PAS Resource Specialist

Patient Access Resource Specialist

The PAS Resource Specialist (PASR) is the initial point of contact for OHSU patients. They are the face and voice of the OHSU Comprehensive Pain Center providing excellent customer service and patient scheduling both in-person and on the phone. The position works with patients, families, providers, clinical and non-clinical staff to coordinate the patient's experience throughout the process of accessing healthcare at OHSU.

The Patient Access Resource Specialist (PASR) gathers and records required information about patients, provides customer services which includes confirming health insurance coverage, scheduling provider office appointments, and assisting patients in a practice setting.

This position is responsible for scheduling a high volume of complex patient procedures and clinic appointments. This position will serve as a liaison and information resource for physicians, nursing, other support staff and coworkers, referring physician offices, patients, and insurance companies.

This role will be required to check-in patients for their visit, check-out patients at the end of the visit, answer incoming calls to the clinic to schedule, transfer, or triage to a clinical team. This role will have responsibility to convey detailed, information to patients and answer any patient questions or concerns within scope. This role works various workqueues to schedule patients for new and return visits and procedures. They work the reschedule lists and wait lists. Prepare and mail, fax, or Mychart patient information packets when necessary. Direct patients to appropriate providers for other health care issues. Complete and route direct referrals to other clinical services. Respond to patient messages in a variety of formats, including phone and electronic. Enter patient information accurately into the electronic medical record when necessary.

Function/Duties of Position

• Arranged Care: Schedule high volume of patient care appointments and procedures. Serves as a liaison and information resource for providers, medical assistants, and nursing support staff; Return patients messages (phone and/or electronic); 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 pain management practice. Obtains prior medical records and studies if appropriate. Arranges for wheelchairs, interpreters, or other assistive devices as necessary to support safe, high-quality care. Other duties as assigned.
• Enrollment & Authorization: Gathers and/or verifies patient information including demographics, insurance coverage, and financial status. Confirms patient eligibility for health care coverage and clarifies any managed care arrangements. May obtain insurance benefit checks or authorizations for clinical care. Enters all information accurately into the medical record when necessary.
• Telecommunications: Takes incoming calls and makes outgoing calls from/to patients, referring providers, or other stakeholders; Connects callers with the appropriate individual(s) to address their questions and/or progress their care; Create EMR telephone encounters that include accurate documentation of requests, such as medication refills, complaints, scheduling requests, general inquiries or urgent health care concerns; Direct calls/messages to the appropriate staff for patient care /needs assessment; Process calls (answering, screening, routing, paging etc.) in a timely, polite, professional manner; Delivers information or requests promptly to the appropriate providers or their designees.
• Transfer calls as needed and engage nursing, physician, APP, or other care team personnel per circumstance; 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.
• Customer Service / Point of Service Operations: 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, exemplary phone etiquette, face-to-face customer contact skills, ability to handle stressful situations, utilization of available information technology, consistently following standard work, flexible coverage of internal service needs and the continuous application of process improvement methods and skills.
• Greets patients and checks them in prior to being seen by clinical staff. Gathers and/or verifies patient information including demographics, insurance coverage, and financial status. Checks patient account, seeking advice from Central Registration or CPC MCC staff as required. Ensures that all appointment comment information is accurate and complete. Enters all information accurately into the medical record when necessary. Inspects insurance cards and/or authorization notices. Explains and satisfies any necessary patient signature requirements (including non-covered service forms).
• Identifies and collects co-payments, provides receipts. Notifies clinical staff when patients arrive, monitors the length of patient wait times and intervene as necessary. Distributes paperwork to patients as needed for their visit. Validates parking as needed.
• Other duties as assigned based on changing clinic operational needs

Required Qualifications

• One year of experience in a medical office setting, including high-volume direct patient contact, scheduling of appointments and may require experience obtaining managed care authorizations (dependent on position description). OR one and a half years of work experience in a high volume direct public contact position and 6 months experience in a medical office setting. The candidate must have a thorough knowledge of PAS policies and procedures. Candidates will have demonstrated advanced PAS user skills as well as extensive knowledge of integrated care at OHSU.

Knowledge and Skills Required: Basic computer skills including word processing. Windows applications, on-line scheduling, and a preference for data-base skills. Excellent verbal and written communications skills. Strong customer service orientation. Demonstrated effectiveness in confrontational customer interactions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Exhibits a professional manner in dealing with others and works to maintain constructive working relationships
• Ability to work in a collaborative, team-centered work environment and provide helpful support in a timely manner
• Attendance and dependability: Can be depended on to report to work at the scheduled time and is seldom absent from work; can be depended upon to complete work in a timely, accurate and thorough manner and is conscientious about assignments;
• Knowledge of Epic systems.
• Knowledge of OHSU network systems, including Outlook and Microsoft Office products.
• Experience with high volume phone calls, high volume of scheduling appointments
• Previous front desk reception in a medical setting

Additional Details

• Monday Friday 7:30 AM 4:00 PM
• Must be able to share office space with colleagues and providers. Must be able to multi-task in a high volume, high noise level environment with multiple demands and interruptions.
• Must be able to sit long periods of time as well as spend 90% of time on the telephone and computer usage.

Why Apply to OHSU?

We are Oregon's only public academic health center. In addition to caring for patients, we lead groundbreaking research. We also train the next generation of health care professionals. As Portland's largest employer, we give you opportunities to learn and advance in a system of hospitals and clinics across Oregon and Southwest Washington. All are welcome. OHSU welcomes people of all ages, ethnicities, genders, national origins, religions and sexual orientations. We are striving to build an anti-racist, multicultural institution and encourage people with diverse backgrounds to apply. To request reasonable accommodation, contact View email address on click.appcast.io