HELP!! May be losing job due to others...

[amysmith]

   My neighbors hooked me up with their sister who has a medical billing/collections company in California that deals primarily with WC.  I was given a job to start doing data entry and now I am fastly learning payments and other parts of this job. It has only been 2 weeks but because of my background as a Commercial Billing Specialist with a couple very large companies back in the day and my schooling (nursing/phlebotomy), I am catching on very fast. 

   Here's where I am having an issue and I need some advice.  I have learned already that the company is run by a mother/daughter team (no smacks against the ladies here, by any means).  There is a god awful amount of drama in the office. Thankfully, I am in Texas and work remotely.  However, this drama, affects works because things are not getting done in a timely manner.  In 2 weeks I have found a huge amount of errors, PT's names, claims entries, diag code, ect......Its a horrible mess and being that I am an "auditor" by nature, I can't stand it. I was told that if we do not get all the payments in for a specific doctor by Monday they will lose the account and that will basically put our job out the door. 

Soooooo.......for someone like me who has found that this is actually a GREAT career and wants to stay in it,  what should I do to ensure that I can?!  I know there are classes and such and I could start my own company, but at this point I don't have enough  knowledge for that and I would never want to jeopardize a doctors pay for my wants.  I am so worried about losing this opportunity. 

Thanks for advice.

[RichardP]

I was told that if we do not get all the payments in for a specific doctor by Monday ...

1. What do you mean by in by Monday?  Are you talking about posting payments to the patients' accounts?  Or are you talking about obtaining the money from the insurance carriers and patient billings by Monday?

2.  What is it specifically that you are asking for?  That is, for what problem that you can actually help solve do you need advice?

[amysmith]

1.  Its posting payments to PT accounts. Tedious, easy work that isn't getting completed in time and since I am at the bottom, I only hear about it when its almost too late. 

2.  Well I am not sure I can actually help solve anything. LOL! Other then make myself available to do whatever is needed, which I have.  I guess, I am just worried that I will lost the job and then I am out. No one wants to hire someone with 2weeks experience and I really want to make this a career.   I have a great resume and job experience, but this allows me to spend the time needed at home before my youngest is off to school FT, while continuing to build my resume. 

So I guess I just need advice on the first steps to take if this job goes out the door. 

[Michele]

I have learned already that the company is run by a mother/daughter team (no smacks against the ladies here, by any means).  There is a god awful amount of drama in the office.

No offense!    My mother and I have been running our business together for over 22 years.  We hate drama!  Actually when we interview people we are more concerned with how they will fit into the office than we are with how much experience they have.  We can teach them to bill, we can't teach them to not be dramatic. 

As for you, I don't believe this will hurt you.  It just opened your eyes as to what field you want to be in.  Be honest with any future employers.  Not all of us require a certain amount of experience.  You probably learned a whole lot more than you realize in these couple weeks!

[RichardP]

Me:  What do you mean by Monday?

AmySmith:  It's posting payments to patient's accounts.

I'm curious:

1.  Are you the only one working on this project?
2.  Have they given you more work than you can possibly get finished by Monday?
3.  If you need to ask them for help, would they assign another person(s) to help you?

My curiousity stems from my interest in how often work is assigned without any time and motion studies to quantify production standards.

On average, it should take a certain number of seconds or minutes to post a single payment to a patient's account.  (I'm talking about individual line items/procedure code payments here.)  Multiply that time unit by the number of payments to be posted and you should get an average amount of time it should take to post a batch of payments.  You might start tracking your own production to get an idea of how many payments you can comfortably post in an hour.  That should give you a starting point in any talks with your boss(es) about them allowing enough time to get the work done.  It will also give you a solid basis to rebut any claims they may make that you should be able to do 3 days worth of work in 1 day.

[amysmith]

RichardP - I know that right now I can do approximately 110 line items in aprox an hour (I hope that is good).  As for payments, that varies due to how long it takes the program to go through all of them after the payment is applied (we use a later version of Medisoft).

I don't feel that I am given to much work by any means because I am fairly fast at getting the work completed. The "by Monday" was a threat to the owner from the doctor. It wasn't more work then I could do, its a concern that the doctors are threatening the business because they are allowing this "drama" in the office affect their business, to which I have nothing to do with being 2200 miles away. 

Michelle - I have learned quite a bit already and I am more willing to learn and keep moving forward because I love the fact that this job is ever-changing. I will stick with these ladies for right  now and see how it goes, and in the mean time do my own research and studying on medical billing.

[Michele]

Michelle - I have learned quite a bit already and I am more willing to learn and keep moving forward because I love the fact that this job is ever-changing. I will stick with these ladies for right  now and see how it goes, and in the mean time do my own research and studying on medical billing.

Sounds like you have a very good handle on what you can and can't do and/or control.  It is never good if a provider has to use a threat.  You may learn a lot of what you DON'T want to do if you have your own business.  Experience is really the best way to learn, both good and bad.  Good luck and stay connected.  You will find a lot of information and support here as you go along!

[amysmith]

Thanks so much Michelle! I still have a long way to go, I been reading on here and some things are over my head yet.  LOL  All in due time.

[partnersbilling]

Hi, Amy Smith! What part of Texas are you in? We are a growing billing company based in Houston. We are still fairly small with billing for only three providers but we've grown to the point where we are looking for more help so we can grow some more.

Would you be interested in doing some contract work? We need help on denial followups and benefit inquires. PM me if you are interested.

thanks! 

[amysmith]

Hi, Amy Smith! What part of Texas are you in? We are a growing billing company based in Houston. We are still fairly small with billing for only three providers but we've grown to the point where we are looking for more help so we can grow some more.

Would you be interested in doing some contract work? We need help on denial followups and benefit inquires. PM me if you are interested.

thanks!

Awesome!!!! I messaged you!