I Finally Got A Job!

The building where I work.  I am on the fifth floor. 

Finally after four months here in North Texas, I finally got a job.  It truly believe that this is a God thing since I had interviewed for this job about two months ago and they sent me an email telling me thanks, but no thanks.  I thought this door had closed, but I guess God had other plans.

It is a temp to hire position through a company called CSI Companies. I was hired on to be a case valuer for a company called Health Management Systems, which is a third party hired by state governments and private entities to ensure that healthcare claims are paid correctly and by the responsible party, and that those enrolled to receive program benefits meet qualifying criteria.  I was trained to analyze workman comp cases all this week for the state of California.

This will be by far the most challenging job I ever had.  There is a lot of information to learn.  I have to admit, I am a little overwhelmed with all the rules.  It seems that every case I analyze the criteria is always different so the rules and procedures to process the case are never the same.  Needless to say I was a note taking machine this week. 

I really enjoyed my first week at HMS.  It is in a nice part of Irving called Las Colinas.  I get to work in an office, on a computer, at a desk, in an environmentally controlled building.  They have free coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and I can eat my lunch at my desk.  Once I get good enough and work confidently on my own, I can put my ear buds in, listen to my music and drown out the world around me.  They're pretty easy going about the schedule too.  They want you to settle on a definite time, but you can start your day anytime between seven and nine.  They don't particularly care as long as you work your eight hours and are productive.  How cool is that?

HMS is not a healthcare facility but since they handle cases exclusively dealing with medical claims, my medical coding training will play a small but important part of my job.  I won't be coding patient encounters, but a knowledge of codes, pathologies, and anatomy and physiology and important in what I do.  It's already proved helpful to me this week.  Makes my student loans worth it, don't you think?

Anyway I am excited about this job, and I am equally excited about the opportunity to challenge myself and grow.  Who knows what doors will open from here.

In totally unrelated news I finally got my car registered with the state and got a state drivers license, which was a pain and a half. Did you know that in Texas, after you sign the paperwork for your drivers license, you have to wait six to eight weeks before getting it in the mail? They give a temporary one which is nothing more than a folded piece of paper with you picture photocopied on it. And in order to get your drivers license, your car has to be registered, but in order to get your registration, you have to have you car inspected. They do vehicle emission tests here in the DFW and they will automatically fail you if your check engine light is on. So I had to get my car fixed because my light was on, then get it inspected, and then get it registered. All in all, it almost came to $400 dollars to get everything done. Plus, since I am a horrible procrastinator, I let my drivers license expire so I had take a drivers test to get a new one. I felt like I was back in high school. At least that is taken care of.