No degree - No problem

Don’t let the lack of a degree hold you back says Sandy. I used to feel insecure because I chose to start my career before finishing my degree. But now I don’t. I’ve had great jobs, lots of opportunity and have always done well. Although I have to admit that not having a degree probably drove me to work harder than most.

I got my foot in the door with Cigna Healthcare working as a Benefits Analyst. It was before computers were used for processing claims so we had to manually figure out how much to pay on each claim. Can you imagine? Just before I left in 1999 we were just starting to receive some of the claims “electronically”. The claims were actually mailed to us on floppy discs – so not quite electronically the way we think of it today, but still, getting the electronic files made my job easier.

From there I worked at a hospital as a Collections Specialist. I loved being close to the patients, talking with the volunteers and sharing lunch with colleagues. It felt like being part of a big family. It was a good experience but I missed having goals and structure. Fortunately, the hospital was part of a bigger system (HCA) and they eventually created a Regional Business Office (referred to as an RBO). It was more of a corporate setting with formal training, clear goals and task oriented teams. I was eventually promoted to lead the refunds team. I loved being a supervisor and especially enjoyed training and mentoring my staff.

Since then I have been working as an Account Manager for clearing houses – the companies that transmit claims and payment information between the providers and payers. So you could say that I’ve seen the evolution of electronic claims submission first hand. My primary responsibility now is to support the client and build the relationship, but I also help develop, test and deploy our new technology. I am always creating new tools and doing webinars to help train my clients on the software. I sometimes miss having face to face interaction with them but at the same time I love the flexibility of working from home. It doesn’t work for everyone. You have to be really disciplined and show results to do it.

If I was starting over, I don’t think that I would do anything differently. I know that there will always be opportunities if I keep pushing myself to learn as things change. I encourage others to do the same because you really can control your own destiny when you’re open to learning new things.

Questions about being an Account Manager? Ask Sandy. Post your questions for Sandy as a reply.

Sandra Sawatzki
Account Manager
GHN Online