Work and More Work

I truly love my job. Running this business is a blast for me. The part I didn't realize would be so tough sometimes is employees.

First, I don't want or expect this business to be like our competitors. All of our competitors are big corporate companies. We're the only locally owned DME company in the area. This being so, it makes it a little tough staying competitive. They have the big AHCCCS (medicaid) contracts which leaves us really focusing on the smaller ones plus of course Medicare.

What I hear from employees of the other companies is that they have quotas to fill every month. This I believe is the their downfall. When employees are focused on quotas, then every patient they obtain becomes another number in their quota. Don't get me wrong, some of the people I know from the other companies are super people. I even believe that many of them have their hearts in the right place. The problem lies in that their hands are tied with the corporate red tape.

Oh, ya back to employees. When you are the owner of a company, you hope and dream that your employees will have those same hopes and dreams for your company. Well those people are few and far between. We hired a biller a few months back. I thought this would alleviate some of my headaches. In the end though, it's created more. We aren't your typical medical supply company. I insist that are patients are treated like people and not just out there to help us make a buck. Our biller was doing a good job but I had found that there was very little rapport with the patients and it became all about collections and collecting every dime. That's not the business I started, nor will it be the business I run. At the end of the day, if our doors are still open and I can sleep and night, then I'm good with God and I'm a happy camper. Needless to say, I've taken back over the billing. I enjoy helping our patients. Most of patients have insurance. If they have a primary insurance but don't have a secondary, I'll do what I can to write off the secondary portion of their bill. After all, people pay ungodly amounts of money just to have insurance. In my opinion if they have insurance, they shouldn't have medical bills. With the cost of insurance, it should pay 100%.

Before I go, I gotta talk about a patient I met this weekend. I got a call for a 90 year old man who needed home oxygen. When you hear that some 90 year old man need O2, you expect to walk into the room and see a feeble old man on his death bed. Well what a pleasant surprise I had. This was the coolest guy. He was everything but feeble. He was sort of semi laying on the hospital bed with his hands behind his head like a teenager does when he's watching tv. This guy was sharp as a tack. He stood up straight, shook my hand firmly, and listened to my instructions on how to use the oxygen. At his house, his son and just finished canning all the grapes from the vines out front. They gave me some canned grape jam as well as some homemade grape juice. Oh my gosh it was delicious. The family was awesome. Super down to earth people. It reminded me of the people I frequently met when I was shoeing horses. Not rich snobby people but those good ol small town folks. The type you can sit down and talk with and just enjoy all the stories they have to tell.

Well I think I've rambled on enough for now. Have a great day.