Lou Ann Strickland
Jacksonville,AL
Summary
Polite and professional Financial Aid Call Center Specialist, successful in applying strong communication and problem resolution skills to each customer issue. Solid history of surpassing productivity and quality targets in high-volume settings. Skillful in building long-lasting, loyal customer/student/associate relationships, motivated, and a true team player.
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Financial Aid Call Center Specialist
Jacksonville State University
05.2022 - Current
- Assisted students by answering questions and responding to inquiries concerning financial aid awarding (loans, grants, and scholarships)
- Assisted students and families in filling out financial aid applications.
- Contacted families and students about late payments, admissions requirements, registration requirements, financial aid verification documentation, and satisfactory academic progress evaluations.
- Guided students through financial aid processes, by completing necessary forms and updating account records.
- Communicated with prospective students and families to illustrate available financial aid opportunities.
- Represented financial aid office at group meetings with high school students, current students, and parents.
- Helped college students obtain financial aid through loan programs.
- Explained very technical financial information to applicants in easy to understand language.
- Provided financial aid counseling to enrolled and prospective students.
Medical Biller and Coder
Various
01.2020 - 05.2022
- Coding and billing pain management, orthopedic, DME, radiology, and general practice medical claims
- Customer service calls from patients
- Accounts receivable and resolving denials
- Specialized in resolving Medicare and Medicaid denials, Workers Compensation, Pharmaceutical, and Commercial business claims
- Expertise in medical records, pre-authorizations, and insurance verification.
- Processed insurance company denials by auditing patient files, researching procedures, and diagnostic codes to determine proper reimbursement.
- Interacted with physicians and other healthcare staff to ask questions regarding patient services.
Medical Billing and Collections Specialist/HR Assistant
Downey Medical
01.2019 - 01.2020
- Insurance verification, billing, coding, AR management and collections, customer service, posting insurance and patient payments, marketing and sales, EDI reporting and tracking, and extensive knowledge and experience of Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurance
- Assisted manager with customer service, personnel records, monthly financial reporting, court claims reporting and documentation, scheduling, and auditing.
- Corrected and billed over $480,000 in suspended claims resulting in profit increase over $125,000 for one month of billing otherwise would have been lost revenue.
Administrative Assistant/Marketing Coordinator
Grizzard Living Aids
08.2014 - 01.2016
- Developed advertising publications such as: special bulletins, public service announcements (PSA), sales mailings, manage content for online, mobile, and social media platforms; and research specs on all durable medical equipment (DME) to be installed/sold
- Scheduled meetings with potential clients, greeting customers, billing, deposits, cash handling, answering phones, recording payments and billing insurance.
- Executed record filing system to improve document organization and management.
- Developed and executed marketing programs and general business solutions resulting in increased company exposure, customer traffic and elevated sales numbers.
- Planned and executed events and marketing programs to increase qualified leads.
- Managed and oversaw design of marketing material and promotional literature for organization.
Administrative Assistant
Elwood Staffing/Onin Services
01.2012 - 01.2014
- Created reports, tables, charts, minutes and other documents
- Maintained calendars for personnel, meeting rooms, and marketing
- Budget preparation, accounts receivables, created purchase requisitions, general ledger, and overseeing payroll and time reporting
- Maintained schedule for cleaning of offices and school grounds
- Answering multi-line phone systems, taking messages, and greeting visitors.
Front Desk Clerk and Insurance Coding Clerk
McClellan Family Chiropractic
01.2008 - 01.2009
- Admitting patients for procedures, insurance verification, collecting and calculating co-payments, deductibles, co-insurance, scheduling patients for follow up appointments, coding and billing patient's claims, posting insurance payments and patient's payments, preparing patient's charts, preparing patient's rooms and x-rays, applying TENS Units on patients, preparing daily deposits, daily/weekly/monthly financial statements for doctor and office management, answering phones and inquires to patient's accounts.
- Used internal software to process reservations, check-ins and check-outs.
- Collected room deposits, fees, and payments.
- Calculated billings and posted charges to room accounts, reviewing charges with guests at checkout.
Front Desk Clerk and Insurance Coding Clerk
Dr. Gibson Dental
01.2007 - 01.2008
- Admitting patients for procedures, insurance verification, collecting and calculating co-payments, deductibles, co-insurance, scheduling patients for follow up appointments, coding and billing patient's claims, posting insurance payments and patient's payments, preparing patient's charts, preparing daily deposits, answering phones and inquiries into patient's accounts
- Accomplishments: created and streamlined medical billing for dental procedures with accidental/medical diagnosis, resulting in increased revenue by filing claim under medical and not dental
- Greeted guests at front desk and engaged in pleasant conversations while managing check-in process.
