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WE DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Posted by Karla Brown in Community Involvement

I got a call yesterday morning and on the other end of the phone was my 22yr daughter, screaming at the top of her lungs. I of course instantly thought something was wrong. After a minute of saying “I can’t understand you”, she slowed down and explained she had just received her letter of acceptance for the Graduate program at the University of Missouri. My heart rate began to slow to its normal pace and I gave her all my congratulations and of course, “I told you so”.

Later on in the day, I received a text message from that same daughter, thanking me for raising her up to become such a focused and determined women. She said because of that, it helped her to get where she is now and where she will be going in the future. I though to myself wow, I did that? Now, I also have a 20yr old son who is a junior in college. I was very surprised he went on to college as much as he disliked high school, but things have really changed for him and he too is excelling at his goals. I started thinking about my kids growing up and trying to remember exactly what I did or said to wind up so very blessed. Sure, I can remember some of the easy things we parents teach our kids like, “eat your vegetables”, “do your homework”, “respect your elders” and “don’t run with scissors in your hands. But I can truly say I don’t remember what I did or said to get them to the point where they are ready to take on this complicated and ever changing world we live in now, but it’s obvious, they remember and for that, I am truly grateful.

So, I guess what I am getting at is, for all of you parents, soon to be parents, and even grandparents that may not already know this, our children really do listen to us! They get it, they got it, even if we don’t remember exactly what we said or how we said it, they eventually do get it and one day if they haven’t all ready, they will remind you that you do make a difference in their lives and they are better for it. So be proud of yourselves and keep up the good work. And to think, it wasn’t even Mother’s Day!

The Dream Must Go On

Posted by Karla Brown in Community Involvement

Today we celebrate the birthday of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We all know the story of Dr. King, or at least we should. We know he was a minister, a pioneer for civil rights, a husband and father. Remember, he gave that memorable speech. You know the one where he talks about having a “dream” in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Some of us were not born at that time, but we have heard the speech or even seen it replayed on our televisions. We also heard the stories of his assassination in April of 1968 and the riots that followed. He was taken away too soon like another famous American in our history, President John F. Kennedy.

Today, we must continue to work on keeping his hopes and dreams alive. His visions for equal rights were not just for African Americans. They were for people of all races, young and the old. He wanted our children, no matter what color, to be able to play, laugh and learn together. He wanted men and women of all races to earn equal pay if they performed the same job and worked the same amount of hours. He wanted economic justice for the poor and disadvantaged no matter the color of their skin. He was a man of peace and love.

I believe if Dr. King was here today, he would be encouraged by how much has been accomplished. Our children are educated together and happily play side by side. Minorities, male and female are earning their rightful salaries. We have hundreds of programs and agency’s working to help the poor and less fortunate get back on their feet instead of just giving them enough to survive. We have seen our first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice and our first African American President of the United States.

He would be proud. We should be proud. After all, his dreams were meant for everyone.

Thoughts For The Blue Moon

Posted by Paul Spencer, CPC, CPC-H in Community Involvement, Fi-Med Services, Hot Topics, J. Paul Spencer, CPC CPC-H

Today’s a special day on the astronomical calendar. Every 32 months or so, two full moons occur in the same calendar month. We had a full moon back on December 2, and a look to the skies this evening will find that we have another full moon ringing in the New Year to the celebrating world below. In honor of this rare occurrence, I thought I’d take a step away from professional subject matter and bring forth some observations of a more personal nature.

Back in 1977, I was 11 years old, growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I was required to take a book out of the elementary school library. I was always looking for material that interested only me. While this made the graded results of my schooling rather shocking in their downward path, I dare say that my desire for exploration and inquisition has served me better intellectually than many of my peers from so long ago. Looking through the books, I chose one called 2010: Living In The Future by Geoffrey Hoyle.

As a fan of the future, I marvelled at what I saw within the pages. My bed wouldn’t be on a squeaky metal bed frame, but would pop up from the floor with the push of a button. My children wouldn’t be going to a brick and mortar school. They would be going to school via “videophone” (this is what we called web cams in 1977 while we waited for our Ford Pintos to explode due to rear impact). You could leave your car at home and strap on a jet pack, as the cartoon-illustrated skies would be darkened by free-hanging people with fuel-filled propulsion engines strapped to their backs. I’m leaving out moon colonies and environmentally-controlled domed cities, but I think you get the general thrust of this book.   

