Staff Advocate

Universities of Wisconsin•Madison, WI

2d•$75,000 - $95,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Center for Patient Partnerships (CPP) seeks a staff advocate for the new health insurance program to reach rural health care consumers. The advocate will provide primarily intensive legal and advocacy services to qualifying clients to support access to health care. The services will assist rural Wisconsin consumers with prior authorization processes and appeals, claim denial appeals, and other complex insurance protocols that consumers must navigate to get coverage for their care. It will also include filing of grievances and complaints to state and federal regulators. The position will also contribute to intake and triage services, brief advocacy help, assist with program quality assurance and reporting, contribute to program development, track trends, and collaborate on system-level advocacy. The mission of this new program is to support patients in using health insurance and coverage to gain timely, effective, and accessible health care in rural Wisconsin communities. CPP is an interdisciplinary, cross-campus center located within the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. CPP operates as a medical-legal partnership and offers experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students through coursework and community engagement. Services include health advocacy and community resource navigation. Our staff is mission-focused, creative, collaborative, and dedicated to making health care work for each and all. In addition to our service and teaching, we research patients' diverse lived experiences, needs, and challenges, and test and evaluate interventions. Our model prioritizes systems change that advances access to timely, effective health care, and promotes patients’ personal agency in navigating their own health experiences. Services will provide a combination of brief intervention and intensive advocacy support to clients, aiming toward problem resolution or appropriate referral for every case. The staff advocate position will have service volume expectations.

Requirements

At least 3 years of experience in legal, regulatory, enforcement, or investigative analysis and representation, particularly as it relates to health care, public benefits, or social service programs
1 year of experience with supporting individual clients in appeal, grievance, or complaint processes in the areas of regulatory administrative or enforcement proceedings or related to claim disputes or consumer protection
Demonstrated knowledge of federal and state (Wisconsin) health care and health insurance landscape and delivery systems
J.D. from accredited law school
Must be admitted to the Wisconsin State Bar or admitted to the bar of another state and in the process of obtaining admission to the Wisconsin State Bar
Your resume and cover letter will be used to evaluate your written communication skills. Materials will be evaluated for the following: spelling, punctuation, organization, clarity, and attention to detail

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated project and time management skills, including the ability to independently manage competing deadlines and priorities
Experience addressing barriers while advocating with or providing services for consumers or individual clients from rural communities or those with limited access to services
Experience building a new client-facing program or contributing to client-facing program policy development or workflows

Responsibilities

Managing caseload of advocacy clients and providing high-quality advocacy services regarding health insurance (private and public) and self-funded plans
Researching and documenting changing laws, regulations, and practices related to health coverage to create operating policies and procedures and trainings for CPP staff and program collaborators
Supporting helpline triage, intake and providing brief intervention advocacy services
Contributing to CPP broadly through participation in staff meetings, sharing of learnings, and office coverage and other duties as assigned
Support helpline triage, intake and provide brief intervention advocacy services
May exercise supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 FTE or equivalent employees
Supervises the implementation of outreach-program-focused strategic planning initiatives and objectives
Reviews recommendations for and provides input on the design and development of new outreach programs or services
Develops and implements operating policies and procedures to promote the outreach program in alignment with the strategic plan
Determines outreach program needs and the personnel resource allocation plan
Contribute to CPP broadly through participation in staff meetings, sharing of learnings, and office coverage and other duties as assigned