Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Overseas Visitor Officer to join our team on a permanent basis.
To provide support to the Income Accountant with the provision of timely and accurate financial information and provide support in the effective management of overseas patients who attend the Trust.
To act as a point of contact for Trust staff, Department of Health and Social Care and patients issues including general enquiries and charges.
Interview Date - To Be Confirmed
The JD & PS are currently under AfC review and are subject to change.
Main duties of the job
- To assist with the monthly receipt, sense-check, upload, export and reporting of patient and non-patient related activity to/from the SLA monitoring system and general ledger, under the supervision of the Income Accountant.
- The post holder is required to manipulate, analyse and utilise large amounts of complex data using a range of I.T. systems including Microsoft excel to an advanced level, financial ledger, and contract monitoring systems, amongst others.
- The post holder is also required to work autonomously, with minimal supervision, ensuring their workload is managed and key deadlines adhered to.
About us
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.
We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.
Our Services:
Acute Care
Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
Primary Care
Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.
Community Services
Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.
Specialist Regional Services
We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.
Achievements:
- Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
- Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
- National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme
Job description
Job responsibilities
Overseas Visitor
- Identify patients referred to the Trust who are classified as overseas patients and ensure the trust is re-imbrued in line with the latest national guidance.
- To deal with routine queries from patients/relatives and medical staff regarding entitlement to free NHS treatment in a courteous and professional manner.
- To work closely with the relevant Contracting, Finance, Directorate and Clinical leads in the calculation of appropriate prices for overseas visitors and to raise invoices in a timely manner.
- To raise all invoices for Overseas Visitors in respect of treatment and consultant/ clinical charges.
- To maintain records of overseas patients interviews /documents and maintain a file for future reference and support debt recovery
- To support the accounts receivable team to ensure overseas debt is recovered in a timely manner, providing advice on case history when required and arranging and attending meetings to resolve outstanding debts.
- To analyse data produced by Information Management team and carry out regular reconciliation of overseas visitors activity before raising final invoices.
- Estimate the cost of treatment for overseas visitors and provide estimates to the individual or insurance company as appropriate.
- Arrange pre-authorization of treatment of overseas elective patients in line with the current guidance to enable the Trust to invoice appropriately for the costs of treatment.
- To collate data/ produce reports and liaise with different stakeholders such as Government departments and medical insurance companies.
- To complete returns for reciprocal patients, making sure these are returned to Department of Health and Health Authority in a timely manner.
- To record and return details of NHS debtors to the Department of Health cost recovery team on a monthly basis in order to allow better recovery of NHS debts.
- To liaise with internal and external audit managers regarding management of overseas visitors.
- Participate in the Trusts annual budget setting ensuring budgets are set accurately reflecting all corporate income from overseas visitors.
Commissioning Support
- Supports the Income Accountant in meeting all requirements for monthly closedown, including journal input, variance analysis, accruals/prepayments and other routine adjustments.
- Maintains spreadsheets to support the reconciliation of income to the general ledger.
- Supports the Income Accountant in identifying all Clinical and Non-Clinical income due to the Trust and ensures invoices are raised on a timely basis and that mechanisms are in place to provide a full audit trail for all invoices raised.
- Ensures invoices raised are reconciled to agreements on a timely basis.
- Supports the Income Accountant with accurate invoicing and reporting of income relating to Non-Contracted Activity (NCAs).
- Supports the Income Accountant with calculating income due from national tariff.
- Review and ensures that all the accruals/prepayments/balance sheet releases are made accurately and that a full audit trail is maintained.
- Supports the Income Accountant with the resolution of income queries from external Organisations.
- Assist with the agreement of balances exercise maintaining a full reconciliation to general ledger.
- Ensure the Trusts standing financial instructions and codes of procedure are adhered to at all times.
- Support the Head of Contracting & Income and the Income Accountant in any ad hoc tasks that may arise in the day to day tasks to meet on-going organisational demands.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Overseas Visitor
- Identify patients referred to the Trust who are classified as overseas patients and ensure the trust is re-imbrued in line with the latest national guidance.
- To deal with routine queries from patients/relatives and medical staff regarding entitlement to free NHS treatment in a courteous and professional manner.
- To work closely with the relevant Contracting, Finance, Directorate and Clinical leads in the calculation of appropriate prices for overseas visitors and to raise invoices in a timely manner.
- To raise all invoices for Overseas Visitors in respect of treatment and consultant/ clinical charges.
- To maintain records of overseas patients interviews /documents and maintain a file for future reference and support debt recovery
- To support the accounts receivable team to ensure overseas debt is recovered in a timely manner, providing advice on case history when required and arranging and attending meetings to resolve outstanding debts.
