Her Story
About Linda
Linda Downey has built a career spanning 23 years in healthcare, currently serving as an anesthesia medical coder and team leader at Community Health Network in Indianapolis, IN. Her path began with an early goal of becoming a nurse, but after starting a family she entered the field through Medicaid billing at Eskenazi, then known as Richard Hospital. She advanced to allergy-specific billing at Allergy and Associates, followed by radiology billing where she earned her CPC certification and rose to team leader in the coding department. She later joined Community Health Network as a coder and progressed to her present leadership role in the anesthesia-specific department, obtaining an additional anesthesia-specific certification along the way. A member of the AAPC, Downey specializes in healthcare, medical coding, and anesthesia coding. She attributes her success to the hard work and work ethic modeled by her parents, along with tenacity and adaptability to ongoing change in the field.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Linda
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would have to say hard work, which was represented from both my mother and my father. ... Those two pillars, mother and father and their work ethic, and just to, you know, have that tenacity to keep going and know things are gonna forever change, and you have to be adaptable with the change, but don't give up.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I believe the best career advice I have received is Nothing's too great. Nothing's too big to obtain. If you think it, everything starts with a thought. Go out, make your agenda, And work your agenda to accomplish their goal.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say to anybody to get out there and do it. Get out there and do it. Learn your niche... aspire to be great, aspire to push yourself, aspire to always bet on yourself. ... always believe in yourself. Molehills and bumps in a row gonna come. You just gotta know how to maneuver and adapt to it and keep pushing forward.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Biggest challenges are things are forever changing in my field... the struggle of the mindset to change. ... with AI coming into place more so than not, I think that it can be rewarding... it's a tool... it could aid and assist in your job and give you the time frame to learn a different skill set.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
So work, I believe in just a good work ethic in regards to being dependable, right? Being transparent, And then having effective communication, and creating those relationships... at my values at home is family first, God first, family second, and then just Treating people as human beings, and having that respect... Respect to self and the respect of others at all times is a big thing for me.
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