Meet Anna Griepsma

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anna Griepsma. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anna below.

Anna, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

Starting from a young age, I was the first born in my immediate family, as well as the first born child/grandchild on both sides of my family. Since then, I have 5 younger siblings (from my parents multiple marriages) and an abundance of cousins. But, within my immediate family, I was raised with 2 of my siblings and our childhood was not an easy nor enjoyable one. Being the oldest, I had to grow up a little faster and was a comforter to my two younger siblings when the fighting got bad between my dad and step-mom. I had to make some decisions for myself and my sister when we were very young. Trying to be strong for my siblings, while still in elementary school , wasn’t always easy. In Jr and Sr high school, I secluded myself most of the time and did my own thing. I learned quickly how to be self sufficient and self reliant.

By the time I was 19 I was already out of the house, renting my own place and holding down a full time job at a fairly new HMO back when HMO’s were a new thing. I wasn’t able to get much college in ( 1 semester total) because of that. I didn’t have a car until I was 20 and rode my bike EVERYWHERE. By the time I was 22 I had worked my way up from a file clerk to a claims dept lead and the training dept assistant and leading training sessions. I was on quickly climbing the ladder when I met someone that would take me away from this upward momentum. I got engaged and moved 2 hours north and was married.

Over the next 18.5 years I was married to someone who was a lot like the family that I grew up in. Little did I know that patterns learned in your childhood continue into your adult life unless you break the pattern. Life was ok. It had its ups and down as all marriages do, but this was different. My success was not a priority in his life. In fact, it was a threat to who he was/is. I had my job and he had his. We had a daughter together. I knew something wasn’t right but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I knew that I couldn’t be as bad as he said I was and that I had a lot more potential than he allowed.

So, after I moved north, I took a job at a dr’s office. That one didn’t last long because the owner’s husband liked to gamble and they didn’t have the money to keep me. Shortly after that I found a much longer term job at another providers office. I then started learning the job that I have now. Over the next 30 years I worked in several medical facilities learning everything I could about how to do billing and everything that entails. And I got really, really good at it. At one facility I was passed up for a management position because of my age. I still had a young child at home and they thought that may be a deterent. They gave the job to a coworker that had adult children and less of a risk. But, she was as qualified as I was and we worked together to run the billing dept at the large lab we worked at.

In 2007, my marriage took a sharp downhill plunge. It got weird and ugly. Being able to focus on my task at hand I was able to maintain getting my daughter to school, her sports practices and myself to work. But, only that goes so far. In 2008, my divorce started and I became overwhelmed. I couldn’t eat and my sleep was worse than normal. Just fuctioning was difficult and my work suffered to a point that they let me go.

After the divorce and a new job, my life started down a new path as a family friend, who had received her family counseling license took me in and taught me about my patterns that I needed to break. It was then that I learned why I was the way I was and how to change that and heal and grow as a person. It took about 3 years of therapy and some set backs and fails to finally get myself to a place that I knew who I was. Even my friends noticed a huge difference.

In 2014 I met someone who became a very influential person in my life. He has encouraged me to step outside the box and do things that I only dreamed of. Because I had always been told “no”, I still had that mind set that I probably shouldn’t try it. Taking risks wasn’t really who I was. Now, being a risk taker in doing fun things like skydiving and doing Spartan races, that was a no brainer. But when it came to stepping out with doing something like starting my own business… yeah, no. I grew up without a lot of money and always struggled as a single person to have comfortable life. But I always gave it 110% so that I could have a little something extra once in a while. On top of my regular job, I Ubered for 8 years to make ends meet. I really enjoyed that.

Something that I had always wanted to do to further my career, was to become a Certified Professional Coder. It was an expensive course that I didn’t have the money for. My friend, the one I mentioned before, loaned me the money for the course. I did it online, and in Sept of 2021, I took the test and passed it the first time with an 86%. I know that the years of working at a multitude of different specialties helped me pass this test. Many people don’t pass it the first time.

In 2022, that same friend made a suggestion that I move to Alabama where he was. I would have to figure things out money wise, but that wasn’t anything new for me. Again, Uber to the rescue. Within a few months I found a fantastic job a pediatric facility that needed help in the front office. I was able to bring an additional $25,000 of extra money in from back billing claims that hadn’t been properly billed. But then she started going through a divorce and she became the boss from hell. Her entire staff of 17 all found new places to work. I was the only one left and I was also on my way out. It was at that point, that the years of my friends persistent prodding to start my own business actually seemed like it was something I really should consider.

It hasn’t been easy, but it has been rewarding.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

What’s funny, is that I didn’t choose this career. It chose me. It just kind of happened. But, today, my goal is to help providers achieve their maximum reimbursement for the services they provide, be it doing their billing for them, looking over their accounts and determining where they are losing money, teaching them where they can pick up more funds if they are under billing or maybe they’re receiving a lot of denials and don’t know how to fix the problem. Sometimes, just basic instruction is needed.

But, what I also like, is helping the individual with their own insurance issues. Specifically, if they are going out-of-network to see a specialist or if no one seems to take the insurance that they have, they are stuck with paying out of their own pocket for needed services. I can help them by submitting their claims to their insurance to see if they will get some reimbursement back. I have one family right now, that, since September, I have helped them recoup more than $2000 back from their insurance.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

First and foremost, I’m persistent when it comes to trying to collect insurance money. Almost hawkish. I work the issue until it is resolved. If it can’t be resolved, then you know you did your best to at least try. I have been doing this for 30+ years and I know how to communicate effectively with insurance companies.

Secondly, I retain information in my head really well. My friends and family are often dumbfounded with the insignificant trivia I pop off with sometimes. But that information retention has helped me immensely over the years.

Lastly, being patient and empathetic with my clients. They are trying to either get the money they have worked for or recoup some of their money paid to the dr. By the time they come to me, they’ve already spent a lot of money or have had an issue for some time with their billing. Listening and assuring them that you’ll do your best usually helps.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

The one main obstacle that I am currently facing is a lack of business. I am a new start up and, I know that it takes time to build up a client base, but I just need more clients.

I have done the regular pounding of the pavement passing out business cards. Networking with providers that I already know.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://medicorum-billing-consulting-llc.square.site/
• Linkedin: Anna Griepsma