IntelliCare on its toes, 24/7

Becoming accessible 24/7 is one of the best things that has ever happened to IntelliCare, if one were to ask its clients. When its in-house Customer Service Department started operating 24/7, they once again set a new standard in the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) industry.

For apart from answering inquiries on how to avail of services, who the accredited doctors or hospitals are and how to use the card, IntelliCare is able to attend to its clients who need medical attention past sundown. Medical emergencies, after all, can happen at the oddest of hours.

Says Josephine Sabuga, IntelliCare’s Senior Manager for its Customer Service Department, since their Customer Service Department became accessible round the clock, they’ve had many calls regarding medical emergencies involving their cardholders. And although they do not give medical advice on the phone in such emergencies, they are capable of acting on the case immediately.

Cecille San Pedro, head of IntelliCare’s in-house Customer Service Department, says there even was a time when they had to attend to a client in a critical condition. It was nighttime and the patient was bleeding profusely. The hospital that the patient had been taken to could do no more than administer the initial medical care. The patient had to be brought to another hospital with the right facilities. Upon getting the call, immediately, three customer service representatives attended to the case — one coordinated with Aeromed, IntelliCare’s partner for ambulance services, one with a doctor who was supposed to accompany the patient during the transfer and another with an IntelliCare Patient Relations Officer (PRO) to make arrangements with the hospital the patient was to be transferred to.

Not many HMOs can claim to offer this kind of attention that IntelliCare gives its clients. Sabuga confirms that theirs is a staff that is expertly trained to be able to cover a lot of fronts in health care.

Dr. Louie Agregado, IntelliCare’s in-house doctor and Manager for Medical Claims discusses new treatments. Each of the staff — its supervisor, its 5 team leaders and the rest of the customer service reps — is required to know by heart all new developments, on top of having to refer to their manuals, medical books and medical dictionaries when the need arises.

But putting together a competent team for the job starts, of course, from the hiring of highly qualified personnel. They only take in graduates of medical courses such as Nursing, Physical Therapy and Medical Technology. The reason being of course that they will eventually be approving requests for tests to determine a patient’s medical condition. "You have to have the initial knowledge on these things. An engineer certainly wouldn’t know this and non-medical course graduates don’t have the headstart when it comes to these," Sabuga says.

In IntelliCare, compassion is a must among its employees. It has always been the company’s most outstanding quality. "Out of a person’s compassion arises the desire to do well and go the extra mile in helping out another," its president and CEO Mario Silos has said.

To explain how they go the extra mile, San Pedro further relates that a typical call does not end when they disapprove a requested procedure. Instead, they offer their clients alternatives and other suggestions that might be less costly and just as effective.

For more information about IntelliCare and their products, you can call their 24-hour Customer Service Number (02) 894-3386 or visit their website at www.intellicare.com.ph.