Community Health Advocate - Banteay Srei

About the Organization

Asian Health Services, founded in 1974, provides medical, dental, and behavioral health services to more than 50,000 patients. Our approach to well-being focuses on “whole patient health” for all. We go beyond our clinic walls and invest in our community’s overall health. We address food insecurity, youth leadership, and culturally competent care while working towards supporting safer streets and vibrant communities.

About the Role

Contributes as a team member to facilitate and enhance access to, appropriate utilization of, and satisfaction with AHS services by patients and community members. Helps to plan and implement advocacy activities through patient and community education and engagement. Job functions span duties in Member Services, Support Services, Clinical Services, and Community Services. The assignment of tasks and the percentage of time spent in each area will be determined by the Program Manager, in consultation with managers and supervisors in those work areas. This will vary by position and may shift depending on staffing levels and patient/community needs.

Responsibilities

• Conduct and document health education and outreach activities on various health topics (e.g., access to health care/health insurance, perinatal, AIDS, smoking cessation, etc.) in a linguistically and culturally appropriate manner with small-large groups and individuals.
• Conduct perinatal workshops and participate in planning, implementing, and monitoring changes to improve the quality of perinatal services, particularly for smaller communities. Includes participating in meetings and training.
• Conduct community needs assessments and evaluation activities through various formats (e.g., focus groups, community surveys, patient surveys, key informant interviews) and participate in planning effective programs and services for AHS patients and Asian immigrant communities.
• Develop and maintain contacts and working relations with staff at other organizations serving the Asian immigrant community.
• Represent AHS in various community forums and meetings.
• Coordinate and participate in health education materials development:
  • Develop or adapt educational materials for cultural appropriateness in a variety of formats (written, video, displays/posters, PowerPoint presentations, etc.).
  • Translate materials.
  • Design materials.
  • Duplicate materials.
  • Review materials for readability, translation quality, and cultural appropriateness.
  • Coordinate or participate in Clinic-Health Ed Materials Committee meetings.
• Patient Leadership Council:
  • Identify and recruit potential patients for PLC involvement.
  • Plan, attend, and facilitate PLC meetings.
  • Assist PLC members in identifying and carrying out their plans.
  • Develop and train PLC members in advocacy/leadership skills.
  • Identify issues/problems in the community to achieve AHS goals.
  • Write a summary monthly PLC meeting report.
• Coordinate the collection of data, summarize, and write evaluation reports for funding requirements.

Waiting Area Duties

• Create a welcoming environment in the waiting area that addresses patients’ needs by greeting, scanning for difficulties such as long waits or delays, answering questions, assisting, and directing patients to appropriate services and staff in the organization.
• Conduct outreach/education activities and patient surveys in the waiting room.

Interpreting & Translation Duties

• Back-up to provide phone, on-site, and message-relay interpreting services for all healthcare-related interactions between patients and any AHS staff (e.g., front desk interactions, triage, clinicians, billing, perinatal, behavioral health, nutrition, dental, AMSHO, etc.).
• Provide interpreting services during educational workshops and activities, special events, meetings, hearings, media events, and other organizational activities.
• Observe current codes of ethics and standards of practice for health care interpreting (e.g., interprets all speakers’ messages accurately and completely; transparently carries out various interpreter interventions, such as cultural brokering, to facilitate clear communication between speakers; etc.).
• Sight-translate written materials between English and language of service.
• Interpret over the phone, on occasion, for other health care organizations and providers.
• Translate written clinic, health education, and organizational materials, acting as primary translator, word-processor, editor, proofreader, and/or back-translator as assigned.
• Participate in developing and implementing tools and activities to:
  • Assess language proficiency and interpreting skills.
  • Train and develop language proficiency and medical terminology among AHS staff.

