About this episode
Ayman Bahta, who runs Apex Workforce Solutions, moved to Houston in September 2020 to build the Texas side of his uncle's NEMT company and took it from two or three trips a week to more than 100 a day. The unlock was handing off dispatch at about 10 trips a day, the point where missed calls started climbing while he drove; at peak he ran 12 to 13 vehicles and worked two to three hours a day. Apex now places trained Philippines based dispatchers and guarantees at least 30 percent off in house dispatch cost.
Key takeaways
- Bahta's threshold for outsourcing dispatch is 10 trips a day; below that he tells owners to keep doing it themselves, and Apex will not take dispatch clients under that line.
- The credentialing play is a 30 to 40 mile list of dialysis clinics, nursing homes and hospitals worked with two or three calls in two weeks plus three follow up emails.
- When a facility already has a provider, Bahta positions as the emergency backup and waits for the overflow call, which he says gets a foot in the door 60 percent of the time.
- One client self dispatching 15 to 20 trips a day burned 20 to 25 hours a week on scheduling; Apex took it over inside a week and he doubled the business within a year.
- Dispatcher pay runs $15 to $17 an hour in most states and over $20 to $25 in California, which is the arithmetic behind Apex's 30 percent savings claim and its ROI calculator.
Chapters
- 0:00 Introduction
- 0:50 Ayman's beginning in NEMT
- 4:30 Timeline of getting to hundreds of trips daily
- 5:39 When Ayman started outsourcing jobs
- 7:14 Biggest learnings in outsourcing
- 9:07 The scale of Ayman's NEMT operation
- 9:59 Starting Apex to consult for NEMT businesses
- 17:30 Getting over the skepticism of outsourcing
- 19:18 How many NEMT businesses does Apex consult for
- 20:41 Success stories of Apex helping NEMT businesses
- 22:40 Final thoughts
- 24:40 RUN BAMBI RUN!!
