These are just some of the graduates who took the course program in order to provide medical billing outsourcing to physicians. The majority of them work from home. Others have commercial office spaces.
Binta Patel
I worked in a Hi-Tech corporate environment for over 15 years. I enjoyed the first few years but after that I wanted to start my business. A business that would allow me the flexibility to spend time with my son. A business that would have minimum upfront investment as well. With this in mind, I looked at several areas and decided that medical billing is an area that would allow me to have all that I want.
When I started looking at Medical Billing Courses, I came across Medicalbillingcourse.com. After looking at the reviews on what people had to say I decided to move forward with the course. The course was very well laid out. Easy to understand and follow the instructions. It also covered most of the aspects of billing required for day-to-day billing. I finished the course in less than 3 months. I also followed their strategy to get my first client. It took work to get the first client however it was worth all the effort.
Today, I have 13 active clients. Becoming a Certified Medical Billing Professional and starting my own business was the best decision ever!
Tanya Uzan
Prior to being a stay at home mom, I had a sales and marketing background in the medical field. I’ve been a stay at home mom now, since 2005. My kids are in school the majority of the day and I felt like it was time to start working again but around my kid’s schedule. I was looking for a new career that would allow me to still put my family first and contribute financially. I had a lot of ideas but nothing satisfied all of my needs.
I had heard about medical billing but when I researched it online, it was hard to determine whether it was a scam or not. A few months ago, I was sitting in a gymnastics waiting room, low and behold, next to a doctor whom I was talking to about my working dilemma. She actually suggested medical billing. I took that as a sign. After a ton of online research, I came across Medical Billing Course.com and Tammy Harlan. I did a lot of online research on Tammy before I chose this training course. I’m so happy I made the right choice!
I purchased P2 – Medical Billing Certification Course and Home Business Modules and decided I was all in! The training is thorough and Tammy and her team are accessible for questions. I zipped through the training but I continued to thoroughly review each chapter as I was setting up my business. Yes, I started my own Medical Billing Company, Virtual Medical Group.
Tammy is amazing and so is her marketing guru Adam! I signed my first client within my first few weeks after I started my marketing campaign with the support of them both. I made the right decision for myself and my family. Thank you Tammy Harlan and Medical Billing Course.com!
Jennifer Moran
Update: Jennifer just signed a 3 doctor clinic. She now has 4 doctor clients.
After taking a few years off to be home with my son it was time for me to go back to work. My husband and I met at work and I did his billing and Accounts Receivable for him. My husband suggested that I get into medical billing because he knew I love working with numbers.
I looked at several different medical billing courses for a couple of months. The only one I kept going back to was Medical Billing Course.com. I decided to call. I talked to Tammy and she eased my mind that this wasn’t an online scam and if I needed help along the way she will be there for
me.
After talking with my husband he told me to go for it! If you are going to do this, do it right. I signed up and purchased the Medical Billing Business Success Package right off the bat. I took my time to complete the course, reading each chapter twice. It took me approximately 6 weeks to complete the course program.
Upon completion of the course, I utilized my Personal Marketing Coach (Adam) and got busy with my marketing material. Thanks to Adam and Tammy, my material LOOKS GREAT!
I signed my first client within a couple of weeks. I had come across her practice while doing my marketing research. Then I actually met her at a children’s birthday party of a mutual friend. In making small talk, I told her this. A week later she contacted me to do her billing. She is an ND (Naturopathic Doctor). She has opened my eyes to the wonderful world of Naturopathy and I have chosen this as my specialty!
Thank you to Medical Billing Course.com! I have the freedom to take my son to school and pick him up. That is everything to me. If you are wondering if you can do this, YES YOU CAN! It’s amazing how far believing in yourself can take you.
Steven Anderson
After many years in the manufacturing sector I suddenly found myself out of work, and I decided to pursue opportunities outside of production after watching these jobs migrate oversees. My experience in the biotechnology and biomedical industries, my interest in life sciences, and my current desire to be self employed led me to seek an occupation in medical insurance billing. I ultimately chose Medical Billing Course as a means to achieving that goal. Thus, began my new journey.
