If it weren’t for her then-82-year-old mother, Elizabeth Gilje’s involvement with KPS Health Plans may have stopped in 1999.
   Gilje first became involved with KPS as part of the team hired by the state Office of the Insurance Commissioner to determine whether the nonprofit company should be liquated or could be rehabilitated. She then became part of the receiver team. An experienced hospital administrator who has consulted many health care groups through her company, Clariot, Gilje and the others worked on a rehabilitation plan.
   

The company came out from under $8 million in the red to more than $2 million in positive balance, has increased its membership to more than 5,500, more than doubled its revenue, and increased its skeleton staff that was originally cut in half. Most importantly, Gilje and her team have been patiently and methodically working not only to turn around the company but re-establish the trust of the community.

Gilje became part of the hiring board for a new director — until her mother one day suggested to Gilje that she should apply. “I said, ‘I love my company.’ I never intended to go back to an insurance company as an employee, but this was such an unusual opportunity,” she said. It would have been her first and perhaps only chance to be on the other side of the coin of company growth and turnaround. Until then, Gilje’s job was to analyze, assess, strategize and devise a plan of action — the rest was up to the company executives, her consulting part was done. But here, she faced the possibility of operational zing and implementing those plans.
   So Gilje stepped off the hiring board and put her name into the hat. When announcing her hire, Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn said in 2000 that Gilje was uniquely qualified to work as a bridge between the receiver team, the staff, physicians and hospitals.
   For the last four years, Gilje has demonstrated through her leadership she was indeed the woman for the job. The company came out from under $8 million in the red to more than $2 million in positive balance, has increased its membership to more than 5,500, more than doubled its revenue, and increased its skeleton staff that was originally cut in half. Most importantly, Gilje and her team have been patiently and methodically working not only to turn around the company but re-establish the trust of the community.
   “The community lost faith in the company when it saw the financial downturn,” she said. “It came as a surprise that this apparently healthy company was not healthy, and it disillusioned some people. Turning the perception around requires all of us here.”
   Recognizing the critical part employees would be playing in that restoration, Gilje said it was important to create a successful staff culture, and build resilience and strength within the company.
   KPS has another two years on its rehabilitation plan, and it’s moving ahead strong. It is one of the few insurance company turnarounds in the nation, but Gilje says rehabilitation is only the short-term goal. As the company becomes financially viable, it will play a much greater role in the local economy and employment market. Even so, Gilje says KPS will never grow to be too big — much of its strength comes from being a small, local insurer. About 100,000 members would be a comfortable number — which would still allow for creativity and innovation.
   Although Gilje originally took a leave of absence from her consulting company, she had since closed it, and has focused all her efforts on seeing KPS bloom. She has even moved her family to Port Orchard to be part of the community. In her president versus consultant endeavor, one thing she understood better, “that the key to success in making rehabilitation happen is the people.”
   So the company adopted this view: There are no stars among them, they are all in it together. They have not completely emerged, but their confidence is contagious.
“It won’t be long,” Gilje said, looking forward to the day when providers once again own the company.
   A couple of decades ago, Gilje spent extensive time in what back then were called nursing homes, and realized there is a big disconnect between what consumers wanted and what physicians and insurance companies offered. She even wrote a book on nursing home patients’ rights.
   She says many things have changed but health care is still far from being consumer driven, and if patients became more involved in the financial aspect, they would get better quality of care. But insurance companies often skirt the issue, she contends. That’s one other major difference between KPS and others.
   “Our focus here is to help patients understand that health insurance is a piece of their financial picture,” she said. Indeed, the company has offered new plans that allow clients to make their own decisions and choices that suit them. The calculated changes are part of the growth plan.
   “We have to improve across all lines of business,” Gilje said, “so we don’t have any weak points.”