Patient Support Specialist

About Casa Esperanza

Casa Esperanza, Inc. is a bilingual/bicultural behavioral health treatment provider serving Boston and the Merrimack Valley. Our mission is to empower individuals and families to recover from addiction, trauma, mental illness, and other chronic medical conditions; overcome homelessness and discrimination; and achieve health and wellness through comprehensive, integrated care.

About the role

The Patient Support Specialist role is a multitasking position that consists of all front-end functions for Familias Unidas Outpatient Programs (FUOP). This role is intended to “extend” the capabilities of the practice by working as a partner with the Patient Access Team and supporting the major workflows of the practice. Its functions include maintaining confidentiality and privacy, consistent with HIPAA guidelines, providing the highest quality of customer service, telephone management, scheduling patient appointments, checking patients in, verifying insurance eligibility, closing procedures, waiting area security, meeting room reservations, meeting with patients to support/complete the intake process, and other practice management clerical tasks.

What you'll do

Customer Service

• Provide a friendly, welcoming, and caring greeting face and attitude to all patients arriving for visits.
• Communicate with patients and staff using multiple advanced communication tools, including phone calls, emails, alerts in electronic health records, and mail.
• Answer and resolve patient inquiries in a professional, empathetic, and patient-centered way through the use of effective listening and written and verbal communication skills.
• Utilize established practice guidelines to ensure patients' issues are addressed in a timely manner and, when necessary, transfer the call to the appropriate person at FUOP or Casa Esperanza for additional consultation.
• Place reminder calls to outpatient patients to ensure participation in all scheduled services and document contact in the electronic health record.
• Email key staff at residential programs to ensure participation in all scheduled services
• Contact patients who have missed their appointments for rescheduling and document contact in the electronic health record.
• Provide outstanding customer service to external and internal customers over the phone and in person.
• Escalate appropriately any issues that fall outside of an existing protocol or process to meet the needs of the patient.

Intake

• Communicate closely with the Patient Access Manager to coordinate new intake visits and to schedule follow-up appointments
• Meet with patients for initial appointment to complete all clinical intake documents, including Biopsychosocial Assessment, Joint Consent to Treat, Releases of Information, and Consents for Grant Involvement.
• Ensure all clinical documentation is signed and saved in the electronic health record.
• Conduct all BSAS enrollments as needed on a regular schedule.
• Communicate with patients about the intake process so they understand who they will interact with once they complete the initial meeting and what the next steps entail.
• Communicate with Recovery Support Services Staff, Peer Recovery Staff, and Clinicians to coordinate a warm introduction for new patients.
• In conjunction with the Patient Access Manager, process internal referrals to accept new patients and create patient charts in the electronic health record system.

Administrative

• Manage scheduling for all meeting rooms and common areas
• Enter and/or scan all referral and demographic information into the electronic health record.
• Create and/or update all benefit assignments in the Practice Management System to ensure billing workflow compliance.
• Schedule/reschedule patient appointments in practice management system for psychiatry, individual therapy, medical case management, care coordination, nursing, medication assisted therapy, labs, primary care, intakes, adult comprehensive assessments, insurance coordination, transportation services, employment and education services, peer support, legal support, and group therapy.
• Check-in and/or enroll all patients in the practice management system for the following services: psychiatry, individual therapy, medical case management, care coordination, nursing, medication assisted therapy, labs, primary care, intakes, adult comprehensive assessments, insurance coordination, transportation services, employment and education services, peer support, legal support, and group therapy.
• Provide administrative support in all projects, events, and activities, including photocopying, mailings, and data entry.
• Prepare and send daily and weekly eligibility, intake, and task reports.
• Help facilitate patient intakes, including paperwork and outpatient program orientation.
• Maintain lobby cleanliness and place work orders as needed
• Ensure all materials in the classroom are well stocked and organized regularly.
• Send reminder emails for all groups and emails scheduled in outpatient for residential patients.
• Create and/or obtain all initial prior authorizations as needed.

Productivity, Workflow, Quality & Safety

• Complete all required staff logs.
• Ensure all visitors and staff sign in and out.
• Ensure that all windows and doors are secure and alarms are set and disabled correctly.
• Ensure that all items that are potentially dangerous are secured in a locked location.
• Manage the FUOP’s lobby area. Greets and directs all visitors, including vendors, patients, job candidates, and customers.
• Monitor the front door and answer the front desk phone.
• Ensure the safety and security of all customers in the lobby, waiting area, and 1st floor hallway.
• Responsible for closing procedures.
• Implement all safety and security requirements for the building, including fire drills.

Other Duties

• Assure discreet handling of all business/maintain confidentiality.
• Identify opportunities to improve the work processes and environment and changes in practice protocols; remain current on new developments.
• Attend scheduled training sessions for phone support, customer service, systems upgrades, newly acquired clinical systems, or other relevant training sessions, as directed by the manager.
• Assist in the training/orientation of new personnel under the direction of a manager and/or supervisor.
• Participate in staff meetings/is expected to identify process issues that are obstacles to providing a positive patient experience.
• Perform other job-related duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Experience working at a front desk area
• Outgoing personality with good interpersonal and communication skills, highly organized and efficient, dependable and reliable with strong computer skills.
• Strong verbal/written and data entry skills
• Ability to work independently
• Ability to work as a member of a team
• English/Spanish Bilingual
• Ability to communicate with patients, vendors, and external providers in a professional manner
• Ability to handle multiple tasks and maintain composure during hectic situations
• Ability to understand and manage moral/ethical boundaries with patients/staff
• Experience working with practice management systems
• Experience with insurance verifications, benefit assignments, and prior authorizations
• Ability to perform de-escalation techniques
• Knowledge of the revenue cycle process.
• Ability to meet the physical requirements of the position
• Ability to meet the training requirements of the position

Education/Training required:

• High School Diploma or GED
• Knowledge of the addiction recovery process, or willingness to acquire it within the first six months of employment
• Current CPR certification required or must be obtained within 30 days of employment

Schedule

Must have availability to work Monday-Friday between 8am and 8pm and 4 hours every other Saturday

What we offer:

Casa Esperanza Benefits Package:

• Compensation: $20.00 - 21.63/hr
• Holiday Pay (12 days per year + 1 floating holiday)
• Paid Time Off (PTO)—18 days year one, 20.5 days at year 2, 23 days at year 5
• Sick Pay—10 paid days per year
• Long/Short Term Disability 
• Paid by Company Life Insurance
• Health Insurance (Medical, Dental, Vision)
• Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA)
• FSA/DCA (Flexible Spending Account & Dependent Care)
• ComPsych Guidance Resources - EAP
• Educational Opportunities
• Tuition Remission
• Employee Ticket at Work (Discounts for Entertainment, Travel, Movies, etc.)
• Career Advancement Opportunities
• Increased Salary for Credentials
• and more...

Physical & Mental Requirements

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to walk, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl, and talk or hear. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include distance vision, peripheral vision, and depth perception.

At Casa Esperanza, Inc., the health and safety of our people is our number one priority. That’s why all offers of employment are contingent on the candidate showing proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID 19 (currently one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine or two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and boosted, when eligible) to pass the pre-employment requirements. Individuals with medical issues or religious beliefs that prevent them from getting the vaccine may request an exemption from the vaccine requirement.