One of my first observations of the course was its broad resource base as medical insurance billers (MIBs) from all over the country shared their experiences and knowledge. Students also were a part of the resource base as they posted questions on the student support forum. In chapter 8 where students are given the opportunity to apply their skills with a practice management software program I didn’t fully understand account receivables and was confused why some fields were populated and others remained empty. I consulted the student support forum before frustration and a decline in my self esteem took hold of my senses. I found that not only were other students troubled by the same issues, but the replies to their posts answered my questions.
Like students, experts in practice management software also made their contributions to the course work. While continuing along in chapter 8 I experienced an access problem with the software, and I was promptly assigned to a software representative. She brought in a person, whom she described as the most knowledgeable person with this particular software program, to adjust the program settings on my computer. He completed the appropriate adjustments quickly as I watched the manipulations on the screen in front of me. Perhaps it is the information age in which we live, but I couldn’t help feeling amazed that one of the most knowledgeable persons of one the leading practice management software programs was working away on my computer and I don’t even have any clients yet.
Another important aspect of the course is in its ability to make tasks less difficult. Market research and cold calling can be excruciating for those not used to dealing with people over the telephone. The book, “Starting Your Own Medical Billing Business”, emphasizes how people enjoy talking about their work. I found this true as I started my market research and listened to people revel in their work. The most useful communication skill I acquired from the course is my ability to lead a person to a level where their speech patterns are pronounced, a rhythm sets in, and they feel important. After my first market research call I knew it went well, but I couldn’t understand why until I made a few more calls, and I asked people to talk about their jobs.
An additional asset of the course is how it encourages students to develop a market plan compatible with his or her style. Shy or reclusive types, like me, might develop mass mailing lists, attend seminars, review journal articles, and write newsletters, whereas more outgoing or gregarious types might consider volunteering or dive straight into cold calling.
In short, taking the course has allowed me to tap into an incredible amount of resources.
Chandra Holbrook
I would definitely recommend Medical Billing Course.com to anyone looking to pursue employment in this field. The staff are second to none! The information provided is priceless!
I decided it was time to resign from my full time nursing position. I’ve been an LPN since 2004. Why would I go from nursing to medical billing, you might be wondering. I needed FLEXIBILITY. Throughout my journey, I identified a need for competent medical billing professionals. So, after much thought and discussion, my husband and I decided to go for it. And in case you are wondering, no, you don’t need a medical background to be successful!
My husband and I have 3 children. A 4 year old girl, a 7 year old boy, and a 14 year old boy (my step son) who lives out of state with his mother. The need for more flexibility in one of our positions became a priority we could no longer ignore. Our 7 year was having a difficult time managing a health condition that required care during our “normal” work hours. Our 4 year old was spending more time with her child care providers than her parents and siblings. Not to mention, we traveled out of state every other weekend to spend time with our 14 year old.
I signed up with MBC. I took my time completing the course, sometimes reading each chapter twice. I finished about six weeks later. I could have finished sooner, but my kids were on summer break. I wanted to enjoy a little time at home with them and not have the stress about traveling due to time restrictions.
I met with my first potential client within 4 weeks of getting my certificate. This was a lead from my very first “cold call”! I did not sign this physician as my first client. However, the situation motivated me to continue looking for clients. I just kept going. Were there discouraging moments? Of course. Some days I would get several leads, other days I didn’t. I still kept going. I signed my first client within 6 weeks of finishing the course. I slowed the marketing approach at this point to better identify my strengths and my weaknesses in this field. Now, I am vamping up my marketing again to get some more clients and further build my business.
The benefits have been many! Too many to list. Yes, there were also some sacrifices and money to be invested. However, nothing worth having is ever going to be free or easy. This makes my success all the more rewarding.
So, what are you waiting for? Stop wondering if Medical Billing Course.com is right for you. You wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t. You will never know if you don’t take the leap, and you will always wonder! With the flexible payment options available, you really have nothing to lose!
Good Luck!
Loreigh Baigent
My husband has had an accounting business since we met in 2007. Over the years it has grown substantially. He has always insisted that I quit my bank manager position and come work with him in his business. This sounded like an OK idea but I really wanted to join in his business by bringing something in that I’ve always wanted to do —MEDICAL BILLING! Rusty, my husband, already provides accounting services to several doctors and he has been asked if he could handle billing. When he was asked again November, I took it as a sign and I set out looking for an education in Medical Billing.
