By Mark Ambrogi
Denise K. Pierce was the sole employee when she started her medical reimbursement solutions company 15 years ago.
Today the Zionsville resident has 20 employees in Indiana and four other states. Pierce, president and CEO of Zionsville-based DK Pierce & Associates, was recently named the recipient of the 2015 Starkey Entrepreneurial Woman Award. The award is presented annually by Harrison & Moberly Attorneys and Indianapolis Monthly magazine and recognizes a woman business owner in Indiana who has an inspirational story of success.
“They like the philosophy on how and why I was running my company,” said Pierce, 57. “I used the philosophy of being a small giant. And a small giant means we want to be absolutely the best we can do without being too big to do it.”
Pierce said her company primarily works with cancer drugs and drugs for rare diseases.
“It’s all about making sure patients get access to those drugs through their insurance company,” Pierce said. “We work a lot with payers, insurance companies as well as the physicians to make sure that how we can help design clinical trials that work and how we can put together resources that patients understand. And how do we make sure a person’s health insurance will pay for this.”
Pierce’s company will celebrate its 15th anniversary on June 23. Pierce previously worked for three companies, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers and Amgen, for 17 years.
Pierce, who was nominated by The National Bank of Indianapolis, was one of 25 nominees.
“I try to make it a fun environment because people have to spend a lot of time here,” Pierce said. “We are a dog-friendly environment. We support a lot of charity time-off for individuals. We try to stay very philanthropic if we can. It’s trying to give back to our community as much as possible. For this year we are supporting Indiana Canine Assistance Network.”
