Long story short, I've had the billing clerk from my former job do all of my insurance invoicing. I collect the cash clients as well as the copays. I've been eeking by on the copays as I know it takes a while to get started collecting money from insurance companies.

I've not received a dime from any insurance company in over two months and even then I've only received payment from two companies. My billing person - T - told me long ago that medicaid was incredibly easy in that you do all the filing on line and they pay weekly. I bill several medicaid hours every week (not counting blue cross, aetna, and others), but I've not seen anything in two months.

T is also my babysitter and she does a good job with the kids. Lauren LOVES her. LOVES, LOVES, LOVES.

I feel that I have to let her go because I do not understand how I'm not getting paid. I have thousands of dollars out there and I have no idea at this point if I'll ever see them. I cannot keep running a business on copays alone. I'm able to cover my straight business expenses, but can no longer afford to pay myself a salary which means that we are in the hole because of daycare/preschool.

So, I think I have to let her go. Which is incredibly difficult. I should have done it months ago, but kept hoping it would work its way out. But, it's that or close my doors. Not only will I be out a billing person, I'll also be out a babysitter because I won't trust someone I've fired to not take it out on my kids.

I'm so upset.

oh so sorry friend.

i have some psychologist friends who had to decide to quit accepting insurance all together b/c they had so many problems running their business relying on that.

Well, I logged in to the medicaid site and she last submitted billing for me on July 24, 2006. Two months of billing not submitted. I sent stuff to her regularly for two months and she didn't even take the minutes it takes to submit the billing. I changed the password and I let her go. This is so disappointing because I trusted her. I've been there for her. She has a crappy situation with her mother and I thought I was helping.

I'm going to take over, but right now I'm totally crying and I really want some coffee or a cookie or something, but I don't want to turn to food to address my stress.

screw it. I'm going for a walk and I'm getting my **** cookie.

i'm sorry rebecca....:hug:

Employees are the absolute toughest part of running your own business, imo. I've had significant heartache, too, over mixing the employee/babysitter role. It's so hard!

Closing your business would be very tough on your clients, too. Hard all around.

Listen to your heart on this one. If keeping your business open is what it clamors for then find ways to do that. How long can your family afford to float daycare right now - 3 months? 6 months? Keep in mind that come tax time you should have significant tax savings this year from the cost of starting a business and not getting paid. Can that offset the hardship right now? Figure out the time left to get finances in balance and then make a plan. I was able to get EXCELLENT help through my city office of economic developement - got a top notch counselor who came to me and helped me make the plan/take the actions I needed.

One of the best pieces of business advice I've had is to hire the right person - hire 'UP' from what your current needs are - and then challenge them to find a way to afford them. How can they make it possible for you to pay them what they are worth? Paying more than you want could be the best bargain in town if you get an excellent person who helps you advance your business.

Hugs to you. BTDT and it was the toughest challenge I've had yet. Keep us posted.
Cathy

Well, I logged in to the medicaid site and she last submitted billing for me on July 24, 2006. Two months of billing not submitted. I sent stuff to her regularly for two months and she didn't even take the minutes it takes to submit the billing. I changed the password and I let her go. This is so disappointing because I trusted her. I've been there for her. She has a crappy situation with her mother and I thought I was helping.

I'm going to take over, but right now I'm totally crying and I really want some coffee or a cookie or something, but I don't want to turn to food to address my stress.

screw it. I'm going for a walk and I'm getting my **** cookie.

That sucks. I'm so sorry!

:eyes:

Will you be able to get the unbilled stuff billed? That should help, right?

How frustrating!

:(

I'm sorry Rebecca. I wish there was something I could do to help.

:big hug:

I am sorry for this situation and it really stinks for you. I know when I was working for an insurance company that we took forever to pay, not because we were slow in paying but because we were so back logged in claims. One thing that helped is if someone called from the office and sweet talked us about claims. There were times we would pull claims and pay them out of order just because someone in a dr's ofc was nice on the phone with us.

Could you find someone who would work sort of on commission? My thought is if you could find someone who wanted to work a few hours but was willing to work as an independent contractor then you wouldn't necessarily have to pay them until some of the insurance claims were paid. Does this make sense? Not sure how the details would work out but it is an idea.

Also if you had someone who knew they would be paid sooner if the bills were paid sooner they would have incentive to file the claims sooner and to follow up on them in a timely manner.

:big hug:

Employees are the absolute toughest part of running your own business, imo. I've had significant heartache, too, over mixing the employee/babysitter role. It's so hard!

Closing your business would be very tough on your clients, too. Hard all around.

