About this episode
Marina Kislyuk, who has run her family's 30 year old Best Care EMS in Houston, Texas for about 15 years, watched her billing department fall from nine people to two after COVID and could not hire replacements locally. Working with Integrated Hire, she went from one remote team member to 19 in the Philippines covering billing, collections, appeals, dispatch, HR and bookkeeping, and puts the 2025 saving at roughly $700,000. Five people are left in the office, dispatch dropped from three or four per shift to one on site, and every remote worker sits on camera from clock in.
Key takeaways
- The trigger was not cost. Billing fell from nine people to two, and dispatch hires quit within weeks over the commute, so Kislyuk could not staff the office at any price.
- Best Care EMS runs 30 to 35 units out of Houston and Corpus Christi, roughly 20 ambulance and 10 wheelchair and NEMT vehicles, dispatched around the clock.
- Cameras stay on from clock in, with one monitor dedicated to a shared video wall so anyone can unmute and talk. Kislyuk calls that single recommendation the biggest difference.
- Hire two at a time. Bad fits surface within a week or two, the agency queues replacement interviews immediately, and Best Care stopped paying Indeed thousands in local recruiting fees.
- Candidates arrive knowing roughly 80 percent of the job from medical billing or appointment setting. The first Philippines hire, a biller, has since trained most of the billing department.
Chapters
- 0:00 <Untitled Chapter 1>
- 2:21 The Breaking Point: The challenges that led Best Care EMS to explore outsourcing
- 6:19 The Solution: How Marina partnered with Integrated Hire to build a remote team of 19, from billers to dispatchers and even HR
- 7:21 The Staggering Savings: A deep dive into the cost-benefit analysis of outsourcing vs. in-house hiring
- 9:45 The "How-To": A step-by-step look at the outsourcing process, from finding the right candidates to training and quality assurance
- 17:23 Actionable Advice: Marina's top tips for other NEMT owners considering outsourcing, including tools for monitoring productivity and ensuring a seamless integration
