I found this company in the local newspaper and the newspaper advertisers state that they only advertise for what they are believed to be legitimate businesses. I call the 800 number and I spoke with a young woman and she told me extremely brief details about the program.
Her name was Angie and she said it was a program to help you learn medical billing and coding and when your training was complete, the companies central processing center would contract you with various physicians offices and you would make around $825 a week.
The cost of the program, which was $299, seemed a little steep so I said I'd have to think about it. I talked it over with my husband and we agreed it would be a good stay at home option since we have 2 children.
I called back about 2 days later with more questions and spoke to a girl named Emily. I asked what the company's name and info was and how exactly it all worked and she got somewhat of an attitude and said "Didn't the girl you spoke with the first time tell you all this stuff?" I said no. She then told me some more details about the program.
It is a billing and coding software program that allows you to input patient and doctor information and send it electronically to insurance companies for reimbursement of medical services. It included a training program and the billing and coding software and a guaranteed physician placement service.
I bought into it and ordered the program. When I got it, it contained some elementary typed pages about basic program operations, and a bootleg copy of a seriously crappy medical billing software. The case insert and cd cover were both just printed from a not so good printer and stuck on.
The software would not work at first telling me I was missing an OCX file and I called my "Processor Support" consultant at the number listed in the paperwork and he said to email tech support at the email address in the information. I did and they sent me an attachment for the file.
Once loaded all the functions of the software did not work and I called Processor Support once again and he said these features would be unlocked when I completed my training and had contracted with a physician. So, I did my training which was composed of a reading exercise and a self given test with open book privelages. I sent in my test results and then was told that I had to get a business license and an EIN (Employer Identification Number for tax purposes). The business license cost me $20 and I got set up for the EIN.
Now comes the long part. I recieved 4 physicians addresses with a sample letter of application/resume Simply stating that I had completed my training and certification and was now ready to provide medical billing services for each individual office. I sent the four and got no response. A few weeks later I called my Processor Support guy and he said that sometimes it takes a few batches.
From there I sent about 6 sets of 4 addresses each time waiting about a month in between each batch. All the while staying in touch with my Processer Support guy. After a while I got very impatient and started talking about a refund. It was around December and he told me to wait till after the first b/c that is when most physicians offices do the majority of their hiring. So I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. I tried to call again in January and a message on his phone said that he was away for the week and to call back the following week. I tried calling again and the phone was shut off.
Since then I have tried calling the original number and e-mailing the "Tech Support" guys and have had no luck. I payed for the program around Aug. Of '05 and lost complete contact in Feb. Of '07.
DO NOT fall for a medical billing scam. You cannot get this kind of job without official schooling and you certainly cannot work at home off the bat. Don't you think if you could the other medical billers at hospitals, ect. Would already be doing it? Don't make the mistake I made in thinking that an add in the local paper is any more real that one online. All financial gain in life comes from hard work and applying yourself. When it looks like easy money, there's always a catch.
If anyone knows about this program or rip-off and has any idea how to get my money back please let me know. Thank you.
Missyd
Jefferson City, Missouri
U.S.A.
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