Listen to your heart on this one. If keeping your business open is what it clamors for then find ways to do that. How long can your family afford to float daycare right now - 3 months? 6 months? Keep in mind that come tax time you should have significant tax savings this year from the cost of starting a business and not getting paid. Can that offset the hardship right now? Figure out the time left to get finances in balance and then make a plan. I was able to get EXCELLENT help through my city office of economic developement - got a top notch counselor who came to me and helped me make the plan/take the actions I needed.

One of the best pieces of business advice I've had is to hire the right person - hire 'UP' from what your current needs are - and then challenge them to find a way to afford them. How can they make it possible for you to pay them what they are worth? Paying more than you want could be the best bargain in town if you get an excellent person who helps you advance your business.

Hugs to you. BTDT and it was the toughest challenge I've had yet. Keep us posted.
Cathy


Cathy, you are so right about trying to make it work. This is my dream job. This is the reason I went to school. I need to find a way to make it work, but at the same time I feel bad for being a drain on my dh. I think what I'll do is see if I can make it by March 1 (would be my one year of being in business). Because honestly, if I can't do this, I don't want to do anything and it feels like giving up on this is also giving up on ever working again.

I am sorry for this situation and it really stinks for you. I know when I was working for an insurance company that we took forever to pay, not because we were slow in paying but because we were so back logged in claims. One thing that helped is if someone called from the office and sweet talked us about claims. There were times we would pull claims and pay them out of order just because someone in a dr's ofc was nice on the phone with us.

Could you find someone who would work sort of on commission? My thought is if you could find someone who wanted to work a few hours but was willing to work as an independent contractor then you wouldn't necessarily have to pay them until some of the insurance claims were paid. Does this make sense? Not sure how the details would work out but it is an idea.

Also if you had someone who knew they would be paid sooner if the bills were paid sooner they would have incentive to file the claims sooner and to follow up on them in a timely manner.


This was the deal we had. She'd get 5% of collected for the first year. Once payments were being turned around faster, she'd start getting 7%. I'd hoped that it would work as incentive, but I guess it hasn't.

A colleague told me about the person they use and I might go there. But, what I'm actually thinking I'm going to do is do it myself. I have someone I trust who is more than happy to show me how to do it. Then, I'll know if it is actually getting done.

I just finished my 3rd 16 hour day this week - doing bookkeeping. It is the hardest part of my job to do and finally, 5 years and 2 kids later, I think I finally have it down pat. My goal is to get caught up (I've never been caught up), document all the processes, and then hire someone to do it on a 3/4 time basis.

I've burned my way through way too many bookkeeping positions already, very unsuccessfully.... and finally have to agree with the advice that business owners need to learn the financial end compentently before they hand it off to someone else to do. I feel that I can now understand and supervise! Before I was rather at the mercy. I even took an entry level bookkeeping class this year to help polish my skills.

Growing pains are hard... but the growth is good. Here's hoping that tomorrow brings a sunnier perspective to being in charge.
Cathy

Well you're all braver than I who barely works as a 1099 employee and figuring out those taxes. I don't know that I'll ever have the nerve to actually be a business.

Good luck Rebecca.

I am a 1099 employee too and the tax part just sucks.

I started out doing medical transcriptioning, now I am a business manager and love what I do, but still hate the tax part. LOL

I just finished my 3rd 16 hour day this week - doing bookkeeping. It is the hardest part of my job to do and finally, 5 years and 2 kids later, I think I finally have it down pat. My goal is to get caught up (I've never been caught up), document all the processes, and then hire someone to do it on a 3/4 time basis.

I've burned my way through way too many bookkeeping positions already, very unsuccessfully.... and finally have to agree with the advice that business owners need to learn the financial end compentently before they hand it off to someone else to do. I feel that I can now understand and supervise! Before I was rather at the mercy. I even took an entry level bookkeeping class this year to help polish my skills.

Growing pains are hard... but the growth is good. Here's hoping that tomorrow brings a sunnier perspective to being in charge.
Cathy


It will and I think it is right on. I need to know it front and back. I need to know what questions to ask and how to be able to track work. Right now I'm only logging between 10-15 client hours a week, so I don't have a whole lot of billing. I don't plan on expanding for the next five years (until my little man is in 1st grade), so I'm hoping that in five years time I'll be in a position to have someone come into my office to complete billing while I'm there and having regular meetings to track billing, etc.

Now karma has been decent to me today: I've picked up a couple new clients, a couple evaluations, and some testing.

Hey, just wanted to say I am sorry you are dealing with this stress right now. I hope it works out quickly for you!

I'm sorry to hear this. I hope there is a silver lining somewhere.

So sorry this is happened! I think you would do very well to learn all of the bookkeeping yourself. This is not to say don't hire anyone else, but you will be able to check over their work,and take over if they leave, or need time off. The community college in my area offer all kinds of free classes for small business owners, maybe you have that where you live.