About
College/School you attended:
Various college courses/various colleges
Certificates or courses you have attended:
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Medical Billing Reimbursement (annual attendee for approximately 10 years)
- Chiropractic Billing & Reimbursement (Thomas Education)
- Various Practice Management Courses
- Santiago Annual Conference (8 years)
Length of career in industry:
- Apogee Medical Billing Services; President/CEO - 13 Years
- Santiago SDS, Inc. (now Synergy MIS); President/CEO 1997 - 2001
- Santiago Medical Billing Business Consultant; 1996 - 2001
- Co-owner; Elkhart County Chiropractic; 1989 - 1990
- Owner; Apogee Holistic Treatment Center; 1991 - 1994
- Tri County Physicians Inc. - Practice Manager - Managed 7 Chiropractic Clinics; 4 Years
- Member NAFE (National Association of Female Executives)
- Listed in Who's Who of Female Entrepreneurs
Without any previous experience or training, Tammy Harlan started her own at-home medical billing business in 1991. It was Tammy's desire to be able to stay at home with her then 3 small children while replacing her outside salary as a Practice Manager (managing 7 chiropractic clinics simultaneously). Tammy's exposure to practice management allowed her to witness, first hand, the need for a medical billing outsourcing agency which could provide a specialized, high quality and dependable service to physician's nationwide. It was Tammy's goal to become a "one stop shop" for the various needs of medical practices. In addition to providing medical billing outsourcing services, Tammy eventually included software sales, practice consulting services, seminars and the publication of a chiropractic billing and reimbursement manual that sold approximately 4000 copies nationwide.
Upon beginning her business, and with the assistance of a Marketing Support Team obtained through Santiago Data Systems (the company which provided Tammy with her OneClaim Plus Medical Billing Business Software System and Business Package) which Tammy would later own, Tammy targeted Chiropractic Clinics and was able to contract her first client within the first thirty days of business operation. Client number two was contracted in the second month of business operation and clients three, four and five were contracted in the fifth month of operation. In the eighth month of operation, Tammy hired her first employee and moved her office into a small commercial office space. Apogee Medical Billing Services grew at a steady pace and "word-of-mouth-referral" soon became the businesses number one source for obtaining clients.
In 1996 Tammy published a website for Santiago Data Systems. Shortly thereafter Santiago approached Tammy offering her a position within the company as a Medical Billing Business Consultant. Tammy accepted this position while continuing to run her successful medical billing business. In 1997, Tammy purchased the Santiago SDS, Inc. company (software development and medical billing business opportunity package provider) and moved it from its Newport Beach, California location to LaPorte, Indiana. Tammy successfully owned and operated Santiago SDS, Inc. through 2001, at which time it was sold and became Synergy Medical Information Systems (Synergy MIS), developer of the Practice Manager X3 Medical Billing Business Software Program. During ownership of Santiago, in 2000, Tammy produced a "Medical Billing Course" which became its own company (Medical Billing Course LLC) in 2001.
"Many people have asked me why I decided to sell both the Santiago company and my medical billing business and focus on Medical Billing Course LLC", says Tammy, "the answer is quite simple. It was never my intention to own and operate several large corporations, I just wanted to be available to my children and provide them with a comfortable and memorable childhood. I've accomplished that. They are all grown and 2 of them have children of their own.
Medical Billing Education is my passion and I look forward to a long and successful run as President/CEO of Medical Billing Course, LLC, but I have also fulfilled other dreams and passions, including opening a Fondue Restaurant (Harlan's Fondue Café), operating a Vacation Rental Business, and currently developing a 68 acre organic farm, alongside the love of my life, Adam. I'm definitely an entrepreneur at heart. I simply believe that if there is something you want to do, you should do it.
Not too many people have understood my desire to be a major contributor to my own destiny. Had I listened to the family and friend "naysayers" through-out my life, I would have never started any business and I would have never accomplished the things I have been able to accomplish. My advice to individuals who wish to begin a business or step outside the box: Expect a flood of disapproval from friends and family, but put it into perspective and understand that their disapproval comes from their own fear. If you succeed, they feel they must succeed to, and you would be surprised at how many people are afraid of success. Also, don't be afraid of failure. If you haven't failed at anything in your life, you haven't learned anything of value. What I have learned through my failures (yes, I have failed), far outweighs what I have learned through my successes.
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