I was ecstatic to find Medical Billing Course.com! Not only do they teach you Medical Billing, they also had Medical Billing Business Success Stories on their website.
Me being the careful person that I am, I requested a list of references. They sent me 20 recent graduatesand each of them who got back to me had nothing but wonderful things to say about MBC and their staff! So I signed up! Upon graduating, I bought the Medical Billing Business Success Package, got busy on my marketing and yesterday – I SIGNED MY FIRST CLIENT!
If anything were going to stand in my way in beginning a Medical Billing Business, it would have been “not having an understanding of the work involved.” This really subsided for me once I reached the final chapter of the course and was able to use a real, live medical billing software! I actually had fun entering doctor, patient and insurance data, and even more fun entering patient charges. But my favorite part was the “pretend payments” (EOB’s) from Insurance Companies and posting those payments to the claims I generated. My banking mind was loving it! All the course chapters are well put together and fun to do, but the final chapter provided me with the confidence I needed to move forward. I was sure this was what I wanted to do!
As for the staff and the support — PHENOMENAL! They really go the extra mile supporting their students!
UPDATE: I have 2 more possible clients in the making! I attribute their interest in the Marketing Material I produced by following the steps in the Medical Billing Business Resources – A Guide to Marketing Success. I have provided both of them with an “Office Profile” (which is included in the guide) and once I receive this back from them, I will be preparing my proposals (also included in the guide) to send to them! I hope to submit an update to MBC soon saying that I have successfully added these two clients! I am confident about it.
My advice to you – don’t hesitate to take a course from MBC! You don’t have to start a business. From what I learned in the course, I would feel equally as confident in applying for medical billing position.
My goal is to obtain at least 20 clients. I know I can do it!
I highly recommend Medical Billing Course.com!
Susan Wadsworth
Ever since my children were born I struggled with a work/life balance. After long discussions with my husband we decided that I would go into business for myself and have the flexibility and time available to give my children all that they need.
We had been talking about Medical Billing for quite some time and all the research we did showed that there was only one outcome with opening your own medical billing business – SUCCESS!
I began the course with Medical Billing Course.com when another individual was running Medical Billing Course.com. Near the end of my course I wrote to the company with a question and Tammy Harlan answered my e-mail. I learned that she took some time off to be with her family but was so excited to be back at the helm of Medical Billing Course.com. I had heard from others who had taken the course how wonderful Tammy was and that her level of support was phenomenal. All I can say is that they were correct.
The course and the materials provided were everything that I needed to be able to open my own Medical Billing Business. I currently had a private business in place for project management and added medical billing as one of my services. I had a logo created and an office all set up in my home.
Since finishing the course this past summer, Tammy has been nothing but exceptional when I have had any questions about my business or if I just needed to ask her if my feelings of being scared and overwhelmed were justified. She is always available and answers my calls and e-mails right away. Honestly, I don’t know what I would do without her right now.
I purchased my software and the Medical Billing Business Marketing Manual written by Tammy. The manual was a great help in developing my marketing plan. I created a flyer and sent out my first mailing within a month of completing the course. Within one week I received a call from a Chiropractor interested in my billing services. Although it did not work out for me to work with him, it was only another 2 weeks before I received a second call from another chiropractor that received my brochure. This call turned into my first client – and it took me less than two months from the time I finished the course to obtaining a client!
Tammy is currently helping me through the entire process of getting set up with this first client. She is assisting in all aspects including client contact to making sure all the paperwork is in order. She is definitely an expert in her field and anyone that signs up for this course will be given the best education possible to be a medical biller.
Dawn Lawler
I was faced with a challenge nine months ago when the Fitness Business I had been managing was sold. New owners, new rules, resulted in major cuts. I had some knowledge of Medical Billing because I had worked for a clinic locally in the past. I had no billing experience, I taught myself the system they were using, which was extremely intense as everyone was always too busy to offer any assistance in the learning process. My one attribute with regard to succeeding is that I have a burning desire to do my best at anything I take on.
