ClaimTek Medical Billing Success Stories

Work to live, not live to work

Rene Chabala finds higher quality of life

The endless days were getting to Rene Chabala. She liked her job, but working 12 to 14 hours was becoming too much of a physical strain. It was OK when younger, but passing 40 is more than a milestone. It's a midlife marker and Rene read the signs of needing an easier lifestyle.

"The stress was really start wreak havoc on me," Rene said. "It was getting way too much working that many hours."

Rene opened RLC Medical Billing in Harrisburg, Pa. in April 2001 and now works six hours daily, five days per week. For the math impaired, that's 30 hours versus her old 60 to 70 hour weeks. And the money is even better working less than half her old hours.

Two major clients came quickly and three more soon followed. Being self-employed has meant picking and choosing her own hours and clients.

"The biggest thing is self discipline," Rene said. "When I need to do something I do it to get it out of the way. I don't want things sitting on my desk."

That can-do attitude will eventually grow RLC Medical Billing into a firm with employees and a profit that soars past $100,000 annually.

"The potential is unlimited on how far you want to go," she said.

The electronic claims aspect particularly excites Rene's clients. Despite being Pennsylvania's state capital, Harrisburg still a conservative area bordered by Amish communities, Hershey's candy factories and Three Mile Island's nuclear power plant. Despite ending cumbersome paper claims that took three times longer to receive payment, clients are only now eager for the new technology.

"Harrisburg is 10 years behind everybody else," Rene said. "The Pennsylvania Dutch influence puts people a little off until prove yourself, but the doctors are really excited about it."

After working in the health insurance field for 14 years, Rene knew she needed better software than used by her previous employers. She's computer literate, but that doesn't mean wanting to navigate through a hard-to-understand program. Rene wanted medical claims processing software for dummies.

"I want software that walks and talks to me. I can't be worried about whether it works," she said. "I knew what I wanted."

"My expectations weren't so outrageous. It's not a difficult thing to do when you have the knowledge."

Many of ClaimTek's clients have no computer experience, but Rene is the ultimate exception. Three computers line her home office, including one for power point presentations. Finding easy-to-use software isn't easy, but Rene came across ClaimTek Systems' famed Lytec program. One phone call to president Kyle Farhat convinced her ClaimTek's renowned training and technical support was exactly what she wanted.

"To have Kyle call me personally and call me a dozen times to explain how everything works really hooked me," Rene said. "I was very surprised how smooth the training went. The billing end is not as difficult as people think. It comes down to self discipline."

Rene and Kyle still talk regularly. Rene sees it as a long-term relations stretching over the next two decades until she retires.

"I was important to Kyle [from the start] and after a year I'm still important to him as a client," Rene said. "I want to do this until retiring and over the years I believe the relationship will stay that way."