Staff Advocate

UWMSN University of Wisconsin Madison; United States; On-site; USD 75,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

generous vacation, holidays, and paid 

competitive insurances and savings 

retirement benefits

Job summary

University of Wisconsin–Madison's Center for Patient Partnerships seeks a staff advocate to support a new health insurance program for rural Wisconsin consumers. The role focuses on intensive legal and advocacy services, including prior authorization, denials, and regulatory appeals.

Responsibilities include helpline triage, intake, brief intervention advocacy, and contributing to program quality assurance and reporting.

Qualifications

• At least 3 years in legal, regulatory, enforcement, or investigative analysis related to health care or public benefits.
• Experience supporting individuals in appeals, grievances, or complaint processes within regulatory contexts.
• Strong knowledge of federal and Wisconsin health care systems.

Responsibilities

• Manage caseload and provide high-quality advocacy on health insurance matters.
• Research laws and regulations to develop CPP policies, trainings, and procedures.
• Support helpline triage, intake, and brief intervention advocacy services.
• Contribute to CPP through meetings, planning, and program development.
• Oversee program operations to align with strategic goals.

Skills

Legal knowledge

Regulatory analysis

Advocacy

Health care policy

Project coordination

Staff supervision

Education

J.D. required

Job description

Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process. Job Category: Academic Staff Employment Type: Regular Job Profile: Outreach Program Manager

Job Summary

The Center for Patient Partnerships (CPP) seeks a staff advocate for the new health insurance program to reach rural health care consumers. The advocate will provide primarily intensive legal and advocacy services to qualifying clients to support access to health care. The services will assist rural Wisconsin consumers with prior authorization processes and appeals, claim denial appeals, and other complex insurance protocols that consumers must navigate to get coverage for their care. It will also include filing of grievances and complaints to state and federal regulators. The position will also contribute to intake and triage services, brief advocacy help, assist with program quality assurance and reporting, contribute to program development, track trends, and collaborate on system-level advocacy. The mission of this new program is to support patients in using health insurance and coverage to gain timely, effective, and accessible health care in rural Wisconsin communities.

The responsibilities of this role will include:

• Managing caseload of advocacy clients and providing high-quality advocacy services regarding health insurance (private and public) and self-funded plans
• Researching and documenting changing laws, regulations, and practices related to health coverage to create operating policies and procedures and trainings for CPP staff and program collaborators
• Supporting helpline triage, intake and providing brief intervention advocacy services
• Contributing to CPP broadly through participation in staff meetings, sharing of learnings, and office coverage and other duties as assigned

CPP is an interdisciplinary, cross-campus center located within the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. CPP operates as a medical-legal partnership and offers experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students through coursework and community engagement. Services include health advocacy and community resource navigation. Our staff is mission-focused, creative, collaborative, and dedicated to making health care work for each and all.

In addition to our service and teaching, we research patients' diverse lived experiences, needs, and challenges, and test and evaluate interventions. Our model prioritizes systems change that advances access to timely, effective health care, and promotes patients’ personal agency in navigating their own health experiences.

Services will provide a combination of brief intervention and intensive advocacy support to clients, aiming toward problem resolution or appropriate referral for every case. The staff advocate position will have service volume expectations.

Key Job Responsibilities

• Support helpline triage, intake and provide brief intervention advocacy services
• May exercise supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 FTE or equivalent employees
• Supervises the implementation of outreach-program-focused strategic planning initiatives and objectives
• Reviews recommendations for and provides input on the design and development of new outreach programs or services
• Develops and implements operating policies and procedures to promote the outreach program in alignment with the strategic plan
• Determines outreach program needs and the personnel resource allocation plan
• Contribute to CPP broadly through participation in staff meetings, sharing of learnings, and office coverage and other duties as assigned

Department

Center for Patient Partnerships

Compensation

The anticipated salary range for this position is $75,000 - $95,000. However, final salary will depend on experience and qualifications.

Benefits

• generous vacation, holidays, and paid time off
• competitive insurances and savings accounts
• retirement benefits

Additional benefits information can be found at: https://www.wisconsin.edu/ohrwd/benefits/download/fasl.pdf

Required Qualifications

• At least 3 years of experience in legal, regulatory, enforcement, or investigative analysis and representation, particularly as it relates to health care, public benefits, or social service programs
• 1 year of experience with supporting individual clients in appeal, grievance, or complaint processes in the areas of regulatory administrative or enforcement proceedings or related to claim disputes or consumer protection
• Demonstrated knowledge of federal and state (Wisconsin) health care and health insurance landscape and delivery systems

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated project and time management skills, including the ability to independently manage competing deadlines and priorities
• Experience addressing barriers while advocating with or providing services for consumers or individual clients from rural communities or those with limited access to services
• Experience building a new client-facing program or contributing to client-facing program policy development or workflows

Education: J.D. from accredited law school - Required License or Certificate: J.D. is required from an accredited law school Must be admitted to the Wisconsin State Bar or admitted to the bar of another state and in the process of obtaining admission to the Wisconsin State Bar

Additional Information

• Criminal background check may be required.
• 12-month evaluation period may be required.

Work Schedule

Normal hours are between 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday, or as negotiated with supervisor. Very occasional nights or weekends are required for this position as deadlines require.

Contact Information

Sonia Parker, CALS HR Generalist [e-mail] 608-890-2547

Institutional Statement on Diversity

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW‑Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals. The University of Wisconsin‑Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world. The University of Wisconsin‑Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website. To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre‑employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you. Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment. The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7). The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report contains current campus safety and disciplinary policies, crime statistics for the previous 3 calendar years, and on‑campus student housing fire safety policies and fire statistics for the previous 3 calendar years. UW‑Madison will provide a paper copy upon request; please contact the University of Wisconsin Police Department. Work with purpose, make an impact, and grow your career. The University of Wisconsin‑Madison is committed to equity, inclusion and employee well-being as we proudly work to improve the lives of people in Wisconsin and beyond. UW‑Madison offers a wide range of professions that cover various interests and skill levels. We employ everything from accountants to arborists, chefs to custodians, editors to electricians, graphic designers to groundskeepers, HR associates to HVAC technicians, librarians to locksmiths, mechanics to medical assistants, painters to police officers, web designers to welders, and absolutely everything in between! No matter what you are looking for professionally, chances are you will not only find it but will thrive at it while working at the University of Wisconsin‑Madison.