I don’t know how I can say this without sounding critical of the over 7 billion people currently inhabiting the Earth, but the calendar leaves me no alternative.

Tomorrow is 2010, and we have failed our own future.

This is not some run-of-the-mill failure, such as a misspelling or a briefly untied shoe. This is an international, multi-societal, cross-generational, self-inflicted catastrophe equivalent to laying on one’s back on train tracks as the 5:15 high speed commuter line is within view.

In my civilian life, I am an acolyte of the great scientist and renaissance man R. Buckminster Fuller, who spent more than half of the 20th century attempting to explain to the world at large both layman and academic that the Earth indeed had the resources (both sustainable and non-sustainable) for everyone on the planet to comfortably coexist. To that end, he designed tools for responsible care and habitation of the planet, not only in the realm of housing, but across the width and breadth of design sciences.

I’ve spent a great deal of my post-adolescent life hoping that the powers that be would invest heavily in a future closer to what Fuller imagined, and have been continuously frustrated as vital resources have been heavily tilted to obsolete models of existense. Whether it is the removal of mountaintops in West Virginia for coal or watching a drunken captain of an Alaskan supertanker run aground and spill oil over hundreds of miles of coastline, hanging on brazenly to the past doesn’t appear to be improving anyone’s life in a measurable fashion.

More disturbingly, there appears to be a truth fatigue gripping the world. Turn on any TV news program or surf the darker reaches of the internet for any length of time and a basic set of facts is being reputed by someone who has apparently crawled out from under a rather large, moss-covered rock somewhere who has either an ideological or monetary interest in bringing forth a contrary viewpoint, no matter how ridiculous. As this type of person is slowly given more time to spout nonsense to a broader audience, truths that have sometimes taken scholars and scientists centuries to be realized disappear in waves of reddened faces and screeds in capital letters, replaced with dogma, superstition and an utter lack of intellectual rigor. And admit it, when was the last time you saw a rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral, and felt any sense of anticipation or excitement?

In looking back, the only thing from that children’s book that came true was the idea of using computers to order food remotely and having it delivered to your house. Currently, this is only in effect for restaurants and pizza parlors and not supermarkets, as was fully envisioned. Thanks to this “innovation”, someone else’s plan for the future has helped to make me, according to my sister-in-law’s Wii Fit Pro, “obese”. I guess if you’re weighed down by calories, it’s somewhat hard to find the energy to fight for a future that benefits more than your perpetually-full digestive tract. My same-old squeaky metal bed frame (push button not included) is a little louder nowadays.

Going back to Buckminster Fuller, he once wrote the following as he contemplated his own actions in the world and how he could be of most benefit to the planet and its inhabitants at large:

I am not a noun, a thing. I seem to be a verb; an evolutionary process, an integral function of the universe”.

We’re now knee-deep in the 21st century. Many people in power across the globe have a great deal invested in making sure your internal drive to be anything more than a noun remains dormant. As we go forth into 2010, it is my hope that mankind’s inate curiosity about its universal place leads to a litany of much-needed, long-dormant questions, followed in short order by a storm of ideas aimed at improving current existence and ensuring future survival. Until my next posting of this nature (August 31st, 2012, according to my astrological calendar), I challenge you to do the right thing, both for yourself and the world at large. Be a verb!

Paul Spencer CPC, CPC-H

Fi-Med Recipient Of Master Mettle Award

Posted by Lisa Velasquez in Business Awards, Fi-Med News, In the Press, Industry Updates

The MMAC/COSBE Future 50  program was created nearly 30 years ago as an event to recognize the outstanding achievement of local, fast-growing entrepreneurs. Members of the Fi-Med team celebrated along side other winners at the awards luncheon held September 17, 2009 at the Hilton Milwaukee City. Fi-Med was awarded the “Master Mettle Award”, an honor reserved exclusively for three time winners.  You can read all about it here. All 50 winners were asked to share their key strategies for surving the economic turndown, those interviews can be found by clicking this link.

Did you find this information helpful? If you have information that you think would be of interest to the medical or business community and would like the information posted on our blog, please submit your request for review to my attention at or via DM on Twitter@fimed

2009 Inc. 5000 Winners Announced

Posted by Lisa Velasquez in Business Awards, Fi-Med News, In the Press

Inc. Magazine Unveils Exclusive List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies-the Inc. 5000

Fi-Med Management, Inc. Ranks No. 1344 on the 2009 Inc. 5000 with Three-Year Sales Growth of 237.7%

NEW YORK, August 12, 2009–Inc. magazine today ranked Fi-Med Management, Inc. NO. 1344 on its third annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy-America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs. Consumer electronics maker Vizio, Internet giant GoDaddy, rental car service Zipcar, and beverage maker Honest Tea are among the prominent brands featured on this year’s list.

