Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Earn Big Bucks Doing Medical Billing at Home? Get Out of Here!


A friend and I were talking recently as she explained to me with much excitement how she was going to earn a large weekly salary processing medical claims at her home. Of course this immediately caught my attention, because I worked in the medical insurance field for 20 years myself. This field requires specialized training. I knew processing stacks of medical claims from home with the current patient confidentiality concerns, need to potentially abstract information from medical records... there was much more to this than she had thought about.

She had purchased a package through a 1-800 number listed in the back of a magazine she had. This action sent my radar off immediately as well. Whenever money is involved, beware. I decided to give the company a call expressing interest to see what they would tell me. Here is what happened...

A sales rep went through an obviously well rehearsed speech asking me if I was eager to get started making big bucks from home. I felt like a student sitting in the stadium at the homecoming game, but I attempted to sound as cheerful as she did. For $35 dollars I was told, I could have instructions mailed to me on how to get started along with listings of physicians in my area currently hiring. Of course I didn't need the list because my girlfriend already had hers. After reassuring the representative I would think about it, as she continued to remind me this was the opportunity of a lifetime, I hung up. I began calling physician offices from the listing to inquire about work opportunities.

It turns out the list she had received was very outdated. Most of the medical offices were surprised to learn they were listed and said they were going to call the company directly, as well as file complaints with the Better Business Bureau. I gladly provided them with any information I could to help them do that. Imagine my shock when I called another office and learned the physician was deceased and had been for years!

After calling ten offices I could not find one that would hire anyone to work from home. As I already knew, most of the offices informed me they did their own in-house medical billing, while others used another well established firm to complete such tasks.

When seeking work from home opportunities if something sounds too good to be true, remember it usually is. Do not send money. If it is a genuine work at home opportunity, then let the company provide you with what you need to begin. My friend lost a little money on this business venture, but fortunately it wasn't more.

If you know about scams that are out there, warn others so they will not fall in to the same trap.

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