MetroPlusHealth provides the highest quality healthcare services to residents of Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island through a comprehensive list of products, including, but not limited to, New York State Medicaid Managed Care, Medicare, Child Health Plus, Exchange, Partnership in Care, MetroPlus Gold, Essential Plan, etc. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest public health system in the United States, MetroPlusHealth network includes over 27,000 primary care providers, specialists and participating clinics. For more than 30 years, MetroPlus has been committed to building strong relationships with its members and providers to enable New Yorkers to live their healthiest life.
Position Overview
Under the direct supervision of the Senior ETE Advisor, the Peer Counselor is part of a dynamic team of staff, known as the Ending the Epidemic (ETE) Team, who are focused on dramatically improving HIV care outcomes and reducing new HIV infections in New York State. This position works in tandem with other care managers as well as the primary clinical team and community-based organizations to support members living with HIV to stay in care and virally suppressed using a health coaching model and a strengths-based approach. The Peer Counselor will employ a combination of strategies to effectively engage members, including phone outreach and deployment to facilities throughout the boroughs of New York City to provide face-to-face case management. This is a grantfunded
position.
- Provides direct care management by coordinating the delivery of comprehensive, quality healthcare services for members who are living with HIV.
- Performs member assessment, plan of care development, and care coordination to ensure optimal health outcomes.
- Conducts telephonic and face-to-face member engagement, and inclusion, where appropriate, of collateral contacts including family members (with appropriate consent of the member), primary care provider, and other community and case managers to identify and address the needs and barriers of members living with HIV to promote the health and wellness of the member.
- Provides health education using coaching and motivational interviewing techniques to promote improved health outcomes for HIV engagement in care and viral load suppression, engagement with behavioral health and substance use services and, to a more limited extent, effective management of other co-morbid illnesses, such as hepatitis C, diabetes, hypertension, and asthma/COPD.
- Participates in special outreach and quality improvement projects as assigned.
- Documents all care management activities for each member in the DCMS system and other applicable software programs and ensures that such documentation is in compliance with professional standards and regulatory guidelines.
- Follows departmental workflows as assigned, including the return to care and adherence interventions.
- Attends and prepares for case conferences and occasional conferences on special topics and/or with other departments. To review, identify and assess the member's Plan of Care and recommend changes in order to promote the health and wellness of the member.
- High School graduation or evidence of having satisfactorily passed a High School Equivalency Program; and
- 1 year of HIV Peer training or experience.
- Knowledge of the concerns and challenges of persons living with HIV/AIDS.
- Bilingual (English/Spanish) is preferred. Fluency in other languages is welcomed
- New York Certification as a Peer Specialist preferred
Professional Competencies
- Excellent interpersonal, organizational communication and analytical skills.
- Computer literacy with proficiency with Microsoft Office products is required.