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Despite economy, Plexis is booming By JOHN DARLING Daily Tidings Correspondent In an upper Clay Street garage nine years ago, Jorge Yant got a multi-million dollar idea. Yant, a self-employed computer consultant saw a "big hole" in the rapidly growing medical health care system. He invented software to fill that hole and built a corporation around it - Plexis Healthcare Systems - that now employs 59 people, mostly locals, and pumps $250,000 a month into the local economy. As the health care system was shifting to managed care (HMOs), Yant looked at the next generation of software handling claims processing - sorting out and "adjudicating" who owes what to whom - and found there basically wasn't any. Yant migrated from Mexico at the age of 13. He was educated in computer science at University of New Mexico and University of Southern California before began building the system for a Pasadena client. He then rounded up $4.5 million from venture capitalists to make the big leap into his own company. The software, called Plexis Claims Manager, is a complex platform costing $50,000 to $2 million depending on the size of the system. Relevant data like insurance coverage and treatments, is entered and it serves provider, claimant and physician by calculating payments so fast that it can have the bill waiting at the doctor's desk and deposit the doctor's fees into his account before you're done with your visit. "The first investor looked at us and said, 'how do I know your not just two guys and a dog in a garage?' " laughed Yant. "But it's revolutionized claims adjudication in the health care insurance industry." The proof was in the product, not in the appearance of staff and environment. It's policy still followed, as Plexis, now in four large buildings in Williamson Way, strives for a visionary work environment. Employees, who refer to themselves as "Plexicons" consider the job "workplace nirvana." The company encourages super-casual dress, come-and-go scheduling, family picnics, raft trips and one huge warehouse devoted entirely to badminton, foosball, billiards, Ping-Pong, punching bag and a yoga class, taught by longtime yoga-meditation devotee, Yant himself. "I'm not a Taoist or Buddhist or an anything-ist," said Yant. "I'm a guy going along trying to figure it all out and we just try to have a creative workplace where people like working together and enjoy what they do. Their jobs don't own them - they own their jobs. I encourage a balanced life, where work is a positive component of life, but not the whole life. That's where our success comes from." Employees endorse the philosophy. "I love it," said executive assistant Nancy Kent. "A lot of friendly, family-oriented people, innovative ideas and a wonderful workplace." "It's the best job I've ever had," said software engineer Russell Bevers. "We've got flexible hours, great people to work with, good pay for the area and even when the stress is up on a deadline, badminton is encouraged." Software engineer Robert Down promotes a similar theme. "I like (the company) a lot," Down said, "because there are very few opportunities in the valley to do what we do and to have a constructive career in computer science. We don't work by clock time but by getting the project done. There's no heavy-handed management, no suit and tie. We impress clients, not by how we look but by how the software works." Plexis has found a rich pool of computer-savvy talent in the Rogue Valley. "We love that we can find almost everyone here," said Yant. The staff has increased 60 percent in the last nine months for a total payroll of $250,000 which Yant estimates rolls over nine times, with a $2.25 million a month impact. Fifteen other companies now compete with Plexis in the field, but his firm is rated no. 3 in size and no. 1 in functionality. It's "more robust and complete" than the others, Yant said. The system is so complex that trainers have to train themselves for up to six months to get it up and running. It goes to English-speaking countries all around the world and non-English versions should be on the market soon. Investor skittishness after 9/11 gave Yant the opportunity to buy out investors, who owned 62 percent of the company. Now, it's employee owned, except for two local investors who own five percent. And, it's virtually debt-free, he said. Big expansion is planned in the next year or two, "after the financial markets straighten out, " Yant said. After much promotion to increase name familiarity - and mezzanine financing to raise "lots of venture capital" and improve the financial attractiveness - Plexis will go public with its initial public offering. Plexis chief operating officer Rick Harper, a "Silicon Valley dropout" who moved to Gold Hill, said managers are happy the company is "eco-groovy." Not only doesn't the company pollute or create waste products but its work goes toward eliminating paper and saving forests. Yant considers the company "recession proof" and an anchor in the local economy because people are always going to need health care. Further increasing demand for health care services are the nation's trend to inactivity, overweight, inadequate diet and the fact that more people are living longer. As the health care system staggers under increasing demand and costs, the company vies for affordability to increase efficiency, Yant said. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. 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