Veterans Healthcare Liaison

JOB DESCRIPTION

UNION OVERVIEW

Union Community Health Center (UNION), operating continuously as a health care provider in the Bronx since 1909, is one of the largest Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in NYS, with a proven record of accomplishment of providing a full range of quality primary care and dental services for children, adolescents, adults, and seniors of underserved, high-need communities throughout the Bronx. UNION’s mission is to provide comprehensive, culturally competent primary and preventive health care services to improve the health status and decrease health disparities of the medically underserved populations in the Bronx, providing services to all regardless of age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion or the ability to pay.

UNION continues to affect more residents each year with five clinic locations and two Mobile Units (medical and dental). UNION serves over 30,000 underserved residents of the Bronx provides over 180,000 patient care visits annually. UNION is an impressive model of a holistic and integrated approach to patient care that unifies primary care, behavioral health, and dental care providers, creating one team, designing and delivering care for each patient. Additionally, UNION provides specialty services, needed and otherwise difficult for Medicaid patients to access, including physical and occupational therapy, speech therapy, audiology, cardiology, behavioral health and psychiatric services among many others

Principal Mission:

UNION is recruiting for a position that will provide veterans with a designated conduit to healthcare access, in a culturally sensitive veteran-educated healthcare environment. The position entailed would address the barriers to healthcare services that veterans face on a daily basis including access to timely appointments, authorization requests, and transportation barriers. Currently, the process is long, cumbersome and often results in either the veteran not receiving time-sensitive quality care and/or the community care provider, not reimbursed for healthcare services rendered. In order to facilitate the administrative and logistical burdens entailed with contracting a Third Party Administrator (TPA) and coordinating care with the local Veterans Medical Center (VMC), UNION requires a dedicated liaison to facilitate the referral process and authorization of care between the Veterans Medical Centers (VMCs), the TPA and local veterans utilizing UNION’s comprehensive healthcare services. The position will also provide veterans with a local resource for all medical, social, and legal needs within their community and help manage referrals to those aforementioned services to increase quality of care for the veteran from a clinical and socioeconomic perspective.

Job Qualifications and Experience:

This position will be recruited from multiple disciplines, including but not limited to patient access manager, licensed clinical social worker and care manager with a nursing background. Flexibility in position dependent on organization’s depth and infrastructure and ability to recruit clinical and non-clinical staff. Selected individual will work directly with senior clinical leadership. Candidates for all disciplines are to preferably be a veteran in any of the United States armed forces branches.

Patient Access Manager: experience in front-end registration and healthcare operations. A comprehensive understanding of government sponsored healthcare insurance programs, the authorization process from start to finish. Strong communication and interpersonal skills when dialoguing with all parties involved in the veteran’s healthcare delivery. Strong dedication and appreciation to active and retired military personnel.

Licensed Clinical Social Worker: experience in screening and treatment for behavioral health issues related to depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse disorders and other behavioral conditions. Master’s Degree in LCSW, bilingual in Spanish preferred not required.

Case/Care Manager: experience in case management, developing clinical care management plans and outreach to social and medical referrals for patients. Degree qualification, registered nurse (R.N.) or licensed practical nurse (L.P.N.). Bilingual in Spanish preferred, not required.

All candidates should be proficient in all Microsoft Office products and basic understanding of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and Referral Management Systems (RMS).

Work-Related Tasks

· Coordinate the consult upload and referral process between the local VMC and the veteran through the facilitation of a TPA. This will expedite the authorization process between the initial consult request from the VMC to the authorization granted by the TPA, allowing the veteran to schedule an appointment with a participating VCP provider and receiving quality care needed in a clinically appropriate period.

· Create a formal and efficient two-way, closed loop referral and authorization process between the local VA, a TPA, the veteran and UNION’s clinical and front-end scheduling staff.

· Communicate and coordinate all consult requests from the local VA to the TPA and scheduling appointments with UNION providers. This includes services that require authorization under the Veterans Choice Program (VCP) and TPA such as OBGYN, dental, behavioral health, and physical and occupational therapy services. Authorization requests need to be completed with required clinical documentation and sent back to the TPA in order to receive an authorization number before rendering all aforementioned services and to ensure proper payment to the community provider.

· Provide monthly updates to Director of Quality and Care Coordination on access to care barriers facing the veterans to facilitate real-time remediation of the engagement issues.

· Outreach all veterans that have authorizations and scheduled appointments with UNION providers for appointment reminders, insurance verification, and patient education material distribution prior to the visit to ensure a expedite registration process at the time of the visit.

· Provide quarterly in-services to front-end staff on TPA and VCP referral, authorization and billing updates to ensure timely capturing of payments.

· Facilitate communication between local VA Business Office and UNION’s Public and Governmental Affairs and Care Coordination Departments around marketing, community based organization referrals and other opportunities available to veterans at UCHC and/or in the surrounding community

· Generate service specific monthly reports on veterans’ utilization of UNION healthcare services for Executive and Clinical leadership to analyze, disseminate, and utilize for incorporation into annual organizational strategic planning for Veterans access to Healthcare and other services at UNON.

· Collaborate with the New York Health Foundation around the development of Veterans National Training Program for other Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) through the below outlined deliverables:

o Expand number of Veteran Liaison related community partners beyond pre-COVID numbers via continued funding of Liaison role

o Engage with academic institutions to develop and model survey and assessment tools for the identified FQHCs

o Utilize academic partners to conduct and tabulate surveys to be used for curriculum development

o Engage with state and national FQHC membership organizations to establish the mechanism to conduct outreach and consultation with qualified FQHCs

o Build upon UNION developed curriculum and curriculum developed in partnership with academic institutions to create state and national training program

The above statements reflect the general duties considered necessary to describe the principle functions of the job as identified, and shall not be considered as a detailed description of all work requirements that may be inherent in the job.

WORKING CONDITIONS: office work mostly with some travel within New York City Metropolitan area

JOB HAZARDS:

None

Benefits:

4 weeks PTO | Health | Vision | Dental | Retirement | 403b | Short Term Disability | Long Term Disability | Term Life Insurance

Compensation:

Competitive Base Salary: starting at $60,000

Negotiable Based on Experience

TO APPLY send CV to:

Dr. Minal Patankar, MD, MPH

Director of Quality and Care Coordination

mpatankar@uchcbronx.org

JOIN US AT UNION and continue our mission of Caring for the Bronx!

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: From $66,896.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Experience level:

• 1 year

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift
• Monday to Friday
• Weekends as needed

Work setting:

• Clinic
• In-person
• Office
• Outpatient

Experience:

• Sales: 1 year (Preferred)

License/Certification:

• Driver's License (Preferred)

Ability to Commute:

• Bronx, NY 10458 (Required)

Ability to Relocate:

• Bronx, NY 10458: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location: In person