Archives for September 2016

Tips to Better Manage Your Stress

Are You a Stressed out Case Manager? Fact is, a lot of our health problems stem from stress — and we are in the health field! Like many industries, the highly competitive and ever-changing field of health care can be stressful.

In a 2014 nationwide survey of 3,211 workers across various industries, CareerBuilder found that health care industry employees had the highest rates of stress, with 69 percent of health care workers saying they feel stressed in their current jobs, and 17 percent feeling “highly stressed.” Further, more than half of health care workers said their workloads had increased over the past year.

To add to the stress, health plan workers, in particular, have taken on greater caseloads.

According to research findings in a recent needs assessment by the funders supporting the Care Excellence initiative, care coordinators have an average caseload of 100 cases. Registered nurse care managers and social work care managers have an average caseload of 25‐35 cases. Finally, care managers who function in a supervisory role of other care managers and/or care coordinators can be responsible for supervising upwards of 150 cases.

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Onboarding is Another Crucial Step in the Case Manager Recruitment Process

Although selecting the perfect candidate is an important step, it is not the last step of the recruitment process. Once your new case manager, care manager, or care coordinator has accepted your offer, the next step is to successfully integrate him or her into your organization. This starts with the onboarding process.

“It is difficult to recruit top talent and it is difficult to retain this type of talent,”

– Dr. Kelly Pfeifer, director of High-Value Care at California HealthCare Foundation

Onboarding is a process.

Health plans seek talented case managers and care coordinators, but are sometimes reluctant to commit sufficient resources to retain them. Training and orienting new employees is an essential part of retaining employees. Therefore, onboarding is more than just new hire orientation. Onboarding is a process.

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Learn Best Practices for Hiring High Quality Care Managers

Talented care managers are in limited supply, but very much in demand because the number of chronically and seriously ill individuals is growing. Americans are living longer, and the workforce is aging, resulting in a critical need for highly skilled care managers.

With regard to Medicare, the California Health Care Almanac reported that California beneficiaries were at 4.5 million in 2010. Only two years later, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation reported California beneficiaries of Medicare reached 5.1 million. Both organizations have stated that as the population ages, the state will continue to see a high percentage of Medicare enrollees as well as an aging population also eligible for Medi‐Cal.

With the growing number of Medicare and Medi‐Cal beneficiaries alone, it is crucial for health plans to recruit talented case managers, care managers, care coordinators, and others who coordinate care, assure quality, and optimize outcomes for people enrolled for their medical care coverage.

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