PAS Specialist - Oregon Health & Science University
Portland, OR
About the Job
The Patient Access Specialist (PAS) gathers and records required information about patients, provides customer services which includes confirming health insurance coverage, determining individual financial obligations, verifying that necessary authorizations for care have been obtained, scheduling physician office appointments, cancer treatment appointments, and ancillary appointments, and assisting patients in an office or practice setting. This position may be responsible for scheduling a high volume of complicated patient procedures and clinic appointments. This position will serve as a liaison and information resources for physicians, nursing support staff, and coworkers, referring physician offices, patients and insurance companies on referral requirements per diagnosis and services.
This role will be required to answer approximately 20% calls to the clinic, to schedule, transfer, or triage to a clinical team. This role will explain detailed complicated procedures to patients and answer any patient questions or concerns within scope. Works closely with other medicine/surgery clinics for appointment coordination. Works reschedule and wait lists when necessary; Prepare and mail, fax, or email new patient information packets when necessary; Direct patients to appropriate providers for other health care issues; Enter patient information accurately into the electronic medical record when necessary.
Function/Duties of Position:Call Processing:
- Responsible for connecting the patient with the appropriate individual to progress their care in the clinic; Transfers calls to schedulers as needed, creates telephone encounters, contacts nursing coordinators, and pages providers and staff as needed per circumstance; Scheduling and managing of patient access to Oncology services at CHH2. Create telephone calls from patients in Epic which will include accurate documentation of requests for medication refills, complaints, general informatin inquiries and urgent health care concerns; Triage calls to the appropriate staff for patient care /needs assessment; Process call (answering, screening, routing, paging etc.) in a timely, polite, professional manner; Route calls to appropriate conclusion; Provide information to callers, including directions, addresses and hours of operation; Use schedules and departmental procedures to locate appropriate on-call person for internal and external callers; Understand and process calls per departmental policy for each encounter type (ie refill, telephone, documentation, etc); Expected to take 20% of incoming volume of clinic calls. 60-80 calls per day.
Scheduling:
- Coordinate patient care appointments and managed care as directed by physician and/or nurse staff; Serves as a liaison and information resource for physicians, and nursing support staff; Return phone messages; Prepare and mail patient information packets; Direct patients to appropriate providers for other health care issues; Complete and route direct referrals to other clinical services; Enter patient information accurately into the electronic medical record when necessary. Maintains a service-based working knowledge of oncology practice.
Check-in/Checkout:
- Checks out clinic, procedure, and infusion appointments. This includes, but is not limited to careful review of insurance benefits, demographic information, confirming insurance eligibility, and /or authorization. Checks patient account numbers and corrects any problems, seeking advice from Central Registration as required. Ensures that all appointment comment information is accurate and completed. Identifies and updates deductible payments, co- payments, and prepayment requirements. Proper use of OHSU forms and documentation required for all patients.
Customer Service:
- Provide the highest level of customer service to both external customers (patients and their families, referring providers, insurance carriers, etc.) and internal customers (OHSU health care providers and staff) that meet or exceed the service standards of the health care industry. This duty includes prompt and professional communication efforts, face-to-face customer contact skills, crisis management, facility with available information technology, standard complaint processing, flexible coverage of internal service needs and the continuous application of process improvement methods and skills.
Integrated Care:
- Obtain prior medical records and studies when appropriate; Responsible for obtaining, recording, tracking, and verifying referrals and authorizations for the respective outpatient clinic and lab visits when necessary.
Administrative Duties:
- Faxing; Letter queues; Use right fax to send outgoing fax notification re: referral receipt; Mail sorting; Other duties as assigned.
- Six months of work experience in a medical office setting, including high volume direct patient contact OR
- One year of work experience in a high volume direct public contact position
- Note: Successful completion of a formal OHSU Administrative Internship Program will substitute for one year of experience.
Knowledge and Skills Required:
- Basic computer keyboarding skills including typing of 30 - 45 wpm.
- Appointment scheduling experience.
- Proficient computer skills including word processing.
- Extremly high level of attention to detail.
- Strong customer service orientation.
- Must have excellent verbal and written communication, listening skills and awareness of self.
- Demonstrated problem solving and negotaition skills in resolving patient concerns, scheduling challenges and managed care related problems.
- Must be able to perform the essential functions of the position with or without accommodation
- HS Diploma or advanced degree preferred.
- Experience in a medical and/or oncology office setting.
Knowledge and Skills Required:
- Knowledge of Epic systems.
- Knowledge of OHSU network systems, including Outlook and Microsoft Office products.
Hours: Monday – Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm or 8:30am - 5:00pm
Stooping, Crouching, Reaching, Listening, Sitting, Keyboarding, and ability to lift up to 50 lbs.
Benefits:
- Two raises per year – One at anniversary date and one across the board annual increase
- Healthcare Options - Covered 100% for full-time employees and 88% for dependents, and $25K of term life insurance provided at no cost to the employee
- Two separate above market pension plans to choose from
- Vacation- up to 200 hours per year depending on length of service
- Sick Leave- up to 96 hours per year
- 8 paid holidays per year
- Substantial Tri-met and C-Tran discounts
- Additional Programs including: Tuition Reimbursement and Employee Assistance Program (EAP)