Lesson 12- STAR stories

1. *When I was assisting Dr. Jones at Christansen and Jones Dental, there would be days when the amount of appointments and patients outnumbered the assistants we had to work on them.
*I would often have to be in one appointment with Dr. Jones while he administered the numbing agent and help another assistant with the next appointment.
*While my first patient was getting numb, I would make sure that we would not go passed the time allotted to see each patient. It’s a tricky game when that happens, but it’s how you handle yourself in the situation and how well the whole staff works as a team to get the work done.
* In the end I was able to be in one room with a patient when a certain procedure needed doing and help out the rest of the staff by staggering each patient as they came in and assisting the dentist wherever he needed me.
2. *Many times patients insurances choose not to cover certain dental work. They deem it unnecessary work and refuse to pay. This causes the dentist and patient stress. The dentist has already done the work and needs to be paid and the patient needed the work and now has no way to pay for it.
*While working as a insurance coordinator my job is to make sure the dentist is paid for work he has performed. I need to submit proper notes and x-rays to document the procedure and why it was needed for the patient.
*In one particular situation, the insurance company was refusing payment because a case had not been documented properly. As the insurance coordinator I was over 2 other insurance assistants. In this case one of them had submitted the wrong x-ray. This particular x-ray showed that the patients tooth was not as decayed as another angle of a different x-ray showed. So, I as the insurance coordinator knew that my job was to step in and show this assistant why we needed to know how to read the x-ray so that we always submit the proper one, so that the dentist gets paid and we have done our job correctly.
* In the end, I took over the case. It became a battle between the insurance company and our office and I was able, with my experience to handle this deeper situation better. It resulted in full payment for the procedure done and the patient and dentist were able to continue and great relationship and this particular patient is still receiving work from this dentist.
3. *I have always dreamed of running a half marathon. It was something I only thought was a dream, but realized that after seeing my older sister do it, it really could be a reality. I set a goal to run this half marathon by age 25.
*I had one year to train and had not been much of a long distance runner in the past. So I knew it was going to be a big job to tackle. I didn’t know much about half marathons except they were 13.1 miles and outside.
*I researched half marathon training schedules and found one that would work for me. I set out to start a week later and each day I would follow that schedule religiously. I bought the proper clothing that would make my running experience more comfortable and I also included a few friends in my training so that I would be held more accountable to accomplish my goal.
* I trained for 9 months and me and my 2 friends who were there to support and keep me accountable, ran the Huntington Beach half marathon 3 months before my 25th birthday. I learned though this experience that when you have a plan and work hard, you can accomplish any goal you set for yourself.