Catherine Valdez Saravi
Des Plaines
Summary
Bilingual and driven Associate with a strong desire to enhance business and leadership capabilities. With over 20 years of experience in customer service within the healthcare field, consistently excelling in high-pressure environments and delivering accurate results in fast-paced medical settings. Understanding of clinical workflows and protocols, familiarity with medical terminology, and proficiency in medical record documentation enable effective addressing of issues related to patients requesting referrals, appointments, billing, and clinical data. Eager to leverage skills and experience to contribute to a dynamic team and make a positive impact in the healthcare industry.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
Work History
Medical Assistant/Surgery Scheduler
Advocate Medical Group-Pediatric Neurosurgery
09.2018 - Current
- Review work ques to identify unscheduled ordered services and connect with patient to coordinate
- Obtain, confirm and close preauthorization/referral services for medical specialty and ordered services (internal and external)
- Coordinate and schedule complex specialty appointment with Specialist and/or ordered services
- Scheduled and link internal and external referrals
- Schedule and coordinate appointment with external specialist and services, complete authorization responsibilities, if necessary
- Measure patient’s vital signs
- Update and document patient information (medical and demographic)
- Answers call center incoming calls (screens, triage, prioritizes, and determines urgency)
- Management of EPIC in-basket requests
- Surgery Scheduler
- Schedule and coordinate pre-operative activities for surgical procedures and link orders
- Schedule and coordinate all pre op and post op appointments and link orders
- Communicate all pre and post op instructions
- Coordinates scheduling of surgical procedures between physicians and other offices, available OR specialty time, and other departments as necessary (i.e., X-ray, MRI, CT, etc.)
- Obtains necessary lab work, x-rays, H&P (History & Physical) as applicable
- Pre-authorize surgical procedure in accordance with patient insurance
- Collaborates with muti-specialty department internal and external
Externship Site/Medical Assistant
Concentra Occupational Health /Immediate Care
03.2018 - 06.2018
- Welcome patients and obtain medical histories from patient; verify patient information
- Assist providers during examinations and treatment
- Perform ancillary testing and tasks as ordered by Center Medical Director (PFT, EKG, injections, audiograms, blood draws, etc
- And as certified
- Dispense medications within the scope of practice as ordered by the treating providers and accordance with state regulation
- Assist front office team as needed
Physician Reimbursement Specialist
Health Information Systems
03.2015 - 05.2017
- Follow up with payers, 3rd party payer’s vendors and clearinghouses to resolve unpaid or denied insurance claims
- Initiate and answer insurance/patient correspondence for claims resolutions
- Properly update accounts information (registration, insurance information, etc.)
- Form client relationships to resolve insurance or patient issues
- Identify and share denial trends with management
- Work special reports as assigned by managers or supervisors
- Recommend Charity write off
- Spanish interpreter as needed
- Customer Service Call Center:
- Attend to high volume inbound calls
- Reply to questions and queries from clients
- Complete Medicaid application or Financial Assistance application and follow up
- Research required information using available resources
- Update existing patient demographic information
- Identify and escalate priority issues
- Follow up on patient accounts where necessary
- Review of accounts and patient ability to pay and review of appropriate options
- Document and Review all call information, open accounts according to standard of operating procedure
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
Patient Service Representative
Advocate Medical Group Occupational Health/Immediate Care
10.2011 - 03.2015
- Facilitate timely and accurate patient registration
- Customer service experience in high-volume, high-stress environment
- Quality customer service and practice support through a variety of general office duties including scheduling, coding, registration and billing
- Experience handling several tasks at once without mistakes or diminution of professional demeanor and customer service
- Experience handling difficult callers/customers/patients
- Ability to solve problems posed by callers seeking referrals, appointments, billing issues and clinical information
- Maximize revenue by collection payments at time of service and entering accurate and up-to-date billing information
- Facilitate case management of physician referral and authorizations
- Translate as needed for Spanish speaking patients
- Administer occupational services with follow up on paperwork and documentation for established company profiles (pre-employment, workman’s compensation, drug screen)
Customer Service Representative
Advocate Medical Group Physician Billing
10.2004 - 05.2009
- Assist patients with payment and understanding of insurance processes/procedures via telephone or in person in call center environment
- Responsible for resolution and all follow-throughs for all problems on patient accounts
- Perform necessary billing, registration corrections, and/or payment transfers to open invoices
- Communicate training/reimbursement issues to business system managers and training specialist
- Facilitate approximately 250+ physicians practicing in 40+ sites of care billing, registration and insurance inquiries in call center environment
- Work under significant patient medical/financial related stress
- Work under pressure to perform consistently heavy volume of work with accuracy
- Knowledge of medical, and insurance/reimbursement coding, terminology and practices
- Work alongside all major insurance companies (BCBS, Humana, IDPA, Medicare etc.) regarding inquires on claims filed
- Perform necessary charge correction coding within insurance claims and appeal
Education
High School Diploma -
Maine West High School
Des Plaines, IllinoisCMA Certificate -
National Healthcareer Association
11-2018
Medical Assistant Graduate -
Northwest Suburban College
Hoffman Estates, Illinois04.2018
Skills
- Referral management
- Patient care coordination
- Electronic Health record software
- Read/Comprehend medical patient records
- Communicate Effectively
- Time management
- Ability to manage multitask
- Microsoft proficient
- Excellent customer service
- Bilingual -Spanish
- HIPAA compliance
- Medical terminology knowledge
- Patient-focused care
- Data entry
Languages
Spanish
Native or Bilingual
Timeline
Medical Assistant/Surgery Scheduler
Advocate Medical Group-Pediatric Neurosurgery
09.2018 - Current
Externship Site/Medical Assistant
Concentra Occupational Health /Immediate Care
03.2018 - 06.2018
Physician Reimbursement Specialist
Health Information Systems
03.2015 - 05.2017
Patient Service Representative
Advocate Medical Group Occupational Health/Immediate Care
10.2011 - 03.2015
Customer Service Representative
Advocate Medical Group Physician Billing
10.2004 - 05.2009
Medical Assistant Graduate -
Northwest Suburban College
High School Diploma -
Maine West High School
CMA Certificate -
National Healthcareer Association
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