Benefits Options Counselor and Enrollment Specialist

Responsibilities

• Provide a central source of reliable and objective information about a broad range of programs and services for older adults and people with physical or developmental/intellectual disabilities.
• Help people understand and evaluate the various options available to them.
• Help people to find resources in the community and make informed decisions about long-term care, help people conserve their personal resources, maintain self-sufficiency and delay or prevent the need for potentially expensive long-term care.
• Provide assessment and enrollment counseling for publicly funded long-term care, including Family Care and IRIS.

Principal Duties

• Provide information and assistance including listening to the consumer, assessing his or her needs, and helping the consumer to connect with service providers or gain information to meet the identified needs.
• Provide information and assistance in-person in the person’s home or at the ADRC office as an appointment or walk-in, over the telephone, via e-mail, or through written correspondence.
• Be knowledgeable of community services such as, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, SSI, SSI-E, SSDI, FoodShare, public health services and Older Americans Act services.
• Be knowledgeable about preventable causes of disability and institutionalization, be able to identify risk factors and refer individuals to appropriate prevention and early intervention services and programs.
• Be knowledgeable of the Department of Health Services Dementia Care Guiding Principles and how these principles are integrated into ADRC services.
• Be trained on and skilled in the use of the resource and client tracking databases, including how to search for services, retrieve information, and document customer contacts.
• Provide follow-up as required by policy and document follow-up contacts and activities.
• Provide counseling about the options available to meet long-term care needs and factors to consider in making long-term care decisions.
• Maintain certification to administer the Long-Term Care Functional Screen.
• Maintain certification to provide Option Counselor.
• Provide information on rights, and complaint, grievance, and appeal processes.
• Provide short term case coordination to consumers identified in the ADRC short term case coordination policy.
• Provide information on services available to residents wishing to relocate from a Nursing home, assisted living facility or other care setting.
• Assure that customers who request access to long-term care and indicate potential eligibility for publicly funded long-term care services are informed of, and assisted in accessing, these services.
• Responsible for completing all other duties/responsibilities as assigned.

Requirements

• A Bachelor of Arts or Science degree (preferably in a health or human services related field) or a license to practice as a registered nurse in Wisconsin pursuant to s. 441.06 Stats.
• Equivalent of at least one year of full-time experience in a health or human service field, working with one or more of the client populations served by the Aging and Disability Resource Center (elderly or adults with physical or developmental/intellectual disabilities).
• Prompt and regular attendance.