Customer Service Representative

About the role

Optum Insight is seeking a dependable, professional, and patient-focused **Customer Service Representative** to support operations onsite at **Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, New York**. This role is responsible for handling inbound phone calls and providing timely, accurate, and compassionate support to patients, callers, physicians, medical offices, and other healthcare contacts.

Key Responsibilities

• Answer inbound phone calls from patients, family members, physicians, medical offices, internal departments, and other callers.
• Provide professional, courteous, and accurate customer service in a healthcare call center or hospital support environment.
• Assist patients and callers with general questions, appointment information, registration support, directions, department routing, and basic service needs.
• Support patient registration activities by gathering, verifying, and entering patient demographic, contact, insurance, and appointment-related information into computer systems.
• Aid with appointment scheduling, appointment confirmation, call routing, and communication with appropriate departments or medical offices.
• Document call details, requests, updates, and actions taken in the appropriate systems.
• Maintain surveillance of alarms, alerts, or notification systems and follow established procedures for response and escalation.
• Coordinate emergency response communication according to hospital policies and department procedures.
• Routinely route urgent calls, clinical concerns, emergency notifications, and time-sensitive issues to the appropriate personnel.
• Communicate clearly with physicians, nurses, medical office staff, administrative teams, and other hospital departments.
• Follow established scripts, workflows, escalation procedures, privacy rules, and documentation standards.
• Maintain patient confidentiality and follow HIPAA, organizational, and healthcare privacy requirements.
• Learn and use multiple computer systems, phone systems, registration tools, scheduling platforms, and documentation applications.
• Identify caller needs quickly and provide accurate information or transfer calls to the appropriate resource.
• Remain calm, professional, and helpful when handling upset callers, urgent situations, overnight calls, or high-volume periods.
• Support continuous improvement by reporting system issues, workflow concerns, call trends, or recurring caller needs.
• Maintain reliable onsite attendance and support assigned shifts, including overnight hours as required.

Required Qualifications

• A high school diploma or equivalent.
• Customer service experience in a healthcare, call center, hospital, medical office, administrative, or patient-facing environment.
• Ability to work onsite at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, New York.
• Availability to work overnight shifts as required.
• Strong verbal communication and active listening skills.
• The ability to provide calm, professional, and respectful service to patients, callers, and healthcare professionals.
• Comfortable answering a high volume of inbound calls and managing multiple caller needs.
• The ability to learn and accurately use computer systems, phone systems, scheduling tools, registration systems, and documentation platforms.
• A strong attention to detail when entering patient, appointment, and call information.
• The ability to follow procedures, scripts, escalation steps, and privacy requirements.
• The ability to handle confidential patient information with discretion and professionalism.
• Dependable attendance, punctuality, and ability to work assigned shifts consistently.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a hospital, clinic, healthcare call center, patient access, patient registration, scheduling, or medical office environment.
• Familiarity with medical terminology, patient registration, appointment scheduling, insurance information, and healthcare workflows.
• Experience handling emergency calls, alarm monitoring, switchboard support, or hospital operator duties.
• Experience using electronic medical records, patient scheduling systems, call center software, or healthcare documentation systems.
• Knowledge of HIPAA and patient confidentiality requirements.
• The ability to work effectively during overnight hours with limited supervision.
• Bilingual communication skills are a plus, depending on patient and caller needs.