Support Services Duties

• Greet and register patients, update patients’ records, and create and distribute forms related to patients’ visits.
• Verify insurance and financial status of patients and update records.
• Determine and explain to patients the extent of their insurance benefits and payment responsibilities, and collect insurance co-payments.
• Answer and appropriately handle intercom and phone calls. Assess callers’ needs and assist them in getting their needs met.
• Facilitate internal and external referrals and appointments:
  • Schedule, cancel, and reschedule referrals and appointments as needed. Internally, includes all AHS services appointments (e.g., medical clinic, eligibility, nutrition, dental, behavioral health, special clinics, health education, etc.). Externally, includes appointments for specialists, hospitals, clinics, diagnostic testing, treatment, and other organizations providing health and social services.
• Make daily appointment reminder calls to assigned patients.
• Anticipate and take proactive steps to identify and avoid patient problems. Facilitate resolution of problems that are within AHS departments, between AHS departments, or involve external organizations, providers, and services. Includes but not limited to billing issues, medication requests/refills/questions, lab results, specimen collection, equipment loan, eligibility, referrals, etc.
• Assist patients to complete all healthcare-related paperwork, including but not limited to 32 weeks’ prenatal records, CHDP forms, medical record releases, disability, WIC, pregnancy verification, MSP, and other requests. Process their paperwork.
• Assist medical records to pull charts, retrieve or return medical records, respond to requests for Release of Medical Records, copy patient records, and participate in the annual purge of medical records.
• Carry out phone and mail communications with patients related to their health care needs and AHS treatment and services. Includes but is not limited to broken appointments.

Patient Eligibility Duties

• Conduct patient financial screening to determine eligibility for County Medical Services Program (CMSP), Medicare, Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, and other payment sources.
• Assist patients in completing forms and applications for payment programs. Follow up on patients’ pending status for payment programs.
• Assist patients in selecting a primary care provider and a health insurance plan, including PPO and HMO.
• Contact health plan and insurance company to verify patients’ insurance coverage and referral requirements; may assist in completing Medi-Cal applications and perform status follow-up with the county’s Medi-Cal worker.
• Update patient financial information.
• Answer inquiries and provide counseling regarding Medi-Cal and Medicare and their managed care systems, and other social service needs.
• Answer phone calls and make appointments for members.
• Assist the Member Services Manager in conducting member exit interviews and in processing monthly member rosters for all AHS’ contracted managed care plans.
• Provide advocacy for AHS patients/members due to government welfare reform and immigration policies.
• Conduct medical history intake interviews for all patients including new patients, newborn infants, and perinatal patients.

General Agency/AHS Duties

• Foster an environment that promotes trust and cooperation among clients and staff.
• Enforce clinic policies and procedures, including maintenance of client confidentiality under HIPAA privacy rules, to ensure that the principles of AHS are implemented.
• Play an active role in planning organization-wide activities such as AHS general membership meetings, fundraisers, special clinic days, and other events.
• Participate in general membership meetings, fundraisers, and other public events, as required.
• Participate in outreach activities, agency advocacy, and serve on ad hoc committees, as requested.
• Attend AHS staff retreats and Board of Directors meetings, as required.
• Participate in agency-wide quality improvement program processes and performance improvement teams to ensure excellence in the quality of services provided across the agency.

Requirements

• A Bachelor’s degree and two years of work-related experience in a health setting or a high school diploma and four years of relevant work experience.
• Applicants from a variety of professional backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
• This position provides direct, one-on-one advocacy and support to adolescent girls and young women who have experienced sexual exploitation, trafficking, gender-based violence, and other forms of trauma.

Preferred Qualifications

• Preferred Bachelor’s degree majors: health, social service, or other closely-related fields.
• Experience in youth development, community engagement, victim services, or a related human services field is preferred.
• No language proficiency is required; however, bilingual applicants who speak Khmer or Vietnamese are strongly encouraged to apply.

Skills & Abilities

• Understanding of the relationship between advocacy and improving the health of the Asian community.
• Knowledge of cultural, socioeconomic, and political factors affecting health in immigrant and refugee Asian communities.
• Familiarity with health, social services, and community resources/leaders in at least one API community.
• Ability to lead and work with diverse staff and community members respectfully and collaboratively.
• Innovative, cooperative, and collaborative problem-solving skills.
• Ability to plan and coordinate small-medium scale projects and events.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both oral and written.
• Experience organizing and engaging immigrant communities in education and advocacy activities.
• Proficiency in or ability to learn English and Asian language word processing.
• Ability to work under pressure and handle multiple tasks.
• Ability to exercise good judgment.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Available to work on weekends and evenings as needed.
• Decisions have a broad impact on a patient’s experience at AHS.
• High level of concentration required to coordinate multiple program tasks, problem-solving with external organizations, and coordination with other departments and programs of the entire organization.