Handling the Medical Claim

Catherine Cochran has more than sixteen years of experience in the medical office field, including front office and business office operations in small and large clinics. Her knowledge and experience ranges from patient data entry, charge entry, receipt posting, to billing and working on medical claims.

Her decision to write this book came about several years ago. Many coworkers commented that she was a good teacher and always provided help and information. As a result, she decided to pass on her knowledge and experience to new students and medical billing representatives.

Catherine's career began in October 1995 when she first enrolled in a medical terminology class at Rose State College, followed by a medical transcriptionist and insurance filing and coding class at DeMarge College. She began her career as a business office manager for two oral surgeons in June 1996 and in 1999 transferred to the billing department, where she became an insurance billing clerk. In 2000 she went to work for a billing company, where she became a receipt poster as well as an accounts receivable (A/R) representative. In July 2005, when the company she worked for moved out of state, she decided to take a different direction and went to work for a large insurance company paying claims as a claims examiner. This position lasted until March of 2006 when she returned to claim submission activities. She has been working for the same company since 2006 as a billing specialist. During this time she has gained experience in charge entry, patient data entry, and posting of receipts.

Catherine, her son Chris, and her husband Rodney have lived in the small town of McLoud, Oklahoma, since 1992. Rodney is retired from the US Navy. Today, Catherine works as a medical billing specialist for a large clinic, but she plans to start her own business as an independent billing consultant and learn about medical billing from the hospital side.