- To analyse data produced by Information Management team and carry out regular reconciliation of overseas visitors activity before raising final invoices.
- Estimate the cost of treatment for overseas visitors and provide estimates to the individual or insurance company as appropriate.
- Arrange pre-authorization of treatment of overseas elective patients in line with the current guidance to enable the Trust to invoice appropriately for the costs of treatment.
- To collate data/ produce reports and liaise with different stakeholders such as Government departments and medical insurance companies.
- To complete returns for reciprocal patients, making sure these are returned to Department of Health and Health Authority in a timely manner.
- To record and return details of NHS debtors to the Department of Health cost recovery team on a monthly basis in order to allow better recovery of NHS debts.
- To liaise with internal and external audit managers regarding management of overseas visitors.
- Participate in the Trusts annual budget setting ensuring budgets are set accurately reflecting all corporate income from overseas visitors.
Commissioning Support
- Supports the Income Accountant in meeting all requirements for monthly closedown, including journal input, variance analysis, accruals/prepayments and other routine adjustments.
- Maintains spreadsheets to support the reconciliation of income to the general ledger.
- Supports the Income Accountant in identifying all Clinical and Non-Clinical income due to the Trust and ensures invoices are raised on a timely basis and that mechanisms are in place to provide a full audit trail for all invoices raised.
- Ensures invoices raised are reconciled to agreements on a timely basis.
- Supports the Income Accountant with accurate invoicing and reporting of income relating to Non-Contracted Activity (NCAs).
- Supports the Income Accountant with calculating income due from national tariff.
- Review and ensures that all the accruals/prepayments/balance sheet releases are made accurately and that a full audit trail is maintained.
- Supports the Income Accountant with the resolution of income queries from external Organisations.
- Assist with the agreement of balances exercise maintaining a full reconciliation to general ledger.
- Ensure the Trusts standing financial instructions and codes of procedure are adhered to at all times.
- Support the Head of Contracting & Income and the Income Accountant in any ad hoc tasks that may arise in the day to day tasks to meet on-going organisational demands.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- High standard of general education (to A-Level or equivalent)
- GCSE Level C or above in English and Maths
- Qualified full member of AAT or equivalent experience
- Actively studying for CCAB or CIMA qualification
Knowledge & Experience
Essential
- Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office. Able to handle large volumes of data extract to create and manipulate complex spread sheets.
- Knowledge of computerised ledger systems and coding structures
Skills
Essential
- Good communication skills - both oral and written
- Ability to work effectively as part of a team
- Ability to work without supervision and deliver to strict deadlines
- Often required to switch tasks at short notice
- Ability to organise own work and members of team to achieve effective outcomes
- Used to working in a busy environment
- Adaptability, flexibility and ability to cope with uncertainty and change
- Willing to engage with and learn from peers, other professionals and colleagues in the desire to provide or support the most appropriate interventions
Other
Essential
- Enthusiastic and determined
- Open, honest and approachable
- Standard keyboard skills
- Occasional requirement to move office equipment
- Regular requirement for long periods of concentration are required for when checking for accuracy
- Frequent interruptions in the form of telephone enquiries and Microsoft Teams calls and support required from colleagues
- Requirement to deal with difficult discussions with clinicians and service managers
- Frequent requirement to travel across sites
- Requirement to use VDU equipment for a majority of the working day
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- High standard of general education (to A-Level or equivalent)
- GCSE Level C or above in English and Maths
- Qualified full member of AAT or equivalent experience
- Actively studying for CCAB or CIMA qualification
Knowledge & Experience
Essential
- Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office. Able to handle large volumes of data extract to create and manipulate complex spread sheets.
- Knowledge of computerised ledger systems and coding structures
Skills
Essential
- Good communication skills - both oral and written
- Ability to work effectively as part of a team
- Ability to work without supervision and deliver to strict deadlines
- Often required to switch tasks at short notice
- Ability to organise own work and members of team to achieve effective outcomes
- Used to working in a busy environment
- Adaptability, flexibility and ability to cope with uncertainty and change
- Willing to engage with and learn from peers, other professionals and colleagues in the desire to provide or support the most appropriate interventions
Other
Essential
- Enthusiastic and determined
- Open, honest and approachable
- Standard keyboard skills
- Occasional requirement to move office equipment
- Regular requirement for long periods of concentration are required for when checking for accuracy
- Frequent interruptions in the form of telephone enquiries and Microsoft Teams calls and support required from colleagues
- Requirement to deal with difficult discussions with clinicians and service managers
- Frequent requirement to travel across sites
- Requirement to use VDU equipment for a majority of the working day
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
