Destini Hale

My career in healthcare started in an unexpected way. I came from working in corrections as a correctional officer, and when I was about 22 or 23, I left there and got an opportunity to become a temp at Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield. I was very good with computers and caught on very easily in billing, helping them submit claims. They liked me, and when they posted a billing position, I applied and got the job. After about two years, they closed that department and split us up. Some of us interviewed to go into the new risk adjustment department they were opening, and I was one of the ones chosen. They paid for us to take our tests and get certified, bringing someone in to teach us risk adjustment coding. I got dually certified in 2018, taking my CPC in May and my CRC in June, and I passed both of them on the first try. I've worked at several organizations since then, including Arkansas Children's Hospital as an outpatient coder, Cigna in their risk adjustment department, Advantasure (now UST Health Proof) as a risk mitigation coding specialist, and Prominence Health. Life hasn't always been easy - I was a single parent earlier in my career, experienced COVID, and went through a layoff when I lost my job at Advantasure due to loss of business. But all of it taught me to persevere and keep going. Now I'm at Tufts Medical Integrated Network as a risk adjustment consultant, and I love it. I'm getting the opportunity to learn new things and experience risk adjustment from the provider side, working before the audits happen, which is different from most of my experience on the insurance auditing side.