Desheba Rutledge

On a Wing and a Prayer

Faith has led a Gainesville entrepreneur to overcome challenges to do the work she loves

Story By: C. M. Schmidlkofer

Desheba Rutledge could have spent her entire career working for others: earning a good living in a respected profession, climbing the corporate ladder, and achieving recognition for her efforts. Since 1996 she’d been working in the medical billing services field, experiencing nearly every aspect of the vast industry. It was a career the Newberry mother of three enjoyed and had trained for. “I love medical billing. I like figuring out why claims have not paid. I like figuring out why accounts are all messed up. I like learning new practice management systems and becoming an expert at it. I like knowing how different insurance companies work.”

But suddenly in 2012, she found herself without income or job prospects. That is when her life changed from depending on others for sustenance to becoming a woman in charge of her destiny.

With the support of her husband Dondrick and her children Jasheyla, Kelaiah, and Isaiah, she set up an office at home and contracted her skills to medical billing services to keep the bill collectors at bay while she completed her coursework at St. Petersburg College, earning an Associate of Science (A.S.) for Health/ Health Care Administration/ Management in 2013.

For a year, the family made ends meet on Dondrick’s salary while she worked to gain her footing in a new world.

“Yes, we struggled hard and our house was even in foreclosure for a year during that time, but we never went hungry, never was homeless, never went without what we needed. God kept us through it all and He always had much better in store.”

In 2013, she officially opened JKI Medical Solutions, LLC, a full-service medical billing company. The Newberry company specializes in customizing its many services to her clients. Those include insurance benefits, verifications, medical billing to insurance electronically and by paper, insurance follow up, patient billing and collections, credentialing, appeals, coding, and consulting services.

“I have worked with many different types of offices including mental health providers, oral surgery providers, ophthalmologists, home modification specialists, nurse registries, neurologists, occupational, and physical therapists.”

It wasn’t easy. There were many times she wanted to give up because she had no clients, there wasn’t enough money, or because some of the clients didn’t pay her. Feeling overwhelmed, she felt as if there wasn’t a future for her business.

It was Dondrick’s love and support that gave her courage to continue. “I will always say God first, but secondly my husband had a huge impact on my journey. Without his consistent prayers, motivating and encouraging words, I don’t think I would have had the courage to step out on faith and start and continue this business.”

As her business grew, she moved operations from home to a small office and later into a larger building with four offices and hired employees. She said her greatest career accomplishment was hiring her first employee. The leap of faith demonstrated to her how far she had come in her business.

The most critical skill needed in her business role is patience, she said. Nothing happens overnight; everything takes time to nurture and become something bigger.

“Even with all the medical billing experience I had, and all of the knowledge I had obtained by going to school, it took a lot of patience to get my first client and to continue getting clients. Sometimes it can take a year to get a new client, and sometimes they are in overflow and you have three all at once. It is definitely a marathon and not a race.”

Understanding there will be a lot of “noes” before there is a “yes” is critical to building a business. By trusting your expertise and knowledge, this will lead to others seeing that in you and entrusting their business needs to you.

“You can’t compromise your character because of fear. Know that what God has for you is for you and to be patient and in God’s time, it will happen as it should in His will and His way. Anything outside of that will be forced, you will be unhappy or the job/client will be a nightmare.”

Events in 2020 had a significant impact on Dasheba’s life. Losing her largest client due to COVID-19 and the subsequent decrease in surgeries cut her income by more than half. When other clients had to close their offices due to the virus, she was forced to close her own office and return home to work.

“Most of my current clientele are smaller offices and they are located all over, including Utah, Virginia and south Florida. Working from home due to COVID-19 has reduced a lot of the costs as well as the responsibilities that running a formal office with employees requires.”

Overall, events in 2020 caused Rutledge to slow down a bit and refocus and plan for what is next. She began to think of other ways to create revenue streams and other business ventures she can move forward with, and to be open to different opportunities.

Trusting God is the biggest lesson she has learned during her career. Owning a business is challenging and it takes hard work to start it, grow it and keep it going. While there are high points, there are also low points and sacrifices.

“But you have to trust God to get you through it all. For me, God has to be part of every decision of the business in order for it to continue to succeed.”

BUT YOU HAVE TO TRUST GOD TO GET YOU THROUGH IT ALL. FOR ME, GOD HAS TO BE PART OF EVERY DECISION OF THE BUSINESS IN ORDER FOR IT TO CONTINUE TO SUCCEED.

- Desheba Rutledge