Now, some – OK, all – of you who know me will argue about this, but I have a receipt to prove it.
It should surprise none of you that my wife and I have been to many doctors many times. One particular practice has a billing office that is off-site, I think possibly Uranus. They have a very creative way of generating bills. I’m not sure if this was any impetus, but while discussing possible options for part-time work for me to look into, my wife and I came up with medical billing and coding.
At this point, some of you may be wondering what the heck I am thinking. I have all sorts of problems, I have no stamina and unless I could find someone willing to pay me to work three hours a week I’m not going to have any luck. On Friday, when I was talking to the doctor overseeing the neuropsych testing, I said that I would try anything if someone had a suggestion for a job. Her response was something along the lines of “What do you mean, if someone had a suggestion you’d try it? You can’t work. What could you try?”
The answer is simple. I know that I have problems. I know that I can’t work. I also know that I have no source of income, right now I am a waste of space and I have to do something about that. In other words: yes, I can’t work, BUT I HAVE TO TRY. So what if it sounds like a paradox, I can’t just sit around and do nothing. If I fail I fail, but if I don’t try I have already failed.
So, working on the firm belief and principle that I Have To Try Anything, I signed up for a course in Medical Billing and Coding. Yes, I am insane.
Like I said in an earlier post, I thought that I was ready; I was feeling pretty good about things; optimistic even. I was ready to try something new and take another major step on the road to recovery.
Slip. Stumble. Ooo, and he recovers and does not fall! But that was a pretty impressive wobble there.
Dang this is draining. I am exhausted. On the other hand I am still doing it. The class started the end of January (there was a hint about this in an earlier post) and runs through next week. I am one stubborn clod and I will see this through. I am tired but I am conscious and active and doing a heck of a lot more than I could do last year. I am not good at this, yet, but damn I’m doing something. I’ll take credit for that.
I’ve still got a long way to go, but this is a step. And in its own way it’s interesting. At the very least I know more about what that flipping billing office should be doing.
5 comments:
I did medical billing for 2 wks in a tiny office where you had to call everything in on the phone instead of using the cute little machines (while simultaneously answering the phone for patient calls). $10/hr. Beats flipping burgers.
I never knew you did that. The phone thing sounds tedious, but yeah, it does beat flipping burgers. At least you get to sit down.
It was 4 yrs ago when I took 9 mos off work & babysat, painted the house, & had shoulder surgery. Did a favor for an acquaintance who has a small family practice.
I've also learned a bit about medical billing. It's incredibly complex as there are so many codes and diagnoses to choose. The nuances can be subtle, and can often be interpreted many different ways.
Good luck with it. It is a great idea, and you certainly already have plenty of study material at hand.
There are times when there are no good choices for a code and 10 that are almost right. I've actually been tempted to go back through all of my records to see what they all say. Of course, the first thing I did when I got the code books was start looking up my own stuff.
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