Angel MedFlight Chief Revenue Recovery Officer Roberto Antonio
By Angel MedFlight Contributor
For a company that began in 2007, Roberto Antonio is one of the longer-tenured employees at Angel MedFlight Worldwide Air Ambulance. He’s worked a number of jobs at our Arizona office since arriving in early 2009 but he’s now the company’s Chief Revenue Recovery Officer. Antonio works with the claims department, seeing that payments from insurance companies are coming in and that they are correct.
Like many employees at Angel MedFlight, Antonio is a patient advocate, making sure the patients are getting the insurance benefits they are entitled to. “Patients spend their whole life paying into their health insurance, month after month after month. And they expect that one day when they need their insurance that it will come through and take care of them. We often see that insurance companies don’t want to pay what they are responsible for. We try to do whatever we can so that the patient doesn’t have to take on that burden.” Antonio adds, “If we can get the insurance to give us an authorization then we won’t charge the patient a penny.”
When insurance companies don’t preauthorize the medical flight then Angel MedFlight takes a retainer, but as Antonio says, “Our job then becomes, ‘How can we get this retainer back to the patient.” And there is no happier time than when this Phoenix air ambulance company with worldwide reach is able to return that retainer. “I know that for me that’s one of the biggest motivators when I do get a claim processed and paid out. It makes me feel good that we were able to get that retainer back to the patient, ” says Antonio.
This longtime Angel MedFlight employee has had the pleasure of making many calls to patients to inform them they were getting back their retainer for their past medical flight. “Those are good calls. You feel good. You feel good after several months of working with the insurance companies and being able to call that person back and tell them we have some good news for them. And we make sure that money gets back to them as soon as possible,” says Antonio.
Antonio was born and raised in Chicago but as a teenager moved to Laredo, Texas because his father’s company was relocated south of the border with Mexico. He recalls how his father would leave on Sundays to work in Mexico and then come back home to Laredo on Friday night. That same work ethic has been passed on to Antonio who has been a versatile employee. He started with the company as a flight coordinator but his insurance background made him a great fit in the claims department. Antonio has also worked on data entry with our cloud-based customer relationship management product. And when the marketing team has called, Antonio has been there helping with mailing projects.
Being a loyal member of the team is important to Antonio so he’s even rolled up the sleeves and moved desks and boxes and hung pictures around the office. “Whatever it takes to help out,” says Antonio. He says it’s that team effort which sets the company apart. “Our employees are willing and able to do whatever it takes to make the company succeed.”
On a personal note, it’s been a rough week for Antonio. His favorite sports team is, appropriately, the San Antonio Spurs and they recently lost to the Miami Heat in a tightly-contested, seven-game NBA Finals. “That loss was detrimental to my psychological well-being,” says Antonio. When he’s not cheering on the Spurs, he’s rooting with great passion for the Mexican professional soccer club Cruz Azul.
