Eric Goodman says he’s expanded the ability to profit, both his company and his community, since his Mountain View Services Inc.’s selection last year as a Business Journal Family-Owned Business award winner.
With cash flow hampered by slow reimbursements from Medi-Cal, Goodman has branched out into taking commercial insurance.
“So, we’ve contracted with about 13 insurance plans in California that we’re now accepting services for, which we weren’t last year,” Goodman said.
Medi-Cal required that Mountain View transition to health plans. That’s what caused the slow Medi-Cal payments—the transition and delay while contracting with the plans.
Goodman, rescued by doctors from a life-threatening health condition as a teenager, now palpably delights in the feeling of providing for those in need, while running a profitable business.
“I’m more concerned about the impact we’re making in our community than the bottom line,” he said.
His Newport Beach-based Mountain View sells and delivers food and medical supplies to about 500 homes for developmentally disabled adults and children, homeless shelters, residences for the elderly, home care facilities, hospices, nonprofits and schools.
His products also include personal care items, nutritional supplements and janitorial supplies.
Over the last year, he’s added customers from Kaiser Permanente, Blue Shield of California Promise and IEHP, among others.
“We’re talking about expansion and growth,” he told the Business Journal recently.
Obstacles
To be sure, Goodman’s challenges have not disappeared.
He said the company is “struggling,” due to a lag in payments from Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid healthcare program.
“Right now, we’re in a little bit of struggle the last four months because the new MCP’s (managed care plans) haven’t been paying us,” he said. “Once the new health plans start paying again, we will be” on solid footing.
Newport Beach HQ
Since Mountain View Services launched in 1988, it has grown to about 55 employees, with revenue now at about $20 million, Goodman said, in part on the strength of delivering both groceries and medical supplies on the same truck.
Six executives of the management team work at company headquarters in Newport Beach, with the majority of the staff in distribution centers in Redlands and San Bernardino, he said.
