Close up: Lauren Ruiz, Program Manager
Helping people in the now, with their immediate needs, is important. Working here made me realize that. I started at Caring Voice Coalition (CVC) nearly four years ago after graduating from Virginia Tech with degrees in political science, mass communications, and English. My goal was to get my master’s degree in public health and public policy. I wanted to be a lobbyist for patient advocacy issues in Congress.
I believe that every unexpected turn in my life happened so that I would find myself just where I am now. I’m still an advocate, just not in the political landscape. I get to help patients get the medical insurance they need, and therefore the doctors and medications they need, to care for their disease and have a better quality of life.
In college I was diagnosed with an unspecified seizure disorder. After working here for a while and talking to patients, especially parents of children who have seizure disorders, it helped me open up more about my own experiences. I think it has helped me relate to our patients.
I also believe the lessons my parents instilled in me shaped me so that I would be a perfect match for this organization. I’m now a program manager in CVC’s patient services department, and I have a specific role in overseeing our alternate coverage and premium assistance departments where we help patients enroll for coverage and better understand their insurance benefits. Two years ago I helped CVC become a Certified Application Counselor Designated Organization (CDO) for Marketplace services under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). That’s been great because we can directly assist patients in filling out the application, review plans and help them enroll. It makes it a lot easier on the patient to go through that process with us and then be referred internally for financial assistance. They get the whole package in one stop.
have the best representatives available to assist them.”
I love helping the patients and getting to know them, but I also really enjoy seeing the employees that I supervise develop and learn. Being able to cross-train someone in multiple departments and see them succeed is always rewarding. I like helping people, so giving someone else the tools to be able to help others is a plus. I want to make sure that our patients have the best representatives available to assist them, and I want to give patients the tools they need to comfortably oversee their insurance on their own should the need arise. We want to help them overall.
Since I’ve been here we’ve doubled the disease states we support and we’ve extended our reach. People know of us because of our advocacy work, because of Community magazine, because of our alternate coverage and disability programs; it’s those extra services that we offer that set us apart. I think we’re able to manage them all really well because we hold on to that high-touch patient experience.
I want patients to know that we are always here for them. It’s okay to ask for help; you don’t have to carry everything on your own shoulders alone. Even if we’re not able to resolve something right away, we will continue to try to find the answer. When one door closes, another door somewhere will open; you just have to find it.
