Patient Financial Advocate

Company: Mountain Area Health Education Center
Location: Asheville
Posted on: March 19, 2023

Job Description:

PRIMARY ACCOUNTABILITY:

Working inside the clinical facility, manage patient account problems by working directly with the patient to identify payment solutions, utilizing special qualifications and sliding fees, and initiating the discharge process.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:

* Provide guidance and education to all patients who have or are expected to have patient responsibility balances for accessing discount programs, applying for Medicaid programs, setting up payment plans, qualifying for MAHEC Charity Care and other MAHEC fully funded programs.
* Maintain established policies and procedures for patient billing and stay abreast of current state and federal guidelines and laws pertaining to collections.
* Responsible for coordinating the discharge process according to MAHEC's discharge policy
* Responsible for qualifying applicants for MAHEC Charity Care, governmental assistance programs, MAHEC fully funded programs.
* Utilize estimating tools to determine patient responsibility amounts and communicate with the patient.
* Perform duties related to Collections to include generate and mail collection letters, receive phone calls from patients related to collection balances and other collection activities as assigned.

This job description is a general description of the essential job functions. It is not intended to describe all the duties a Financial Counselor may perform.

* KEY COMPETENCIES:
* COMMUNICATION - You are comfortable communicating in person, over the phone, and through email, all with a friendly and professional tone. You prioritize prompt responsiveness, recognizing the important role you play in moving processes forward through communication.
* DISCRETION - You operate with the mindset that information that is not your own, regardless of how trivial it may seem, is confidential first and shared only with permission. You demonstrate confidentiality with clinical, management, and other organizational data/information.
* PROBLEM SOLVING - You aren't afraid to think on your feet and encounter a problem you don't know how to immediately solve. You are less concerned with being right and more concerned about connecting with various resources to assist in solving the problem and learning new things along the way.
* DETAIL ORIENTATION - Details matter to you and you develop systems and processes to help you manage a large volume of them. You envision a process from start to finish and understand all of the details that need to be taken care of in between to keep things running smoothly. You take pride in owning the details and it brings you joy to be trusted in this regard.
* INITIATIVE - You don't wait to be told what to do. Instead, you anticipate needs and look for tasks you can take care of in the present to facilitate a smooth process in the future. You like to stay busy and love to jump in and help others when you have capacity. You respect and appreciate the work of a leader and view taking initiative as a primary way to support their work.
* TECH ADAPTABLE - You are comfortable learning new technologies and web-based platforms. You view technology as a way to gain efficiencies. You recognize that you don't have to be an expert and view learning new technologies as an opportunity to grow professionally.
* PLANNING AND ORGANIZING - You effectively organize and plan work according to organizational needs by defining objectives and anticipating needs and priorities. You efficiently manage your own time and effectively handle multiple demands and competing deadlines. You identify goals, develop plans, estimate time frames and monitor progress. Swift implementation is your goal.
* ANALYSIS AND PROBLEM SOLVING - You like to solve difficult problems through careful and systematic evaluation of information, possible alternatives and consequences. You integrate information from diverse sources and evaluate the information against possible courses of action.

This job description is a general description of the essential job functions, and is not intended to describe all the duties a Health Information Specialist may perform.

SERVICE DELIVERY - You place your patients and your teammates at the center. You possess a high sense of urgency and ownership in solving problems and identifying opportunities to increase service.

COMMUNICATION - You are comfortable communicating in person, over the phone, and through email, all with a friendly and professional tone. You prioritize prompt responsiveness, recognizing the important role you play in moving processes forward through communication.

DISCRETION - You operate with the mindset that information that is not your own, regardless of how trivial it may seem, is confidential first and shared only with permission. You demonstrate confidentiality with clinical, management, and other organizational data/information.

PROBLEM SOLVING - You aren't afraid to think on your feet and encounter a problem you don't know how to immediately solve. You are less concerned with being right and more concerned about connecting with various resources to assist in solving the problem and learning new things along the way.

DETAIL ORIENTATION - Details matter to you and you develop systems and processes to help you manage a large volume of them. You envision a process from start to finish and understand all of the details that need to be taken care of in between to keep things running smoothly. You take pride in owning the details and it brings you joy to be trusted in this regard.

INTEGRITY - You instill trust through your own actions and follow through on commitments. You demonstrate a high standard of ethics and treat others fairly and consistently. You maintain confidentiality of medical, fiscal, and personnel.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE:

* Associate degree, three years relevant experience, or comparable combined education and/or experience required.
* Experience must include telephone collection calls, work with aged accounts receivable, and extensive computer experience.
* Medical office experience preferred.

COMPUTER SKILLS:

* Advanced computer skills required to include MS Excel and MS Word
* Experience with Allscripts PM preferred.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE SKILLS:

Spanish-speaking skills preferred.

POSITION COMPENSATION:

$22.31/hour

At MAHEC, we strive to equip all team members with Total Rewards (pay + benefits) to honor their service, support their health, manage their financial security, build their career, and thrive. MAHEC is a certified Living Wage employer through Just Economics of Western North Carolina.

All MAHEC employees and learners will be required to receive the COVID-19 & Flu vaccines or have an approved exemption.

MAHEC Talent Management is located at 121 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC 28803. Equal Opportunity Employer. Black, Indigenous, People of Color and Spanish/English bilingual persons are strongly encouraged to apply. With this in mind, studies show that women, gender diverse, and BIPOC candidates are less likely to apply unless they meet all of the qualifications listed in the job description.

If you are interested in this role, and you have related experience and qualifications, we encourage you to apply or reach out to AskTalent@mahec.net for support in your job search process. You could be the talent we are seeking for this or other opportunities.

Keywords: Mountain Area Health Education Center, Asheville , Patient Financial Advocate, Other , Asheville, North Carolina