Within weeks of my billing experience at the clinic the checks started to roll in to my amazement and everything was on target. When I was faced with the challenge of looking for a job or starting my own business I remembered through my experience at the clinic listening to the volunteer doctors who would come in regularly with the same complaint, “My biller just quit again!” All the physician’s seemed to be going in the direction of outsourcing their billing for many good reasons. That reflection helped me to discover that this would be the direction I would go in. I had a longing to be my own boss and create my own destiny. I then shared the idea with my husband who, to my amazement, jumped on board.
I found MedicalBillingCourse.com and signed up. I knew it was extremely important to have a certification within the industry. The course was extremely comprehensive. The knowledge and understanding it gave allowed me to have the confidence I needed to pursue doctors. I began to call on doctors and signed my first account within 6 weeks of leaving my full-time job.
Lisa Shestack & Sharon Galvin
When we began looking into the Medical Billing business, we did a massive search for education. We quickly found that everything referred to “Medical Coding” or “Get your degree in Coding” with a price tag of $10,000 to $15,000. And this was only for a Coding license or certificate.
Plus, for that price we would only get our certification in Coding, be “ready” for the workplace, and get “help” with job placement following the receipt of the Coding Degree. But this simply wasn’t what we were looking for.
When we considered Medical Billing, we wanted to achieve our own entrepreneurial dream, mostly due to conversations with friends and family members that had personal experience with Medical Billing. It was the opportunity to work really hard, with an income based solely on our diligent efforts.
Finally, we stumbled on, “a Unique Business Opportunity to work in Medical Billing” on line. It was a group out of the Midwest, and they promised us everything, i.e. video based training, marketing materials galore, even a 3-day, “live workshop” to go over the materials to operate our own medical billing firm. They even taught where to advertise, and how to network within the Chamber of Commerce, BNI, etc. We thought we were all set!
So we paid the fee – which was a great deal less than the franchise-style opportunities we had seen – took the course and learned a ton. We were pumped up when we finished the 3-day training, and proceeded to marketing our business full time.
Then, we got out and tried to speak with the medical practices, and realized what we were in for.
Getting to the decision makers in these practices can be really tough, and if you finally speak to an Office Manager or even better the Doctor, you really have to know the business to earn their confidence.
We lost some very good opportunities early on because we couldn’t describe why we were better at billing than someone they might hire to run the office.
There was one more issue, however, because we were still hazy on the process as a whole. So we went back to our search, and we were lucky enough to find MedicalBillingcourse.com.
Their course was easy to access and take, and could be done at our own pace, with everything we needed to start our business but didn’t get in our first go around.
Now, when we have a new client, it feels like we’ve done everything before, because we have, through the course materials. With the support from Tammy Harlan and the MedicalBillingCourse.com staff, we were able to really learn the true details on how to be successful in this business.
Our business is still relatively young, which is why having access to the incredible resources of MedicalBillingCourse.com is so important. We have spoken to the writers of other Success Stories published on the medicalbillingcourse.com website, and they all attribute much of their success and satisfaction to what they have learned from MedicalBillingCourse.com.
My partner, Sharon Galvin and I – Lisa Shestack – are principals of Accurate Cash Flow Solutions, Inc., which is located in Franklin, MA.
Due to personal referrals from our first few accounts, we have even developed expertise in a few specialty fields of medicine. What is really important is to follow up with all opportunities without getting discouraged with the practices that tell you that they will only use an in-house full-time biller.
By finishing the course to gain the knowledge, lingo and processes coupled with the best software platform and technical support available, those very Doctors will begin to see you as their “virtual” in-house electronic medical claims processor. You will gain their confidence, as we have time and time again!
Pam McLaughlin
I was without a job for the second time in a 10 year time span, due to no fault of my own, and I vowed to never again be someone else’s employee. I had worked in the corporate world for years in various accounting positions and after that in Governmental Accounting.
Having an accounting background and being a Fraud Examiner, naturally bookkeeping and fraud prevention was the logical way to go, I thought, so I did. I just really wasn’t satisfied with this, however. I live in a small town and the competition was stiff in the private accounting area.
