Allegiance Group redirects

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - A/R Allegiance Group has gone through a dizzying amount of changes this year, from top to bottom.

The private-pay patient billing and collections company has a new name, Allegiance Group, and a new brand anthem and purpose, to “ignite possibilities” for its HME provider customers.

“Like every HME provider, we needed to look hard at ourselves and ask, what are we doing and why,'” said Nicole Hinken, director of marketing, who joined the company in the spring after working in the wholesale financials sector. “We all work to, primarily, pay the bills, but there has to be something bigger and better.”

Driving the changes was a comprehensive rebranding process earlier this year that involved interviews, surveys, and focus groups, internally and externally with customers.

Re-charged, Allegiance Group has ushered in a number improvements, including revamping product support by dedicating more resources to its IT department; shifting from a customer service mentality to an account management mentality by adopting a “product owner”; and enhancing communication with its provider customers by launching a new email newsletter called “FYinfo.”

“They can read it; they can download it—it's going to be an ongoing process that our clients can expect,” Hinken said. “Here's product release information; here's marketing information; here's how you should change your workflow. We want them to understand there needs to be a communication process.”

Through the rebrand, Allegiance Group also decided what it didn't want to be. Although the company wants to expand its customer base outside of HME—“Eye care is a huge area for growth for us,” Hinken said—it won't be courting hospitals and health systems.

“That's not where we belong,” she said. “They don't need a company like us. It's almost like a David and Goliath situation. We need to support providers that want to stay independent and focus on patients. It's a redirection to dance with the one that brought you.”

Underlying all the changes is Allegiance Group's new owner, Eli Global, a Durham, N.C.-based information and financial services company that acquires and invests in a number of markets, including health care. It currently has 40 independent business units, and 4,000 people operating from more than 20 locations globally.

“We now have tremendous resources to support us,” Hinken said.