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| Elizabeth Toney |
In the
beginning…all I knew about the Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR)
was what I could assume from the name of the organization and its association
with Wichita State University. Community
suggested one’s local neighborhood, support
spoke of helping, lending a hand, and its association
with WSU spoke of education. When I found that CCSR had a current public health
initiatives project that involved medical billing and coding I was excited to get
the chance to learn how public assistance programs functioned. Through their
billing project I hoped to gain a better understanding of the public health
reimbursement process. This was going to be an opportunity to put into action
the skills I learned from my bachelor’s degree in Health Services Management
and associate’s degree in billing and coding.
Working with
the Public Health Initiatives team of Sonja, Aaron, Vanessa, and Kristina along
with Executive Director Scott Wituk I have had an opportunity to become exposed
to a public health program that helps those who struggle with access to health
care. CCSR is currently involved with a Local Health Department Billing
initiative project for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE)
and Kansas Association of Local Health Departments (KALHD) towards maximizing
sustainability of the local health departments. The Billing initiative provided
opportunity for me to utilize my skills in determining types of valuable
training programs that would help improve the billing practices and processes of
health departments and minimize claim denials.
After
research, the necessary information was utilized to create a two page training
and professional certification guide that can be used when deciding to invest
in training for billing staff to become certified. The guide provides sources for
online training programs and a choice of medical biller certifications
available. Though certification is not required it can benefit staff at the
facilities obtaining reimbursement. This hands-on project gave me an
opportunity to improve my research, decision making, planning, and communication
skills.
This practicum
opportunity allowed me to improve upon my own leadership skills. I had the
opportunity to attend meetings of local coalition groups like Interfaith
Ministries and Visioneering Wichita and participate in the discussion of past
and upcoming public programs to assist those in need. All of my core competency
skills have been improved through observing the leadership style of the Public
Health Initiative team and the CCSR staff. It has been a real pleasure to have
the opportunity to work with a group of dedicated people.
