Erica Gonzalez

Plans, organizes, and manages the operational management for all inpatient, emergency, and outpatient registrations for Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center. Responsibilities include but are not limited to oversight of the day to day operations, assigning work to staff with consistent touchpoints to ensure work is completed timely and accurately. Development of personnel, compliance with corporate, regulatory, and professional standards and fostering of interdisciplinary, collaborative relationships among providers and staff for the UCLA Health System. Supervise all employees within the PASD Admissions and Emergency Department areas and participate in weekend/holiday rotation. Maintain staffing levels to ensure department is adequately staffed as appropriate. Oversee cashiering functions, addressing variances and discrepancies for PASD areas. Evaluate ongoing policy and procedure development, including action planning for underperforming staff, and implementation of best practices. Apply strong leadership talents and problem-solving skills to maintain team efficiency and organize workflows.

Handle patient complaints. Monitor workflow to improve employee time management and increase productivity. Review High Dollar accounts on a weekly basis to ensure accuracy for timely reimbursement. Ensure financial screenings for unsponsored patients are being completed, and Medi-Cal applications processed in a timely manner by financial counselors by completing weekly Graph Package reports.

Responsible for verifying accurate demographic and financial information with an emphasis on Inpatient patient. Performed financial counseling, financial screening, Medi-Cal applications, charity applications, credit assessments, and established all financial arrangements. Referred appropriate cases to other agencies, internal and external, to assist patients with discharge/post hospital care. Interacted closely with patient placement, care coordination, social services, and patient business services to ensure accurate and timely reimbursement. Accurately reviewed insurance benefits and collected patient responsibility accordingly.

Responsible for verifying accurate demographic and financial information, including interpretation of insurance benefits. Worked closely with transfer center to ensure timely financial clearances of incoming transfers from outside hospitals. Effectively communicated with outside hospital case managers to obtain patient demographics and insurance. Used knowledge of payors and contracting to ensure timely reimbursement of hospital services. Escalated cases needing administrative clearance and relayed financial concerns to medical director on call. Advised outside hospital case managers when a One Time Agreement would be needed due to non-contracted payer. Secured authorizations from payers for incoming Inpatient transfers from outside hospitals as well as admissions to hospital through the emergency room. Daily tasks included financial clearances of transfers while also clearing all admissions in through Ronald Regan ER and Santa Monica ER. Maintained constant communication with ER case management to secure reimbursement.

• Prioritize work load and patient care while maintaining CICARE
• Responsible for staffing issues
• Review and interpret insurance benefits, obtain authorizations
• Arrange emergency room to inpatient transfers
• Conduct weekly staff quality reviews
• Maintain strong communication and interpersonal skills to interact with employees, management, team members and emergency room physicians
• Oversee all departmental and functional activities
• Monitor Federal, State and local regulatory issues for compliance
• Monitor daily, weekly, and monthly reports to analyze trends and alert managers of unusual findings
• Communicate individual and team goals to staff
• Ensure staff compliance with PAS policies and procedures.

• Responsible for verifying accurate demographic and financial information
• Knowledgeable in the review and interpretation of insurance benefits
• Performs financial counseling, financial screening, charity applications, credit assessments, and establishes all financial arrangements
• Refer appropriate cases to other agencies, internal and external, to assist patients with discharge/post hospital care
• Interact closely with patient placement, care coordination, social services, and patient business services to ensure accurate and timely reimbursement.

• Work as an admissions associate in the ED department
• Register patients in person and/or by telephone
• Register direct admits
• Obtain accurate demographic information
• Review and interpret insurance benefits
• Obtain prior authorizations
• Collection of monies including but not limited to co-payments, deductibles, deposits for services
• Interaction with physicians/office personnel as well as other hospital personnel
• Interact with hospital departments such as Utilization Review and Patient Business Services to ensure correct and timely reimbursement.

• Audit patient accounts
• Review accounts for accurate demographics and insurance information
• Adjust accounts as necessary to ensure correct and timely reimbursement
• Follow up with discharged ER accounts needing workers compensation information, insurance verification and billing co-payments
• Work as a registration associate in the ER admitting department
• Verify insurance benefits
• Obtain authorization for admissions
• Collection of monies (co-payments and deductibles)
• On-call support for co-workers
• Financial analysis and statistics
• Daily, weekly, and monthly reports
• Auditing, scanning, and indexing of patient medical charts
• Medical record maintenance
• Collaborate with and assist the Admitting Manager, Admitting Lead, Nursing Director, Medical Records Director, Pharmacy Director, and Emergency Room Director
• Patient registration, admission, verification, and discharge.

• Opened all requests via email from lenders, sister companies, and co-workers
• Information received was manually entered into database at a rapid turnaround time for the next processor to review
• Sent email confirmations and fee quotes or preliminary HUD to requester.

• Processed applications of brokers, ordered and reviewed credit reports, and checked for broker licenses
• Maintained accurate, up to date records of all brokers in Countrywide’s database, and deactivated any improperly licensed brokers in accordance with state regulations
• Answered phones, and processed incoming faxes as well as filing.

• Responsible for overlooking and inputting home loan transactions into the access database program
• Research and locate home loan documents for the upper management, as well as answering phones.

• Responsible for completing escalated requests from the Subpoena department in a quick turnaround time
• Duties included locating paid checks, deposits, and bank statements from film, fiche, CD’s and online
• Processed large requests which included transactions of two years or more.