Neonatal/Pediatric case mgmt./disease mgmt.

[Humbled_Nurse]

Hello everyone:

I have some questions for you. I have been a nurse for 10 years. 5 yrs. in NICU and still currently working part time in this area and I have 5 years of outpatient pediatric neurology experience. I am trying to find opportunities to work from home part-time to supplement my income. I am looking into medical transcription, telephone triage, and now I am researching case management/disease management opportunities. Are there opportunities for neonatal/pediatric case managers/disease managers that can work from home part-time? I do plan to call some of the major insurance companies (UHC, Aetna, Cigna, etc...) and see if these opportunities exist.

Do you have to live in the area or could I work for a company out of another state?

Thanks everyone! I appreciate it!!

[swincha]

UHC has a hiring freeze but they do need pediatric case managers. They are out of Lisle Il near Chicago. Not sure if you can work from home but I know someone doing Perinatal care from home.

[dria]

optumhealth/uhc does not offer any pedi specific case management programs. they do have the antepartum and neonatal programs, but once the infant reaches age one, they go into the general case management program which serves all ages.

unfortunately, uhc isnt going to make the investment to train you and set you up with a home office working part time. they don't really hire part-time. and to work from home, you have to put in a minimum of 6 months at the office.

there are multiple uhc sites in a number of areas..lisle il, phoenix az, long beach ca, tampa fl, oh, sc among others. i'm not aware of any that are hiring part time for cm.

i can't remember where the uhc telephone triage sites are (one in tx i think), but they may have part time opportunities. you have to live near one to train and work in the office for a period before going home though, i believe.

telephone triage may be a different story...you may want to try matria/cor/alere. i'm sure there are other companies, i just can't think of it now

feel free to pm me for additional info.

[swincha]

Well they actually do have case workers for Peds out of Illinois close to Chicago. I talked to a manager from that city when I was training an office. I would suggest studying and getting your CCM. There are also triage lines for pediatrics in different cities also.

[dria]

i know the lisle site well, i work there!

i reiterate that there is no peds-specific program that bridges the gap between optumhealth complex medical conditions nicu program and the optumhealth case management program.

i don't diasagree that they hire pedi nurses...i was a pediatric nurse before going there. but they actually don't have peds caseworkers out of lisle (nor any other site) that perform exclusively pediatric case management outside of the nicu program, which follows these babes through the nicu stay, then 60 days to one year of age after discharge from the nicu, depending on the babe's status.

the ccm is an excellent credential to have (but i may be biased, since i earned it myself) the rub is that you need to have either 2 years cm experience or one year cm working under a supervisor who has the ccm credential. for that reason, it is not a suitable credential to reccomend for somebody looking to break into case management.