A relative, who is a doctor, asked me why I didn’t do medical billing. I told him that I didn’t have the knowledge needed to do that. I got to thinking about it later, though, and realized that lack of knowledge had never stopped me before, so why not obtain that knowledge?
After performing extensive research online for a medical billing course, I decided to sign up with MedicalBillingCourse.com. That was one of the wisest decisions that I have ever made! I had no experience, what-so-ever with medical billing, but the course was easy to understand and I worked my way through it fairly quickly.
Once I finished the course and received my certificate, I made the decision to sign up for the Medical Billing Success Package, Marketing Support, and lots more. This also has proved to be a wise decision and the support that I’ve gotten from Tammy Harlan, Ammie Lyons and the staff at Medical Billing Business Resources has been great!
Not only have I added medical billing to my business, I’m working on increasing my medical billing business and plan to phase out the bookkeeping and fraud prevention as I get more clients. I love this business. I received my certificate in February of this year and soon had one client and now I’m talking to a couple of more that are seriously considering signing up with me.
I highly recommend MedicalBillingCourse.com to anyone that’s interested in owning and operating a Medical Billing business!
Nancy Browner
Sterling, Colorado was a quiet, safe and secure environment for me, then it happened. Our business office was closed when a large company bought the hospital and everything was centralized to Greeley. Going to Greeley was not an option, it was a two hour drive, so I took another leap and went to a hospital in Sidney, Nebraska as the Manager of their Business Office and Admissions. I have always wanted to do billing on my own, but never really knew how to start. Sidney was what I needed, the controller at the hospital had a sister-in-law that had her own billing center for 9 years and I began talking with her. Things got really bad at the hospital between my boss and I and that was the push that I needed to get off my chair and get out on my own.
I started searching for a medical billing course and after looking at several I decided to go with Medical Billing Course.com because they had a wide variety of topics, not just filling in the claim. I have been in billing for 12 years and the course for me was a refresher in the beginning. Sometimes you forget things after several years and the rest of the course was good training since I have been doing billing for the last 10 years for hospitals. Tammy Harlan talked with me about software and answered any questions I had regarding any issue. It was great to have such a resource in her and her staff.
I began my business May and started marketing in June. I will never forget the day I started marketing because it was the day before my birthday. I stayed up until 2 AM that morning to make sure everything was correct. I told the kids we could not go to Water World until my marketing packets were sent out. It was a long night that really paid off because I gained 9 appointments from my first mailing which resulted in signing 2 clients. At the same time my marketing support director instructed me to put together a press release. I did and the local paper was doing a special insert into the paper on “Women in Business”. I ended up getting a half page article with a picture and signed 2 Occupational Therapists from this article. One located here in Sterling and the other located 2 hours away in Denver.
I signed 3 clients my first month and then I have added a client every 2 months after that. I have to admit having 3 clients all at once was a challenge, but a welcomed one!
Make sure you make the most of every situation and opportunity to get your name out there. My 5th client was signed off the article as well. The client did not see the article, they overheard someone talking to me about the article. Their son played soccer with my son this year and we were at dinner celebrating a win. They approached me about billing and we set a meeting and the rest is history.
My 6th client was just signed last week. I met his receptionist at a Medicaid meeting and we started talking about billing. I gave her my card and took her information. When I returned to my office I sent her information and called 4 times with no return call. Two months later they called me back because they lost money in Medicaid claims. Right now I am getting clients from word-of-mouth referrals given by my existing clients as well as meetings that I am attending.
One of my Occupational Therapist clients knows of a college that is interested in our company and we are excited that client number 7 will be contracting with us soon. I could never have imagined in 8 months gaining 6 clients with the possibility of 7 soon!
The best thing about doing this is the family time I have now compared to my 60 to 65 hour weeks working for someone else. I have 2 children in high school this year, my daughter Nikki is 15 (a freshman) and my son Andrew will be 17 next month (a sophomore).
I have no regrets with my decision to take the Medical Billing Course at Medical Billing Course.com and starting my own business! I highly recommend Medical Billing Course.com to anyone who wants to work in the Medical Billing Field, whether it be from home or in a doctor’s office or hospital.
Adella Cordova
“First, let’s get you passed this fear,” she said.
