Doug Palmer

I started in this field in 1991. I loved it from the start and worked hard to learn all that I could.

With my first employer, I was promoted 3 times in 2 years.

About 15 years into my career, I was recruited by a consulting company to perform a contract at a prestigious health system in New York City. I was being paid $35 an hour. $35 an hour does not go very far in NY City.

I was the only asset the firm had to put in place.

There was no IT infrastructure or other resources. Just me.

My role was a high level one.

I worked with the CEOs and CFOs of several hospitals in the system as well as the Physician Department Chiefs. Day in and day out, the top Executive and Clinical levels of 3 hospitals.

I worked hard and I performed well enough for the company to secure contracts with additional facilities in the system.

One day, someone in Accounts Payable asked me to come to their office. They had a question about an invoice. (They apparently did not know that I was not privy to the contract financial details. But, I was about to be!)

So, you may imagine that I almost had a stroke when I found that the firm was billing $120 an hour to the hospital. For ME. Nothing else. ME!

In case you haven’t done the math, that is, for every hour that I worked and was paid $35 an hour, the firm was receiving $85 an hour. Nearly 2 1/2 times what they were paying me for doing outstanding work at a very high level! I was living paycheck to paycheck and others were profiting significantly on my expertise.

I decided at that time that I would NEVER sell my “hours” again.

I would not allow someone else take my most precious asset and abuse it.

That is what I sold to that firm. My time.

They exploited that so that their client got the benefit of my expertise. And, I let them do it. I did not sell that company my expertise, I sold them hours and at a price like it was some junk I was trying to get rid of at a garage sale!

I had significant experience in an area called Risk Adjustment (many know as HCC) as well as extensive training expertise.

Both of which I have an insatiable passion for.

So, I started teaching colleagues. I built a course. That course has now led to over 7,000 certification exams.

I also went out and got my own darned contracts!

Take a look at what a highly rated health plan said about me and my company that I had started.