Her Story
About Waleska
I've been in the medical field for over 25 years, always in administrative or administrative assistant roles. Throughout my career, I've worked in various healthcare settings including oral surgery, and I've always stayed within the medical field. For a little over 3 years now, I've been working at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where my main area of expertise is the customer service experience. In my role, I confirm with parents the balances they owe to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and I explain why they owe these balances when it comes to insurance. I go into detail explaining deductibles, coinsurance, co-payments, Children's policies and protocols, and I break down billing statements to show charges and payments. I also explain how the contracts that Children's has with different insurances work and how different benefits apply to different services. One of my most notable achievements is that I'm very knowledgeable about the health industry when it comes to insurance, and I was able to understand the EPIC system, which is very intense and complex, in under 2 years. I've received many awards in my department as a leader of the pack for the amount of calls I've received, how I've handled calls, productivity, completing assignments on time, lowest average false handle time, most chats for the month, and my not-ready percentage. I've also received a certificate as a super user for having knowledge of Epic and different types of updates. The key to my success has been experience itself, taking on challenges hands-on and learning from them. You can have all the education, but if you don't have the experience, it would be hard. This experience over 25 years, dealing with people face-to-face or over the phone, has helped me to be empathetic and sympathetic with them.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Waleska
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to hope, determination, and the will that my children give me. They give me that power and that strength. If it wasn't for them, I don't know where I'd be or what I'd do. I think it's my children that make me feel like I could always do better, that I could continue to do better and be a great example to them of how important education and work is. They're the driving force that keeps me going and motivates me to keep improving.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is to do what makes you happy. Do a job that you would enjoy going to every single day, that you would truly enjoy. It's about finding work that brings you fulfillment and satisfaction, not just a paycheck.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Even though they're young and may not have the experience, I would say that even though they may go to college and get the education that is needed, and I recommend that very strongly to get your education, they should also get the experience anywhere, even as a part-time. Even if they're going to college full-time, they can start as a part-time in the health industry. You have to be very empathetic and sympathetic. I deal with sick children, and when I worked in New York, I dealt with sick adults. You really have to care about people to be in this industry. You have to truly care about people, and the only way you care about people is by dealing with them, interacting with them, working with them. That's the only way, there's no other way around it. It's one-on-one, it's straying away from being glued to the phone or glued to YouTube or TikTok, and engaging with people every day. Even a part-time job working in a clinic or anywhere where you have to engage with patients will really help to understand the health industry.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge I notice is that it can become monotonous, because it's the same thing over and over again, so you have to find ways to make it more interesting or you have to find ways to not be bored. We work here with a lot of clients that have huge balances, and we have to call them and request these payments on these accounts. I think that can be a challenge when you know it's the same thing every single day. That's challenging for me, finding ways to stay engaged and motivated when the work becomes repetitive.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
What I value the most is family, trust, and genuinely caring about people. I value family because when I get these calls and I see these families and all that they do for their children, it warms my heart. It gives me hope and reminds me to always understand the other person and be empathetic. So I value family, I value trust, and I value being genuine and truthful to people. These values guide everything I do, both in my work with families at Children's Healthcare and in my personal life.
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