Entry- Level Pharmacy Tech

We are North Idaho’s premier provider of integrated medical, dental and behavioral health services. Our amazing care teams deliver world-class healthcare utilizing a patient directed, community-focused approach. Providing high quality, affordable Healthcare from the Heart is our passion. Our mission is to deliver a healthcare experience that provides hope, inspires change, and extends life for our patients and our community.

Top reasons to join our team:

• Our employees are mission – minded
• We are passionate about providing excellent patient care
• Community-focused
• Committed to a fun and supportive team environment
• We offer high-quality competitive employee benefits

The pharmacy technician position will provide integrated support to patients and providers in a community health center setting by providing a “hands-on” approach to total quality patient care. This position may be located at any of the Heritage Health locations to facilitate service to all providers and patients. This position will provide support managing medication refills and prior authorizations using approved guidelines and protocols. This position will also support the transfer and processing of prescriptions with our 340B contract pharmacies to optimize patient access and savings through our 340B program. Handling of drugs will be limited to samples and patient assistance medications as necessary.

• Licensed as a Certified Pharmacy Technician in the State of Idaho.
• Experience working with compliance and regulatory policy and pharmacy billing processes preferred.
• Familiarity with the 340B Drug Pricing Program and regulations preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Required:

1. Knowledge of medical terminology and understanding of phrases and abbreviations in comprehending patient charts and pharmaceutical/chemical names preferred.
2. Demonstrates ability to work both independently and in a team environment.
3. Ability to maintain quality, safety, and/or infection control standards.
4. Ability to extract pertinent information from patient/medical record/other sources for medication review.
5. Strong interpersonal and communication skills and ability to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies in a diverse community.
6. Learn and operate electronic medical record system and other software (i.e. Outlook, Excel)
7. Demonstrate analytical and problem-solving skills.
8. Ability to work well under deadlines and time pressures.
9. Strong attention to detail.
10. Ability to maintain confidentiality as position deals with highly sensitive and private data.

Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Assists in all aspects of processing prescription refill authorization requests.
2. Assists in Equiscripts Mail Order processing of medications.
3. Receives customer/pharmacy/patient calls in a courteous manner.
4. Interprets and enters prescriptions. Enters patient information into computer, including prescriptions to be approved by Pharmacist; enters demographics, allergies, physician and insurance information; clarifies prescription orders with pharmacist and/or clinician as appropriate.
5. Performs pharmaceutical calculations.
6. Gathers appropriate contact information from caller and updates electronic medical record with appropriate call details.
7. Resolves insurance related issues, including prior authorizations, and assists patients with filling out various forms of financial assistance. Communicates cost-sharing responsibilities that patients may incur.
8. Reviews reports of denied claims received directly from payers or through review of existing monthly QI reports and actively assists with appeal denials by collecting applicable clinical information.
9. Under protocol, gathers information from electronic medical record regarding previous medication refills, previous and pending primary care provider appointments.
10. Assesses medication for inclusion in developed prescription refill center authorization protocol and refills medication following protocol criteria.
11. Attempts to solve medication issues, including prior authorization forms, sending messages to providers via the electronic health record system for outstanding office visits, lab work, or contacting providers/clinics directly for questions.
12. Forwards refill request to clinical pharmacist for approval or further review if refill criteria is not met per protocol.
13. Contacts patients to initiate or provide reminder for follow-up lab visits or office visits.
14. Communicates directly with patients to assist them in the awareness of their medications.
15. Provides documentation in medical record and communication to prescriber as per prescription refill protocol.
16. Maintains appropriate communications with patients to update on progress and status of request.
17. Plays a key role in maintaining a high level of patient satisfaction by providing patients with exceptional customer service and serving as the liaison between patients, physicians and pharmacies.
18. Helps develop new processes to ensure smooth operations and patient care. Actively participates in process improvement initiatives.
19. Functions as an interface between providers, patients, pharmacy and insurers on matters related to insurance verification, pre-certification/authorization
20. Heritage Health staff have an active role in our Patient Centered Medical Home model of care. This role is designated as part of the Heritage Health PCMH Care Team.
21. Regular and predictable attendance is an essential function of this position.
22. Performs other duties as required.

Safety:

Heritage Health enforces a safety culture whereby all employees have the responsibility for continuously developing and maintaining a safe working environment. Each employee is responsible for completing all training requirements, participating in emergency response tasks as requested, and serving on safety committees and teams as requested. In addition, employees must accept the responsibility for maintaining the safety of themselves and others by adhering to all written and verbal instructions, promptly reporting and/or correcting all hazards or unsafe conditions and providing feedback to supervisors and management on all safety issues.

Physical and Mental Requirements:

Required to stand, sit, and be mobile one-third to two-thirds of the time. They are required to use hands to finger, handle or feel over two-thirds of the time; while reaching with hands and arms occurs one-third of the day. Climbing or balancing, stooping, kneeling or crouching occur less than one-third of the time. Communicating by talking / hearing occurs over two-thirds of the day. Amount of time spent lifting or exerting force is about 50% for up to 10 pounds and less than one-third of the time up to 25 – 40 pounds. Rarely is there a need to lift more than 41 pounds. Must be able to manage efficient keyboard use, hear, see, speak and read.

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Ability to solve complex practical problems
• Positive interpersonal, communication & persuasion skills over the phone, computer & in person
• Must be able to simultaneously manage several objectives and assign priorities
• Deal with a wide variety of variables in situations where only limited standardization exists
• Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written or oral form
• Ability to work effectively under pressure to meet deadlines with a strong organization skill set for easy retrieval of information and to ensure competent closure of issues
• Ability to work overtime as needed, maintain alertness & meet the controlled substance policy.
• Good judgment and sound decision making and conflict management skills to inspire confidence from the customer
• Manage complex analysis and use deductive reasoning

Work Environment:

Work is normally performed in a typical interior/office work environment in a clinic. Work may be demanding and chaotic at times. Exposed to patient population that will present a variety of contagious diseases, physical injuries, and emotional states of mind.