by Phil Neuffer

The healthcare asset-based lending sector owes a great deal of thanks to Jennifer Sheasgreen for the role she has played in expanding what was once a niche product into a more mainstream lending solution.

Jennifer Sheasgreen’s first job was in the accounting department of a medical foundation in Sacramento, CA. She began the role in her sophomore year of high school and although it began as a part-time job, it would set the foundation for the rest of her career — and not just because she remained with the organization through college graduation.

“I was just fascinated with the business side of healthcare,” Sheasgreen says.

Expanding Healthcare ABL

Sheasgreen’s early passion for the healthcare space has only grown during her more than 20-year career. One of the pioneers of the healthcare asset-based lending industry, Sheasgreen currently serves as president of Siena Healthcare Finance, but before that she launched two de novo healthcare divisions and was a leader at companies such as GMAC Healthcare Finance and CNH Finance, where she served as head of healthcare finance until joining Siena Lending Group to launch its healthcare finance business in 2019.

“Because I have had the opportunity to work with several banks and non-banks in my career, it’s enabled me to utilize best practices to constantly improve how we source, manage risk and get repaid, all while balancing investor expectations,” Sheasgreen says. “[Healthcare ABL] is unlike traditional ABL because there are various payer components and unique reductions to a healthcare claim that makes valuation of the collateral you’re lending against always fluid.”

The fluidity of the healthcare sector has always attracted Sheasgreen. For example, according to Sheasgreen, in 2000, the home health industry moved to a 60-day episode of care standard, drastically altering reimbursements for such caregivers under prospect payment systems, including all home health coverage services. Sheasgreen saw the opportunity in this change and contributed to structuring the revenue cycle into a borrowing base format that could be lent against.

“Other lenders weren’t lending into that space because they didn’t know how to box the risk into a borrowing base format,” Sheasgreen says. “I believe we were one of the very first healthcare lenders that figured out the secret sauce.”

Due to such evolutions, Sheasgreen describes healthcare as a dynamic and ever-changing industry, and since she enjoys process improvement, collaboration and innovation, for her, it’s a perfect market with which to engage.

“Driving process or progress means taking intentional actions that lead to positive advancements,” Sheasgreen says. “My ability to identify opportunities, set clear goals around them and then consistently work toward them has helped me to navigate, change and create opportunities in healthcare ABL.”

Greater Impact

Sheasgreen’s influence on the healthcare industry goes beyond providing financing, however. A member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association since 1997, Sheasgreen has held multiple leadership roles with the organization and continues to be actively involved today.

Sheasgreen is also active in multiple organizations within the specialty finance space, including the Secured Finance Network, the Association for Corporate Growth and Opus Connect, serving as a former chair and co-chair of SFNet’s Women in Commercial Finance committee and, more recently, as a member of the planning committee for Opus Connect’s healthcare summit.

Sheasgreen’s dedication to improving both the healthcare and financial services industries goes beyond her work with trade organizations. She is also a founding member of The Fourth Floor (recently rebranded as The Fourth Effect), an organization dedicated to creating more access to board seats, investments and funding opportunities for women. In her hometown of Portland, OR, she is also a part of the Portland Women in Business for Good, a networking organization built on and funded through the community service platform Grapevine.

“I would love to see more women in the leadership ranks in healthcare finance but also in ownership of healthcare facilities,” Sheasgreen says. “I try to do anything I can do to help lift up other women, especially in finance.”

As one of the chief architects of healthcare niche in the ABL sector, Sheasgreen takes her role as a leader and mentor seriously. She believes that those who’ve reached the leadership level have a responsibility to help those coming up behind them.

“The healthcare industry can be hard to break into. It takes time. I think the best thing you can do is establish yourself as a resource and an expert and always try to provide value in whatever relationship you’re in,” Sheasgreen says.

As she continues to push the healthcare ABL industry forward, Sheasgreen plans to expand her influence by taking on board leadership roles with healthcare and finance companies, with the long-term goal of providing even more value to the sector than she has already.