Why not merge her long-time profession with the future?

Medical Billing Connection in Warren, Mich. is Conerly's retirement plan. Four clients are processed by three assistants. It's just the start.

"It will prosper once we get it down pat," Conerly said. "You can go national. I can go anywhere else and use my software. My plan is to move to Nashville. I know I won't do anything [in retirement] because it's not my nature so why not have something?"

Conerly remembers when claims were hand written with carbon copies sent to insurers. The procedure codes were only two numbers. Now they're five and soon to be seven digits.

When electronic claims came a decade ago, Conerly thought, "It was the greatest thing in the world."

Conerly spends her days off gaining clients. She has several home care providers plus a general practitioner and an OBGYN.

"Get these doctors to love it and they'll pass the word on," Conerly said. "You have to know the codes. The doctors don't know. They act like they know. They're into medicine, they're not into coding. You have to be an educator. If a doctor wants to charge a higher office visit, you have to know how to code it properly."

A certified professional coder, Conerly even taught a class to prospective processors in the basics of the business for five years. Several former students now work for her.

"These girls wanted jobs and I taught them 'You're taking care of a doctor's money,' " she said.

Ironically, Conerly needed a software superior to the one she uses everyday at the hospital. She discovered ClaimTek Systems on the internet and was pleased with its software and customer service.

"It's a beautiful software compared to ones I've worked on," Conerly said. "My doctors see the software and want to see the business. A doctor saw it yesterday and now he's come aboard."

Today's challenge is doctors want to go completely paperless with electronic claims certainly helping. It's not easy given their charts alone.

"Trying to set up doctors' offices, they want the whole world. They want this and that. They want to go paperless, but they're still using paper," she said. "They want to do everything on an email basis.

Even an experienced hand needs occasional help. Conerly finds it with ClaimTek president Kyle Farhat and staff.

"Whenever I need help, I find it at ClaimTek. Sometimes Kyle himself returns my calls," She said.