Private & Overseas Patients Officer - Band 3

at  Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

We are seeking a well-organised person to help the Trust to organise, schedule and charge for all Private & Overseas Patients activity.
The Private and Overseas Patient Team is a small dedicated team with good camaraderie; we are passionate about giving patients great care, generating income for the Trust as well as providing advice and support to patients and staff that need it. We can promise you variety and a change from the norm. You will quickly become an expert in this important area.
The role is ideally a full time position, Monday to Friday. However, for the right candidate we may be able to negotiate flexible hours up to a full-time contract (minimum of 4 day commitment would be preferred).
The base for the role can be either the Gloucester or Cheltenham hospital site, with very limited (if any) travel required between sites, but being based at Cheltenham would be preferred.

The post holder will undertake a wide range of duties. These will include the following:

• Be the link between patients and clinical teams so that Private and Overseas patients benefit from excellent customer service (ensuring that queries are dealt with promptly)
• Provide a seamless and responsive booking experience for patients and consultants referring to private services
• Ensure that self-funding patients and insurance companies are invoiced in a timely manner, with accurate invoices supported by appropriate documentation (helping to collate this)
• Resolve billing queries with insurance companies as well as self-funding patients and carers
• Promote knowledge of the Overseas Patients regulations by liaising with relevant staff
• Interview Overseas Patients and their carers / representatives, to make decisions about charges for treatment, according to Trust and Department of Health policies.

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the largest employer in the county and with over 8,000 staff, we are one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK. We offer a generous annual leave allowance, excellent bank rates, access to the excellent NHS Pension Scheme, discounts for local shops, restaurants and services, access to our health and well-being hub, access to our two on-site nurseries, flexible working options, discounted public transport, reward and recognition schemes, exercise and activity classes and membership to our popular hospital choir.

Whilst previous experience in this field would be valued, this is a relatively unique area so training will be provided to the right candidate. Personal attributes will be as important as experiences, such as being:

• Organised, diligent and willing to learn;
• Able to communicate clearly and confidently, sometimes in a sensitive manner or in sensitive environments;
• Able to work flexibly within a team, sometimes under instruction and sometimes under their own direction; and,
• Able to work quickly and accurately using own judgment and initiative as appropriate.

The ideal candidate might also have a mixture of skills and experiences that are detailed in the Person Specification and Job description. The main tasks are likely to include:

• Ensuring that private patient referrals are dealt with promptly and efficiently;
• Communicating inter-departmentally and externally with all grades of staff on a range of matters in relation to Private and Overseas patients;
• Negotiating procedure slots with specialty booking teams for private patient procedures;
• Arranging pre-admission tests to confirm patients suitability for procedures, if required;
• Ensuring the implementation of the Department of Health regulations with regard to Overseas Patients charges;
• Sensitively interviewing Overseas Patients and determine their status and entitlement to free NHS treatment;
• Identifying all Private and Overseas outpatients, ensuring legal documentation is completed and total income is identified;
• Using in-house patient administration system to check information on patients, outpatient appointments and results (or similar);
• Raising invoices relating to Private Patient and Overseas patient treatment on an out-patient basis and occasionally on an in-patient basis when required;
• At the request of the Manager, covering colleagues during absences/annual/sick leave etc. You may also be required to undertake job rotation for cross cover as well as for development and training purpose.

The post holder will undertake a wide range of duties. These will include the following:

• Be the link between patients and clinical teams so that Private and Overseas patients benefit from excellent customer service (ensuring that queries are dealt with promptly)
• Provide a seamless and responsive booking experience for patients and consultants referring to private services
• Ensure that self-funding patients and insurance companies are invoiced in a timely manner, with accurate invoices supported by appropriate documentation (helping to collate this)
• Resolve billing queries with insurance companies as well as self-funding patients and carers
• Promote knowledge of the Overseas Patients regulations by liaising with relevant staff
• Interview Overseas Patients and their carers / representatives, to make decisions about charges for treatment, according to Trust and Department of Health policies

The ideal candidate might also have a mixture of skills and experiences that are detailed in the Person Specification and Job description. The main tasks are likely to include:

• Ensuring that private patient referrals are dealt with promptly and efficiently;
• Communicating inter-departmentally and externally with all grades of staff on a range of matters in relation to Private and Overseas patients;
• Negotiating procedure slots with specialty booking teams for private patient procedures;
• Arranging pre-admission tests to confirm patients suitability for procedures, if required;
• Ensuring the implementation of the Department of Health regulations with regard to Overseas Patients charges;
• Sensitively interviewing Overseas Patients and determine their status and entitlement to free NHS treatment;
• Identifying all Private and Overseas outpatients, ensuring legal documentation is completed and total income is identified;
• Using in-house patient administration system to check information on patients, outpatient appointments and results (or similar);
• Raising invoices relating to Private Patient and Overseas patient treatment on an out-patient basis and occasionally on an in-patient basis when required;
• At the request of the Manager, covering colleagues during absences/annual/sick leave etc. You may also be required to undertake job rotation for cross cover as well as for development and training purpose