Int. Flashcards
- Can you tell us about your experience in public accounting or finance, especially in the context of government or public health organizations?
o I have reviewed and summarized contract/grant termination criteria for the finance department at HCPH
o As an Inventory Coordinator, I have been responsible for keeping physical track of certain items purchased with grants.
o Peripheral experience with grants from public administration degree and talking with my boss Neil Chaudhary at Hopewell. He demonstrated the importance of not only providing all the relevant information, but creating persuasive ways to pitch grant proposals depending on the audience.
- You have experience with managing databases and tracking inventory. How would you transfer your skills in data management to financial reporting and analysis?
o I have a lot of experience with trying to find and keep accurate information on a schedule, and managing this in tandem with ongoing projects. For example, completing inventory audits while working on improving SOPs or iCAM descriptions. Sometimes due to unavailability of certain locations, I have had to manage starting/stopping audit tasks at multiple locations and planning my schedule around tracking them.
- Have you ever worked with medical billing systems, specifically Epic? If not, how would you approach learning a new system like that?
o I do not have any experience with Epic, but realize that it is widely used throughout HCPH and many private institutions. I would likely start to learn by exploring a bit and keeping a .pdf manual handy on my desktop. There’s always googling to also provide familiarity. While it isn’t preferrable to bother my colleagues, that is another option at my disposal if necessary.
- Describe your experience working with federal grants or government funding. How do you ensure compliance with grant regulations and financial reporting requirements?
o I do not have extensive experience with this, but understand it’s extremely important to be ready for things like being audited at any time. As such it’s very important to keep the most up-to-date records in the most organized and easy-to-access ways possible. It’s also important to have mechanisms in place to allow others to access my work.
o The CFR (code of federal regulations) is also an important consultation resource that I understand will need to be kept handy, particularly for interpreting language correctly.
o For Financial reporting requirements I would start by identifying the bare minimum requirements as a sort of “skeleton” to work with and then identify useful or likely-to-be-requested additional information around those minimums. I would prefer to group items into areas in which it is easier to collect them together at once. For example, if I need to contact somebody for information, I would try figuring out what is needed from them, then gathering as much of it as possible at once from them so as to improve organizational efficiency.l /.,
- What is your experience with financial analysis and preparing reports from financial systems or EMR software? How do you ensure the accuracy and integrity of the data?
o To ensure data integrity, I never reuse the same password for different platforms and never use anything that would be easy to guess. It’s important to encrypt data and never pick up or use data that may be altered. I try to keep regular backups and earlier versions of anything that I am working on. Establishing standard procedures for checking any data provided is very important – I rarely take anything provided at face value – it’s important to examine documentation and items firsthand, and try to do so on a routine basis.
- Can you walk us through a time when you identified discrepancies in financial data or payments, and how you resolved the issue?
o If I were to identify a discrepancy I would first weigh the severity of the issue – is this something that I need to immediately notify a superior of? If so, I would (which would probably be most or all cases). Immediately identify if there is a reporting requirement for discrepancy and make relevant reports.
o Identify possible causes of the discrepancy. Narrow down. After preliminary narrowing down -
o Try to search for all ongoing items that could have been affected by this discrepancy, prioritizing ongoing processes first. Attempt to put a hold on any transactions that may be affected until the issue is resolved. Make sure to catalogue anything that has already been affected in this process.
- How comfortable are you with overseeing and managing medical billing, including tracking insurance and Medicaid payments?
o I do not have experience handling these, but reimbursing payments is a matter of discovering if a transaction qualifies for it – then verifying it. It is important to ensure that reimbursements are accurate foremost, but being timely is also important. I feel I have demonstrated a commitment to sticking to timelines and being accurate.
- How would you approach managing a team of staff involved in medical billing or financial tracking? What kind of leadership style do you bring to team management?
I am not sure exactly what my leadership style would be without more experience - however, I think I would focus on having an open door and ensuring there are plenty of opportunities to communicate. Expectations would focus on having certain tasks done within whatever seems a “reasonable” period of time to me. It would be important to check up on people routinely for feedback and modifications to how all of this works.
- This role involves processing quarterly Medicaid Administrative Claiming. What is your understanding of this process, and how would you ensure accuracy and timely reporting?
Quarterly Medicaid Administrative Claiming (QMAC) is a process that allows states and territories to request federal reimbursement for the costs associated with Medicaid-related administrative activities. These activities are crucial to the operation of the Medicaid program but don’t directly involve providing medical care to beneficiaries.
Here’s a breakdown of how QMAC works:
- Types of Activities Covered:
Medicaid administrative activities are broad and can include things like:
Eligibility determinations and enrollment processes
Outreach and public awareness efforts
Program planning and management
Training for staff or contractors working with Medicaid
Monitoring and oversight of Medicaid providers
Data collection, analysis, and reporting
I would work on keeping organized records with backups for each claim. This would help ensure accuracy through being able to check each against one another. Timely reporting is a matter of prioritizing what is required soonest and fitting it into a schedule, allowing for room for error in case of delays or unforeseen issues. I am willing to work outside of standard hours if necessary to get claims reported on time.
- What challenges do you foresee in this position, and how would you handle them?
o I think the largest challenge would be familiarizing myself with all the legal requirements and learning how to streamline or automate ongoing processes to reduce workload. This would represent a larger initial challenge up front. From my own experience, I find that a strength is that I tend to be especially fast and efficient once I start getting the hang of things – but that requires a larger investment of time-consuming attention and mental rehearsal up front.
- Can you provide an example of how you have handled a time-sensitive financial report or task under pressure?
When I worked for Zoning as an Intern at the City of Covington, I made sure to do all work necessary to meet deadlines. For example, we had to print hundreds of notices through mail merge and package them into envelopes to send out notifying of an airbnb. I worked a 9 hour day despite my scedule calling for only 4 that day as the two zoning workers were out sick. This was necessary as every recipient needed to have the mail received by the time of the next zoning hearing. Other examples include the numerous tasks such as audits and administrative projects I have had given to me during my work at HCPH.
- How do you stay organized and manage multiple tasks, especially when dealing with complex financial data?
This can be fairly complicated, but I prefer to organize my tasks into files by items that are “active” and then archive older items and sort them by date. Items are saved as versions and copied into those files. This is how I handle, for example, the iCAM SOPs. With financial data I feel this would work quite similarly, although there would be more files to manage at a time. I also try to figure out small tasks I can do to set myself up for the next day or day before - for example, keeping a notepad file on my computer with current “to-do” tasks and setting calendar reminders on my phone.
- Hamilton County Public Health values health equity. How do you see your role in supporting this mission through financial oversight and accountability?
I feel that my foremost job is accuracy and sticking to the rules - but there is a role for equity in understanding the importance of my job. HCPH is here to meet a legal commitment, but the purpose of that commitment is ultimately to help the public regardless of their personal background or financial status. We are one of the few real safety nets many people in this community have.
- What excites you most about working in the public health sector, particularly in a role focused on financial oversight?
- What strengths do you bring to this role that will help you succeed as the Assistant Finance Officer?
Attention to detail, commitment to put in hours and be ready when needed. Excellent reading and writing skills. Ability to communicate in detail and edit, refine tasks/writing processes as necessary.
