Article - May 26, 2007 - The Salt Lake Tribune

CEO, 35, builds her business on guile

By Linda Fantin

Amy Rees Lewis
Age: 35
Occupation: Owner and CEO, MediConnect Global, a medical records retrieval company based in South Jordan
Other appointments: Governors Office of Economic Development Board, SLC Chamber Board, University of Utah South East Asian Studies Board, UVU Business School Board, Junto Advisory Board
Web site: www.Mediconnect.net

Amy Rees Lewis is an iconoclast, a divorced Mormon, single parent, college dropout-turned-corporate climber. Her ability to thrive in any environment can be credited, in part, to the mafia.

During her senior year in high school, a capo took out a contract on her FBI agent father, prompting Secret Service agents to take up residence across the street. The men in black kept a watchful eye on the entire family, even accompanying Lewis on dates.

"It was a nuisance, even traumatic," Lewis says, noting her dad's work caused the family to move around a lot. "But those experiences helped me tremendously. I can walk into any situation and make friends."

These days, Lewis' friends include inventors, investors and medical entrepreneurs who are impressed with her street smarts, global vision, youth and, yes, the nut.

That's mobspeak for gross profit.

Lewis is the 35-year-old CEO of MediConnect Global, a South Jordan-based company whose subsidiaries specialize in outsourcing record-keeping and billing services, as well as digitizing medical records for insurance companies and medical liability lawyers. The fast-growing business has 1,200 employees worldwide and will add 300 more jobs in Utah this summer.

In three years, MediConnect has gone from handling 8,000 medical records a month to 150,000. At $30 per record, Lewis has built herself one lucrative business.

"Life rarely turns out the way you expect," Lewis says. "But if you want something bad enough you can do it."

For the longest time, all Lewis wanted was to be a mom. She studied marriage prep and child development at Brigham Young University, got married in 1992, quit school and had two children. She put her husband through college by working in medical offices and, in 1996 with $23,000 in seed money from her dad and uncle, bought the rights to resell the first Windows-based medical billing software.

Starting her own company, PerfectPractice.MD, was a way to work from home, she says. But business was brisk and in six months she had 30 employees, an office and, thank goodness, a chief operating officer.

"I knew medical but I didn't know business. I couldn't even balance a checkbook," Lewis says. "At one point, my dad flew out here to apologize to Zions Bank for all the checks that I bounced."

She found mentors in Tim Layton and Jim Sorenson, who helped her understand financial models, and it wasn't long before she was giving speeches at medical conferences about entrepreneurship, health care and information technology through a new company, In Pursuit of Perfection, or IPOP Inc.

"She has a real business presence," says Sorenson. "She's able to absorb and grasp the fundamental aspects of a business as well as anyone I've come across."

It took more time for Lewis to grasp that her marriage was crumbling and her safety and that of her children were at stake, she says.

"Being a divorced, single parent is not the ideal situation if you are Mormon. But not all of us get 'ideal,' " Lewis says. "I don't want people feeling sorry for me. At 35, I've had more of a life than I ever imagined. I've met an incredible circle of people . . . and I've taught my kids to never be afraid to try."

Or to succeed.

Through her public speaking and consulting gigs, Lewis met many medical entrepreneurs, including Naveen Trehan, a veteran in medical billing and outsourcing. In 2003, they went into business together, acquiring Globerian, a company in India that provides billing and medical records services to U.S.-based hospitals, insurance companies and universities. A year later, Lewis was asked by venture capitalists to take the helm of MediConnect, one of Globerian's clients. In June 2006, Lewis formed Mediconnect Global Inc. and acquired both Mediconnect and Globerian, as well as MediConnect competitor Zerop. The company is based in South Jordan, with an office in Ephraim and two offices in Delhi, India.

Although the coding and analysis is done in India, the medical records retrieved are kept, digitized and then destroyed in Utah. All employees, including the certified coders in India, must undergo background checks and sign confidentiality statements. "We're dealing with the most private data people have," Lewis says.

Globerian's board of directors includes Utah medical device pioneer and philanthropist James Sorenson, as well as Trehan's brother, Naresh, a renowned cardiologist who is building a 43-acre, $250 million modern medical campus in India.

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