- Used internal software to process reservations, check-ins and check-outs.
- Collected room deposits, fees, and payments.
- Answered multi-line phone system and transferred callers to appropriate department or staff member.
Admissions/Marketing Coordinator
Golden Living Center
2006 - 2007
- Supervised all new admissions and readmissions, validated insurance payer prior to all admissions, calculated all remaining Skilled Nursing days, created and presented marketing presentations to hospitals, doctors, and families in need of long term care, provided guided tours of facility, responsible for all correspondence relating to admission and patient's needs, set up promotional photo shoots, and created in shop advertising, reported all weekly sales and sales referrals to corporate office.
Professional Relations Representative/Claims Adjuster/Customer Service Representative
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama
11.1998 - 2005
- Professional Relations Representative: Managed and updated servers for Cahaba Government Benefits Administrators (GBA) and Medicare websites, created layouts and written copy for monthly Medicare magazines, brochures, special bulletins, and press releases.
- Produced monthly publications consisting of 150-250 pages distributed to providers state wide for Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Iowa.
- Updated Change Request (CR) from Medicare to website, created training materials, handouts, graphics, and marketing mailers
- Served as lead manager on projects and coordinated with outside vendors for completion of large printed publications and advertising mailers
- Maintained Medicare fee schedules database for web applications
- Designed and programmed applications where providers could register for online classes and on site meetings
- Conducted editorial review meetings, corresponded with providers about publications and internet status, and conducted community outreach education meetings for beneficiaries and providers about Medicare website usage and benefits
- Accomplishments: increased membership of online users to access of online publications and online meetings which resulting in decreased printing cost of monthly publications and special bulletins
- Claims Adjuster: Corrected claims edits due to filing errors and all problems with Coordination of Benefits (COB)
- Accomplishments: worked on special project dealing with COB, resulting in complete reduction of back log of claims of claims where subscribers had commercial and Medicare coverage
- Customer Service Representative: Answered calls from subscribers concerning health benefits and claims processing, high volume call center, calculating co-payments, deductibles, co-insurance, proficient with in and out of network benefits, and major medical coverage.
- Supported public relations managers with writing, researching and preparation of materials
- Engaged in professional networking to maintain strong relationships with communications and media professionals to drive partnerships and effective dissemination of mass communications.
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Communication -
Jacksonville State University
Jacksonville, AL05.1998
Skills
- Marketing/Sales
- AR/AP/GL and Collections Management
- Customer Service
- Office Management/HR/Administrative assistant
- Medical Billing/Coding
- Insurance Verification
- Electronic Data Interchange Reports and Suspense Claims Reconciliation
- Provider Credentialing
- Medical Terminology and Medical Records Management
- HIPAA
- Medical Office/Hospital/Skilled Nursing Facility Experience
- Copywriting/Editing/Pagination/Print layout and design
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Digital Marketing/Social Media Management/Website programming for Medicare contractors
- 508 Disability compliance website management
- Financial Aid NASFAA certification
- Student Loan, grants, scholarship verification
- Satisfactory Academic Progress verification
- Student transcript verification
- Admissions requirements and verification
- FERPA
Certification
- Driver's License
- Medical Terminology
- Adobe Dreamweaver
- Coldfusion Website Design
- 16 NASFAA Certifications
Timeline
Financial Aid Call Center Specialist
Jacksonville State University
05.2022 - Current
Medical Biller and Coder
Various
01.2020 - 05.2022
Medical Billing and Collections Specialist/HR Assistant
Downey Medical
01.2019 - 01.2020
Administrative Assistant/Marketing Coordinator
Grizzard Living Aids
08.2014 - 01.2016
Administrative Assistant
Elwood Staffing/Onin Services
01.2012 - 01.2014
Front Desk Clerk and Insurance Coding Clerk
McClellan Family Chiropractic
01.2008 - 01.2009
Front Desk Clerk and Insurance Coding Clerk
Dr. Gibson Dental
01.2007 - 01.2008
Professional Relations Representative/Claims Adjuster/Customer Service Representative
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama
11.1998 - 2005
Admissions/Marketing Coordinator
Golden Living Center
2006 - 2007
Bachelor of Arts in Communication -
Jacksonville State University
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