ClaimTek Medical Billing Success Stories

Graeme Wilson and Kiwi Ingenuity

Once in a while, you come across an amazing business story –and this is one of them. Meet Graeme Wilson, who hails from Queenstown, New Zealand, from where he runs a medical billing business for doctors in Tennessee and Connecticut!!! How is this possible, you are wondering? That’s where the amazing story begins.

Graeme read about medical billing in 1992 while traveling in the U.S. and something about the business resonated with him. He knew it was to become his new career. With a background in engineering and an MBA with a thesis in healthcare from New Zealand, Graeme recognized that electronic medical billing would become a huge industry in the US. He also understood that he had a unique advantage – the New Zealand currency and standard of living was only about 40% of the American. This meant that he could be extremely competitive in pricing his services and still make an excellent living in New Zealand. He also intended this to be a family business, involving his three daughters and brother.

Graeme spent the next four years studying the business and exploring software companies and business opportunities. He settled upon ClaimTek, literally showing up one day at Kyle Farhat's office wanting to buy in. Given Graeme's rather distant living circumstances, Kyle at first refused to sell to him, naturally thinking how could a man from down under run a billing business in America. But Graeme was determined, committed, and crazily entrepreneurial.

Graeme returned to New Zealand and pulled together his financial resources to make the investment. In November 2000, he showed up again at ClaimTek and convinced Kyle to sell him a package. In June 2001, he plopped down his hard earned New Zealand kiwis (the slang term used for NZ dollars, named after the bird, not the fruit), and launched Transglobal Processing, LLC in America and TUI International Corp, Ltd. in New Zealand.

Getting his business off the ground proved difficult. Graeme faced more than the usual obstacles, being in New Zealand. For one, he had to deal with complex immigration issues. In June 2001, he and one of his daughters spent weeks in Tennessee, doing cold calling on doctors who generally loved his flat Kiwi accent. They then did the same in Connecticut.

Graeme’s business savvy and determination began to pay off, as he started to land clients and begin his billing services. Today, he is slightly over 30% of his goal of 100 practitioners by the end of 2002. Amazingly, no one seems to mind that Graeme's daughters do the billing from New Zealand, given that the world is now totally digital. It's even humorous to think about the fact that New Zealand is 16 hours plus one day ahead of the East Coast (i.e., noon on the east coast on Tues is 4:00 A.M. Wed in New Zealand). But this gives Graeme’s company an advantage – they can literally get to work processing claims before the next day has even started for their East Coast clients.

Graeme uses an irresistible marketing technique that is worth mentioning. Once he target a prospective client, he or his daughter hand delivers a package with a cover letter, several brochures, and a sample of the contract, along with a red rose for the gatekeeper who often blocks the way to talking with the doctor. Graeme notes that the rose works almost every time. "They always remember us on a return visit." he states.

Graeme provides full service, from billing to patient statements to soft collections. He maintains an 800 phone number that provides no clue to the fact that clients are calling New Zealand. He is proud to offer essentially 24-hour service. He visits the US every few months, a trip of 33 hours from home to the East Coast, and he continues to aggressively pursue new clients. His daughters process the claims at home and are now considering becoming specialists in dental billing. His brother helps with software training on MedOffice, ClaimTek’s premier software.

If you are amazed at what this Kiwi has accomplished, heed his advice. Graeme believes that "no problem is insurmountable if you have the right attitude. It might take longer than you hoped to get results, but if you just keep chipping away at it, you’ll succeed."

By the way, another amazing aspect of this man is, at age 52, he runs several times a week in the 10,000-feet high mountains of his region in New Zealand and even does a distance run of 15-25 miles once a month to maintain his "mental tenacity."

If Graeme can do all this, think of what you can do!