Your Health Support Team
We serve in an Ombuds-like role providing individual consultation, presentations, and workshops that help employees navigate health insurance and health care, get the care they need, and resolve issues. Our job is to simplify the health care system, give meaning to the jargon and provide guidance on where to start. We also coach people on how to better advocate for themselves. In addition to employees and their dependents, we also serve retirees and their dependents as well as trainees (Residents/Fellows), and Postdoctoral Scholars. (Learn more below).
How did you learn so much about the health care system?
Sue: I have many years of nursing experience and working in clinical settings. I appreciate that I can use my knowledge of the health care system–what I know, what I’ve learned, and who I am–to help fellow employees and retirees.
Emily: It's been part of my career journey. I’ve worked in a variety of health care roles and departments at UCSF over the last nine years, and I’m currently pursuing my MPH (Masters of Public Health). Through my roles at UCSF, I’ve been both on the patient care side and provider side of the health care system in an academic setting.
What advice would you give to those managing care for themselves or others?
- Always carry your insurance card with you.
- Ask questions, ask for help or ask for resources if you need them. You are not alone. Even Nobel Prize winners can find it confusing. Our current health care system is not easy to understand for consumers, making it hard to get the care you need and ensure your health insurance plan works for you.
- Keep in mind that health care is always changing, and so are the answers to the questions people have and the problems people encounter. The UCSF Health Care Facilitator Program can help identify the root problem, help you make the decisions and provide you resources and support. Above all our role is about interaction and helping people make decisions. It’s not about us memorizing all the nuances of the system; it’s about working together to find solutions.
