Member Spotlight: Petria McKelvey
Founder and CEO, Precision Medical Billing
Company Website: PrecisionMedicalBilling.com
Petria McKelvey is the founder and CEO of Precision Medical Billing, a leading provider of customized medical billing and auditing solutions for home health and hospice agencies, physicians, Durable Medical Equipment (DME) providers, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and nursing homes across the U.S. We asked her to reflect on her business since she participated in the Founders First accelerator program.
What was your inspiration for starting Precision Medical Billing and getting into this field?
I started working in medical billing in 1989 and started precision medical billing in 1995. Honestly, when I started and I got into the field back in 1989, basically, I wanted to get out of my mom’s house and be out on my own, to be honest with you. I was pretty young and so that was my real first job. And it was really just a blessing, because I love numbers and money. I’m someone who remembers everybody’s birthday, everybody’s telephone numbers, even license plate numbers, just by memory. My brain clicks with numbers.
And so I thought I was going to be the president of a bank. I never thought about health care. I still faint at the sight of blood. But it was just my very first job and I was there only six months. I was doing really staffing and, after six months, the owner just saw something in me and promoted me to payroll and billing, and that’s where all my formal training with medical billing came from. And it was a large company, and I loved it.
I never thought about the administrative side of healthcare. You know, you always think I’ll be a doctor or a nurse, and I faint at the sight of blood, so I never thought about that. But the administrative side is where I started, and this is what I’ve done for the last 33 years, and I love it.
How have things gone since you wrapped up the accelerator program?
The company grew organically over so many years, but when I started [Founders First CEO] Kim’s program my daughter, my last child, was a senior in high school. And I began to think… it was time for me to grow. So I signed up with Founders First and I was able to create an entire growth strategy plan. It was just perfect, it was just perfect timing, you know, for me to go through Founders First.
Today, we have clients nationwide from California to Massachusetts. We have clients in Hawaii, Alaska, even Guam. I wanted to have a presence in different companies and really with Precision Medical Billing I’ve always been like the lead generator because I speak at a lot of different conferences and we hold a lot of different seminars and webinars.
And people have always told me, if you had a sales team, just imagine how much you could grow? And that came out of the growth plan. It helped get us in 15 different cities. Founders helped take us from a seven figure company now to an eight figure company—and really, really soon. I can’t explain how awesome of an experience it has been.
That’s fantastic news. What made you take a chance and enroll with Founders First?
The virtual aspect of the program—the virtual classes—were important to me, especially given the timing. And Kim and Founders is all about growth, and that’s what I like to do too—see things grow.
But what really got my attention was the funding part of it and understanding funding. How much money do I need? All of those intricate details to help a company grow.
What advice would you have for the next generation of entrepreneurs coming behind you?
I would say, go for it. Go for it because you’ll regret it if you don’t and you won’t know if you never try and I tell my kids and anybody else you got to fail. Failure is just a part of learning. You learn from your mistakes.
And keep trying new things. I love technology and innovation, for example. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But you never stop trying.
Having a mentor is important, too. Someone who can mentor you and help you. They can guide you and help you grow faster. They can give you advice and best practices. I would say, go find you a mentor and that would help increase your trajectory very, very fast!
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