I purchased Medical Billing Course in hopes of fulfilling my dream of working for myself someday. I didn’t have any medical billing experience prior to this course and my background was in Land Development. I always knew that one day I would work for me. Needless to say, my biggest obstacle was fear. I spoke with Tammy Harlan at Medical Billing Course prior to my purchase and explained to her how nervous and afraid I was because I just wasn’t sure that “this” would work for me.
“First, let’s get you passed this fear,” she said. I couldn’t help feeling a little taken back because in our conversation we were actually addressing my fear and other concerns I had prior to even talking about me purchasing the course. I ended up purchasing the course and found it to be full of great information and instruction. An easy read and filled with so much knowledge. I finished the course and purchased a Success Package and my lifelong dream, Doctor’s Choice Medical Billing was born. All of the fear I initially had turned into excitement because I was well on my way to contracting with my first physician.
Although still a little nervous I jumped in and started marketing and learning as much as I could about medical billing.
My first two doctors signed a contract with me within two weeks of marketing. But in my opinion, signing my first client is not the whole success story. I believe my success story to be working past my fear and following my dream. My success story is simply this, I surrounded myself with people who had “been there done that” and didn’t mind holding my hand when I had to borrow courage from them to help me through this process. Not only did I have excellent instruction through Medical Billing Course but my software is top notch. My husband and biggest fan is the fuel that keeps me reaching for new heights and is also one of the biggest contributors to my current success.
I thank God and am very blessed to be the owner of a medical billing business but even more blessed to have such wonderful people to depend on and consult with on a daily basis. The networking and billing centers I have met through out the years at conference time and on the phone are truly a vital piece of this business and some of the most generous people I know. “If you don’t know the answer, one of your fellow billing centers will and they are just a phone call away.” In the beginning, one billing center in particular took me under her wing and offered me her help unconditionally. Not only did she have a fabulous Texas accent but she is my angel and friend. These are the type of people you meet within our medical billing family.
Now that I have gotten past my fear and am able to confidently market my business to any physician at anytime, I can honestly tell you that dreams do to come true. It will happen for you too just as it did for me.
Think positive, be courageous and get excited, focus and make your dream come true, it is all within your reach if you really want it.
Mary Ann Craig
Medical Billing was the last thing on my mind, a few years ago.
For 82 years and three generations of Craig’s, my family has owned a car dealership. I had “many hats to wear” within the dealership. I was Director of Finance, Rebate Claims Administrator and Human Resources. The automobile business was all I ever new, then one day we decided it was time to sell. The business had become very large and stressful. I took some time off to unwind and to figure out what I wanted to do next in my life. I knew I wanted to own my own business, I just didn’t know what field to pursue.
I truly believe that God’s way of being anonymous is through coincidence. I saw a flyer in the mail about Medical Billing and decided to pursue this. I took a course that was good but it was teaching me things I didn’t need at that time. After I finished the course, they said I was ready to market my business. Oh no I wasn’t!
I searched the internet on Medical Billing Courses and came across a book by Paul Hackett which lead me to Medical Billing Course.com and Tammy Harlan. This is exactly what I needed!! This course walked me through, one step at a time, giving me advice, internet searches and also a good bit of humor. It was like this woman (Tammy Harlan) was sitting here with me as I was taking the course. I am telling you, this woman could see my fear and feel my pain! She was very honest in her approach of what to expect about this career choice and the integrity that would go along with it. At the end of each chapter she gave encouraging quotes and a list of information for helping me to start my own business. The course shows you how to incorporate your homework into live medical billing software. It’s just like you had already started your own business. Medical Billing Course gives you access to their very own forum so you can discuss with other up and coming medical billers.
This has been a very exciting time in my life. Being a Medical Biller gives me the freedom to work when I want to and still have a nice income. This also gives me a chance to be more with family and friends. I am in training for a 10k marathon in Charleston, SC. at the end of March. I love to cook and garden and go out to eat.
Anyone that is interested in Medical Billing should get involved with this course. I would not have been able to be successful without all their help. You need people around you that know what they are talking about in this business. They will give you the encouragement that you need to succeed with the integrity that goes along with it!
