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New medical billing company underway in Akron

A new Akron company is trying to provide an affordable cure for the headaches of […]

A new Akron company is trying to provide an affordable cure for the headaches of medical billing errors.

After working 23 years in the medical billing field, Lynnette Catalanotto started Executive Medical Consultants (EMC).

The company sells annual memberships for $39 per household.

Members get access to a team of experienced billing specialists who analyze and resolve their billing questions, said Catalanotto, the company’s president.

”We’re not ‘insurance,’ we’re ‘assurance,’ ” said Catalanatto’s twin sister, Jeanette Brown, the company’s resource and development director.

While handling medical billing for insurance companies, doctor’s office and other health-care providers, Catalanotto said she often fielded calls from confused and frustrated patients.

”It happened every day,” she said. ”It didn’t matter where I worked. . . . If the error is there and there’s no one to resolve it, it continues.”

So last year, Catalanotto quit her job to start a consulting firm.

She sought assistance from the

Akron business counseling chapter of SCORE and developed a business plan with the help of Lynn Johnson.

Before retiring as a counseling psychologist with the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Division of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Johnson helped numerous veterans start their own businesses.

Johnson was so impressed with the plan that he decided to help finance EMC and serve as its chief executive officer.

Medical billing advocacy is a relatively new but growing field.

A study by Medical Billing Advocates of America, a national medical bill consulting service, found that eight out of 10 medical bills its members have reviewed have errors.

Everything from missing pieces of information to a mistyped number in a billing code can cause claims to be denied and improperly charged to patients, Catalanotto said.

For people without experience dealing with medical bills, finding the problems and then resolving them can be challenging, she said.

”You’ve got to play hardball sometimes,” Catalanotto said. ”We bridge the gap of communication to get up to the industry and communicate down to the general public.”

Although the membership program isn’t a money maker for EMC, the company plans to generate profits by selling consulting and educational services to doctors’ practices and other health-care providers, Brown said.

EMC also is targeting employer groups, which can can buy memberships as a perk for employees. That way, Brown said, workers can turn to EMC for help with medical bills, rather than relying on the human resources department.

Some medical billing advocates charge anywhere from $50 to $175 per hour for their services, according to a recent report by Consumer Reports. Others work on contingency and earn 15 percent to 35 percent of any money they save for clients.

A few free medical bill consulting programs — many of them disease-specific — exist as well.

For example, the nonprofit Patient Advocate Foundation (http://www.patientadvocate.org or 800-532-5274) provides free help to people with chronic, life-threatening and debilitating conditions.

Last year, the group offered assistance to more than 55,000 patients nationwide.

”We find often that we might be able to resolve issues by making a few phone calls and finding out something wasn’t submitted or something is missing,” said Erin Moaratty, the group’s chief of external communications.

Patients who are considering hiring a consultant to help with medical bills should seek references and ask up front how much services will cost, she said.

EMC estimates it has saved its 175 members nearly $557,000 in improperly billed medical charges since the company started in August.

Bobbie Carper, a 58-year-old breast cancer survivor from Akron, is among the satisfied customers.

Ever since her employer switched insurance companies this year, Carper said she’s been dealing with one billing problem after another.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago, and her husband has multiple sclerosis. Between the two of them, they get lots of medical care — and lots of bills.

Despite repeated phone calls, she said she recently couldn’t get anyone to correct a nearly $20,000 bill for a month’s supply of her husband’s daily shots for his MS.

”Quite frankly, I made phone calls until I was blue in the face and I was getting nowhere,” she said. ”I really felt like I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I couldn’t take it anymore.”

A co-worker overheard her talking and urged her to join Executive Medical Consultants.

Within a day, she said, EMC fixed her husband’s medication bill. The real amount — $2,200 — was paid entirely by the couple’s insurance.

”They have saved my sanity,” she said. ”I wouldn’t try to deal with it alone again.”


Cheryl Powell, Akron Beacon Journal

Cheryl Powell is a health reporter for The Akron Beacon Journal, the daily newspaper in Akron and a syndication partner of MedCity News.

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