“Savvy trend spotters and those who invest in private companies know that the Inc. 5000 is the best place to find out about young companies that are achieving success through a wide variety of unprecedented business models, as well as older private companies that are still expanding at an impressive rate, ” said Inc. 5000 project manager Jim Melloan. “That’s why our list is so eagerly anticipated every year.”

Fi-Med Management, Inc. is an award-winning financial management firm providing comprehensive claims, coding, billing, lockbox and financial reporting services to the medical industry.

The 2009 Inc. 5000, unveiled today on Inc.com, serves as a unique report card on the U.S. economy. Despite the ongoing recession, aggregate revenue among the companies on the list actually increased to $214 billion, up $29 billion from last year, with a median three-year growth rate of 126 percent. The Inc. 5000 are responsible for creating more than 1 million jobs since their founding, making the list perhaps the best example of the impact private, fast-growing companies can have on the economy. Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found on Inc.com.

Contact: Lisa Velasquez 714-935-0073

 

Meet the Wellness Team

Posted by Lisa Velasquez in Fi-Med News

Fi-Med's Wellness Team-Tonique Shirley, Mary Wiczynski, Willie Roby, Nou Xiong, Karla Brown and Rosa Rodriguez

Fi-Med's Wellness Team-Tonique Shirley, Mary Wiczynski, Willie Roby, Nou Xiong, Karla Brown and Rosa Rodriguez

Our Wellness Team is made up of a volunteer group of dedicated employees on a mission to motivate the staff to take a proactive approach to improving their health. Working toward a goal of 100% participation, the Wellness Team meets frequently to create fun ways to get the staff involved. They recently kicked off their own version of NBC’s The Biggest Loser contest with cash prize incentives for those who lose the most weight. Another great idea was the announcment that Fi-Med would participate in the Vince Lombardi run/walk for cancer. The Wellness Team designed Fi-Med t-shirts for the employees to wear and had a great turnout. Everyone who participated really enjoyed spending the day with family and friends for such a great cause.

Sometimes it’s the little things that can make a big difference. In order to pursuade people to make healthier snack choices, they placed a basket of fruit where for just .50 cents(to replenish the supply) employees can help themselves to a wide variety of fresh fruit in season. Always looking for opportunities to encourage people to get up and move around, it is not unusual for the Wellness Team to invite others to join them in a power walk during their breaks!

Recently, Fi-Med became a member of the Wisconsin Wellness Council, an affiliate of  the Wellness Councils of America. Members are dedicated to building healthier communities in Wisconsin through health promotion programs at the worksite.

Fingers crossed: Fi-Med nominated for Ernst & Young Award

Posted by Lisa Velasquez in Business Awards, Fi-Med News

Cross your fingers for us, too: Fi-Med’s executive duo, Adrian Velasquez and Christine Krause, are in the running for the prestigious Ernst + Young 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year Award!

Adrian and Christine were very honored to be nominated by CPA firm Clifton Gunderson LLP this year, and our offices were buzzing with excitement Friday when the E+Y team came for their site review. Adrian and Christine have worked hard to push Fi-Med beyond the boundaries of a traditional medical billing firm, and they deserve recognition for many of the bold and entrepreneurial achievements that helped get us here. We’re all anxiously awaiting the finalist results on April 28, wish us luck!

Fi-Med wins a second Future 50 award

Posted by Lisa Velasquez in Business Awards, In the Press

Fi-Med president Adrian Velasquez and vice-president Christine Krause receive their second Future 50 award from the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association.

Read more.

Fi-Med places high in 2008 Inc 5000

Posted by Lisa Velasquez in Business Awards, In the Press

Fi-Med ranks #61 in Inc’s roster of top 100 health companies. Read more.

Fi-Med featured in MD News magazine

Posted by Lisa Velasquez in In the Press

“Far and above a traditional medical billing company, Fi-Med’s portfolio of services includes accounts receivables management, sophisticated lockbox services, claims appeals, encounter form scanning and transmission, compliance monitoring and risk reduction, contract negotiation, coding and credentialing, in-depth client training, detailed reporting and data analysis.”

Download the PDF.