Ann Grinnell
Do you like what you do? Well, I do and I love to tell people about my business and my passion! Two years ago I decided to leave my job of 23 years at a major corporation and start my own business. I loved what I did but driving two to four thousand miles every month was getting very old. My husband and I rarely got to spend time together because, not only was my job extremely time consuming, his was too. He also worked for the same corporation and his hours were long (24-36 hours at a time) for days on end. I wanted to do something that would give us more time for each other and for our daughter and her growing family.
So began the search for what to do. It had to be something that I could do from home — I had been “on the road” for too many years. After investigating quite a number of opportunities, Dane and I decided the Medical Billing was the right choice. I decided on an LLC and Velocity Medical Billing Services, LLC was born! I had looked into many different courses but had no trouble deciding that Medical Billing Course.com was the one for me. I graduated with a Special Honors Award for the course and a Special Merit Award for their “Understanding HIPAA” course. I have never looked back and I thank Tammy Harlan and her course for my success. Coupled with Duane Johnson’s marketing skills and Tim Rapauch’s technical expertise, I was set to go. I signed my first client within my first month in business and a second client one month after that.
I have had several other events that have prevented me from marketing as much as I would have liked. Kim, our daughter, had her second baby (Emily) and we babysat quite a bit for Anthony (her first baby) while our daughter worked. She was finally forced to take maternity leave early due to complications with the pregnancy. Emily is fine, however, and Anthony adores his little sister. Kim is now expecting her third baby in October. Even in the midst of all of this, I do have four clients and I’m sure I’ll be signing a fifth within the next couple of weeks.
I have been blessed to meet so many new people since I took the Medical Billing Course. Networking is so very important and rewarding. As wonderful as the course is — you can’t learn everything that you will need to know even if you make a high grade. Tammy told me over and over again that I would need to learn things as I grew and that I should welcome this and not be afraid. How right she was! I learn something new every day and I love to share what I learn with others. That’s another part of networking — if you don’t have an answer, someone else you’ve met is sure to have it. With rare exception, I’ve found that other medical billers are very willing to help each other. No one can have all of the answers, but we can help each other.
For anyone who reads this who is new to billing, my advice is “Never Give Up!” Occasionally we have not-so-good-days, but most of them are absolutely wonderful! Don’t let the bad ones get you down. Recognize them for what they are, learn from them, and keep going. Read as much as you can on marketing and billing and network with other billers. Just keep at it and be sure to keep track of what works for you. What might work as a successful approach for someone in a small town may not work for someone in a metropolitan area.
Warmest regards to all of you!
Lisa Johnson
It has been a year since the effects of a fast paced high stress job combined with having two busy teenage boys and an infant daughter caused me to begin to have health issues. I had to make a very difficult decision.
I walked away from a high paying corporate position and decided to stay home with my baby daughter and be more available for my family. That is when fate stepped in. My dear friend of many years who is a MD approached me to pick up his billing. I had experience working not only in his office but also working for many years with a health insurance company. I felt I had a strong background to start the business. What I lacked was the road map of how to get started and up to date standards and practices.
Starting my own billing business felt right to me so I immediately began doing research on the internet to find a practice management system and any kind of training that was available. As luck would have it I ran across Medical Billing Course.com. The course was very complete and had all the information I needed to start a successful business. The staff was so helpful and supportive it made it seem almost too easy to get started.
Within a month of my friends proposal to take over his billing I was fully functioning as the medical biller for a very busy practice of 2 OB/GYN’s and 2 FNP’s. I have never looked back. I love my business! I could not be happier with the decision I made. I have more than replaced the income that I walked away from last year and I am available for my family!
Since starting my business I have added another provider and hired two employees. I am happy not only to be running a very successful business from my home but also to provide an opportunity to my employees to have the freedom of working from home as well. I have recently started efforts to expand my business and I hope to have 2 or 3 more clinics on board by mid next year.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Medical Billing Course.com and Antek Healthware for all the support and guidance they have given to me. But most of all I would like to thank my dear friend Dr E. Keith Hansen who always believed I was capable of anything. There was never a question in his mind of if I could do the job, just when I could get started. His faith in my ability has inspired me throughout the many years I have known him. This article is dedicated to his memory, E. Keith Hansen, M.D. 1939 to 2008.