ClaimTek Medical Billing Success Stories

Chef cooks up something big

Roy DuBose ready to go national, reach 200 clients

By Rick Snider

Roy DuBose was just looking for a new career. Instead, he's building an empire that may reach Wall Street.

After suffering a career-ending back injury that would no longer let him earn $150,000 as a chef at a ritzy casino, DuBose suddenly needed more than a new life. He needed money. Missing work for six months while recovering from surgery left him with a mountain of medical claims, delinquent mortgage payments and two kids heading to college.

Some people would call it a nightmare. DuBose called it opportunity.

Despite never using a computer, DuBose founded Automated Medical Management in Gautier, Mississippi. Within two weeks, he signed up a neurology practice and a chiropractor. Within months, he was processing medical claims for dozens of doctors. Within 15 months, DuBose was handling nearly 50 clients from New Orleans to the Florida panhandle. He moved into a 5,000-square foot office, hired six full-time employees and started working on gaining the next 50 clients within months.

Next year, Roy DuBose expects to handle 200 doctors with 25 employees. Within five years, he plans to go nationwide and maybe take his company public. Hello, Wall Street.

"I want it to be so self supporting that we get corporate America interested in us," DuBose said. "It goes back to two things -- having a team and initiative. Most people are happy with being a mom-and-pop operation. I'm not. I'm rolling the dice."

And he's coming up boxcars. DuBose, 37, is not some corporate raider who learned how to franchise a company while working for Microsoft or Coca-Cola. He was supervising a kitchen in a Biloxi, Mississippi. casino. Just an average guy with a growing family and financial needs. Oh, DuBose had a college degree in marketing that he found handy when dealing with the many different types of clients that dined in his casino, but DuBose is Joe Q. Public who was simply looking to improve his life.

Unfortunately, the back injury won't let DuBose lift more than 10 pounds without pain so his cooking career was kaput. He looked around at other home-based businesses, but ironically those mounting medical bills that were the source of his troubles also proved to be the solution. He quickly found medical claims processors make way too many mistakes and medical offices aren't equipped to handle claims efficiently. Indeed, one industry report said 37 percent of paper claims are faulty.

Eureka! Einstein thought of the atom in his epiphany. Isaac Newton discovered gravity. Roy DuBose founded a company.

"A lot of doctors have no clues about insurance billing," he said. "They go to an attorney and accountants for professional advice so why not billing?"

DuBose discovered ClaimTek Systems of Portland, Oregon. was the leader in medical billing training and support. Their software programs were efficient and reliable yet so simple to use that even someone with "a degree in bird pecking" quickly learned Windows was not just something to look through unless trying to see your future. ClaimTek's mentor program allowed DuBose to train hands-on from his own home on his preferred schedule.

"If you have to put a name on ClaimTek, it's trust," Roy said. "ClaimTek’s software, training and marketing programs made the difference. They had great support. They call you back. If you need longer they'll stay with it. ClaimTek’s sales were not aggressive. It was business. From President, Kyle Farhat, to their training and support staff, they were just great”.

It wasn't long before DuBose recruited two family members to start processing claims. Then full-timers with at least six years experience in their field were hired after DuBose signed up everything from pediatricians to brain surgeons. After all, the market is immense. Less than one third of the 1 trillion claims annually are filed electronically so there's plenty of room for new companies.

What was the key for someone with no sales or medical background to quickly gain so many clients? Problem solving.

"It's all about finding out the negatives the doctors were having," DuBose said. "The positives don't matter. The negative is what needs working. They needed answers on how to fix the problem or they needed me to fix it for them. We're into full practice management."

Soon, DuBose was picking up clients by word of mouth. Seems doctors told their friends how DuBose was increasing their cash flow by 25 to 40 percent.

"That's a lot of money," DuBose said. "We pay for ourselves and more."

But how did DuBose handle the growing demands of a small business becoming a big business? It was no different than running a kitchen. Treat people well, hire the best and work hard.

"It's about knowing where you want to go and treating people the way you want to be treated," he said. "It doesn't seem like a big business at all. It seems small. It seems like day 1 to me."

There are days when DuBose misses being a chef. Then again, he's cooking up something big -- the American dream. Instead of a KFC or McDonald's on your street corner, you may one day see DuBose's Automated Medical Management.

And you'll think -- that guy's nobody special. I can do that, too.