ground.

We love what we do, most of the time.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Absolutely! I am a woman who loves people, challenges, trying new things, Mumford and Sons, sunshine and has developed a love for gardening. I am mom of 3 biological kids and 3 bonus kids and have an amazingly supportive husband. I started out as an office manager for a Mental Health private practice back in 1996, where I did credentialing applications for this provider on a typewriter, ha, I am totally aging myself! Then went on doing other things and came back and worked for him in 2010. During that time, I went through a dark season and needed to figure out the next steps in my life and he believed in me and asked me if I could do his billing. I said no initially but then went home and thought about it and realized it would be a great opportunity to stay at home with my kids and create an income. However, I had no idea the difficulty of figuring out the world of insurance billing and billing for mental health, which was just the beginning of my journey in the world of this business. I researched and asked questions and stumbled through a year of consistent mess-ups and learning opportunities and finally got Kairos Billing Solutions off the ground.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

My first advice is to hire based on trust. You receive resumes full of experience, so we focus on interviewing and asking questions that are based on trust. Once you hire someone, train them in your core values and cast the vision of your company and the ‘why’ to them. Provide resources and people around them so that they can feel confident to get the work done.

We allow for flexibility but require it on both sides. It has created a level of trust and a willingness for employees to feel like they can leave if needed to get a child from school or attend a parent-teacher conference. But it also creates a desire to give back so when someone is out the whole team jumps in and offers to help cover.

I also 100% believe that leadership is serving your employees. If I always look like a big wig that no one can talk to, it trickles down to the rest of the team. I am more interested in being a peer and making sure everyone has what they need and that they feel like they can approach me and feel heard. It creates a beautiful comradery that seems to be working well.

Our jobs are hard. We have to be able to laugh and connect, especially when working from home. We have fun meetings; we connect throughout the week, and we all love gifs!

We talk through our core values and do an activity related to a core value every month, which has been a great way to continually implement the importance of what we do and why we do it. Our team has great morale, and they are a great group of humans that I get the opportunity to work with.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We have had to pivot so many times in this business as insurance rules change on a regular basis, a pandemic, a recession, bad decisions, and learning to not put all your eggs in one basket.

I started billing for a brand-new clinic that outgrew what I had the capacity to do, so I hired my first employee. They continued to grow to a point where we decided to part ways because I didn’t know how to grow with them. They were 70% of the income for KBS. By that time, we had built a good reputation and there was such a need for billing companies in the mental health world, that within the first six months after losing them we filled that loss and have continued to grow since then.

I learned through that, the importance of not putting all your eggs in one basket and dispersing your customer base so that if a client leaves it doesn’t create such a large hole. Business gives you so many opportunities to fail so you can become successful.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kairosbillingsolutions.com
• Instagram: @kairosbilling
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kairosbillingsolutions/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kairosbilling

Image Credits
Angie Papanikolas @headshotsbyangelstudio