I'm mostly writing about this because I want to remember it.
This is the first time since my very first job (when I was 16) that I actually love my job. I really do. Even though I'm still not a fan of waking up so early in the morning, I don't dread going to work like I used to. Some days I'm not thrilled to go to work but it's a gigantic step up from where I've been in the past. And even on the days when I'm not particularly excited for work, I don't have that sense of literally being unable to go in or searching desperately for an excuse to stay home.
My work is a little tedious some days, and a little dull, but something about it makes me happy. I'm at a point where I feel like I know what I'm doing in most cases, and there's something kind of oddly satisfying about figuring out what's wrong with a denied claim and knowing how to re-bill it. It's even more satisfying when the claims I correct get paid. In the past month(ish), I've gotten my Medicare collections list down to 18 items . . . it started at 54. I'm pretty impressed with myself, and my boss mentioned the other day to all of us that the clinic's A/R is down, and I know for a fact that I contributed to that. It feels good. This week one of our billers, our practice manager, and our billing office manager are all out (two on vacation, one for a family emergency), which leaves just me and two other billers running the office. It's stressful but at the same time, I'm enjoying the opportunity to kind of show that I can take on a heavier workload when I need to.
Far and away my favorite thing about MHC is my co-workers. There is a tremendous sense of community and of family there and it really kind of amazes me. I've been there just a little bit over 2 months now and I already feel like I'm a part of that family. I love it. Right now one of my co-workers is dealing with some family drama and she has essentially had to adopt her 3 week old niece on very short notice. This past Friday we threw her a surprise baby shower, and it was so sweet. She completely had no clue (how we all managed to keep it a secret I don't know, but we did and I'm impressed) and it was obvious how touched she was. And I just loved that everyone was involved with it, from our CEO (who wrote her a check and bitched about not having enough space to sign in the card) to our newest front desk person (who started last Tuesday), who came to the shower and congratulated my co-worker.
I remember feeling like everyone at Hastings hated me, and it sucked. But at MHC I actually feel well liked. Everyone calls me Jess, our CEO has his own special nickname for me (Green), and I've had a lot of very personal conversations with my co-workers. I like that a lot. I like that there's a good balance of being friends and being co-workers: I can listen to them bitch about whatever they need to bitch about but still ask them questions about claims and stuff like that, and I respect them in both instances.
I feel like this job has done so much for me. It's made me financially stable, which has been a huge weight off my shoulders and off Jerbs' shoulders. It's made me feel more confident, more capable, and more useful. It's helped me to regularize my schedule, particularly where sleep is concerned, which has been good for my mental health. It's given me a gym membership that I'm actively using. It's given me friends and a few good connections within the community. It's teaching me a skill that I'll be able to use wherever I go in the future and that makes me really, really happy. And if it weren't for this job I wouldn't have gotten Max . . . and I love Max. (Even Benji seems to not mind Max, which is amazing).
I think this is where I'm supposed to be right now. I really do. I'm so grateful to have found MHC when I did, and I'm very glad that they liked me enough to hire me even though I didn't have billing experience. I never realized how big a difference having a job I liked would make in my life, but now that I have, I hope I never have to go back!
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