Crankybeach - billing burnout
Posted By: Pugmom on 2009-06-18
In Reply to: Why I stuck with MT after midlife crisis college degree - CrankyBeach
Wow. You just made me feel a whole lot better. I did MT for years, then when we moved one time (military), there were no MT jobs available, so I learned and did billing for an internist for 6 years. I adored working for him and loved the patients. However, Hubby got out of the military and we moved back to Ohio. I did billing another 4.5 years before I was just so burned out I hated going to work. Plus, I've worked with large groups of women before and know how catty we all can be. This office went beyond that. Almost all of the women there were downright malicious. Their lives were miserable because of their jobs too.
We hadn't had an expansion in the billing dept. as far as personnel for years, yet we had taken on 4 new doctors and 5 new offices since I started. Then we started billing for DME. Then it was for MRIs, PSSD testing, etc. The list went on, we just got more and more work piled on us as the practice offered more and more services for our patients. If we complained because we were overwhelmed (and we all were), we were told we made too many trips to the bathroom or shouldn't have spent 5 minutes talking to a coworker (didn't matter that it was work-related - they assumed it was a personal conversation).
Also, most of the billers freaked out and got flustered if they got a call from someone who was angry about their bill. I didn't mind people yelling at me - I didn't take it personally. I let them yell and after they finished, I paused a moment, then explained the bill to them in a nice, calm manner. The front desk caught wind of this and I started getting all of the nasty billing calls until I spoke up about it. I don't mind doing my fair share but I'm not going to take all the crap either just because I don't let it get to me. I wasn't getting paid enough to take ALL the nasty calls.
There were 8 billers, 1 useless supervisor, 1 useless person who should have retired years ago (she's friends with one of the doctor's mother who works at the practice so she consistently is allowed overtime and works more than 50 hours a week even though she has the least amount of work to do. She made looking busy an art), and one girl who only worked part time mailing secondary HCFAs, etc.
We had 20 offices and 15 doctors plus almost all the nursing homes in the area. I left after 4 1/2 years and that started a string of people quitting. I think people were just so used to working stressed out and being afraid all day at their jobs, that it became the norm. When I quit, I think people started opening their eyes and saw that they too could get out if they wanted. Honestly, I don't care who stays or goes since I no longer work there but I was surprised to hear about so many people leaving after I did (nobody had quit billing in 4 1/2 years and since I've left, 6 other billers have quit and the 7th just called me yesterday to see if she could use me as a job reference).
The practice administrator wouldn't even let me give him the reason why I was leaving. I started to tell him that if I wanted to work with a bunch of third graders, I would have become a teacher (I was hoping to get some points across to help the remaining girls who were civil). That's when he stopped me. Fine. I just gave my notice and told him that I'd miss him (he was a good guy under a great deal of pressure and I doubt he gets paid what he's worth).
They started taking things away from us - less vacation days, no sick days, our afternoon break, and we did used to get a quarterly bonus but we had to earn it - there were 4 specific areas where we had to exceed the goal and the goals were really hard to achieve. We got $37.50 for each point we did achieve. I just heard they now only give out bonuses twice a year and they've made the criteria harder to reach.
I started getting chest pains and stomach burning every day when I walked into the office. I am so glad I went back to being an MT but I still want to be a nurse because I want to help people.
Anyway, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who burned out on it. I felt I had just stopped learning. It was stressful and boring. I never stop learning doing MT.
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What a jerk, Crankybeach!
Well, I'm sure that's a decision (marrying him) she'll live to regret. If he did it once......
CrankyBeach. LOL. I like that moniker. (sm)
Yeah, I think I understand how your veteran friend feels regarding being jobless. I couldn't even begin to compare myself to the trauma our troops go through.
It's funny you should use the word "toxic," because that's the exact word I use about the living situation here. After being on list after list for the last couple of years, I believe I've finally found a program that will work. My Housing Authority "friend" sent me an email where she sounded very excited, saying there are only 50 applications available. She doesn't know when it will begin, though, because they haven't told her.
Thanks for your prayers. I appreciate them very much.
P.S. I don't think you're "cranky" at all. In fact, I think you're delightful!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Having been up all night, I think it's time for a nap.
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