Case Manager Interview Preparation Guide

Download PDF

As with any occupation, you will likely be faced with an unsatisfied client at some point. In these cases, you will need to draw upon your professional abilities to communicate and resolve the issue. With these types of case manager interview questions and answers, relate a brief description of what happened and how you handled it. If you do not have previous work experience, provide a scenario that shows how you might resolve a conflict with an upset client.

Demonstrates task management skills.

Effective medical case managers must also have a strong background in practicing nursing. It’s essential to get this across during your interview. Start with your medical training received during college, and discuss how your courses prepared you for the job of nursing. Then give details about your background as a nurse and the different specialties you have had experience with. Your goal is to demonstrate a strong knowledge of medical terminology and procedures.

This is a very important question since it will provide a bit of background about you and the things that drive you to be successful in your career. Perhaps you became a case manager because of a personal experience. If so, provide some history. “My grandmother was very ill with cancer and I feel that she would have been able to make better decisions if she had been informed of all of her options” would be a fantastic answer. Otherwise, simply provide a brief explanation of why you chose this career. “I want to make sure that people who are ill or facing a crisis will have all of the information and support they need to make it through the difficult times.”

Assessing patients’ individual care needs, coordinating and providing care that is safe and timely, and drafting service plans have been my prime duties in the past. Additionally, I have helped patients in making informed decisions by acting as their advocate and arranged abeyances with social services as well.

The nonprofit environment is a close-knit community in which managers may know each other. Asking about a candidate's experience with other employers in the community is a good way for an interviewer to test loyalty. The interviewer favors a response that's thoughtful and professional rather than a critical response about a former employer.

Research related questions provide good ways to assess a candidate's critical thinking. The interviewer gives a candidate an opportunity to discuss how well he's prepared to manage and coordinate programs effectively under tight budget constraints. The questioner may expect the candidate to demonstrate that he's up-to-date on developments in the field by expressing his knowledge of budget cuts within the program or industry.

The most driven workers tend to make the best employees. If you jump into a profession merely for the money or benefits, you will not be as motivated to go the extra mile. This is the hiring manager’s perspective, so he or she wants to understand what drives you to be a successful professional. Feel free to be honest about why you chose your career as a case manager, but focus on points aside from money and benefits.

Tests ability to handle stress.

At the core of a case manager’s job is the ability to manage people. A case manager candidate needs to have experience being a supervisor or leader in a medical setting. You can show that you’re ready to take on this job by highlighting your experience as a manager in nursing or other types of medically-related work. Make sure you give the interviewer a sense of your management style by offering examples of you and your team solving problems. This is one of the most important case manager interview tips.

At my previous job, I had a difficult situation when one of the attorneys instructed me to include an argument in a pleading I was drafting under her supervision. It was my belief that this argument dangerously skirted the edge of what was ethically permissible and would be generally detrimental to the client’s cause by making an unfavorable impression on the judge. When I raised this point as a consideration, the attorney was dismissive of my concerns. As I was still concerned, I researched the issue further and learned that an attorney had been censured by the state bar for very similar conduct. When I tactfully brought this to my supervisor’s attention, she agreed that the problematic argument should be omitted.

The hospital that I was working for assigned me to a 12 year old child who had been admitted for what was at that time considered “bruising due to falling off a bicycle”. While I was interviewing the child, she told me that she had not fallen off a bike – in fact, her step father had battered her. She was scared that she will be sent back home and if her stepfather found out that she had told me, he would beat her again. Since she had told me her predicament, it was my duty to inform the hospital authorities. However, I had to deal with her in a psychological manner (to ensure her that she will be unharmed if I told the authorities) as well which made it difficult to handle both aspects at the same time. It was the most heart-wrenching time of my life.

Explains how the candidate approaches new tasks.

☛ Would you give me a quick overview of [company]?
☛ Can you describe your role?
☛ How does your role and team fit into the company and its goals?
☛ How long has your company been in business?
☛ How many employees do you have?
☛ Is your company revenue available? If so, what is it?
☛ Who is your target customer?
☛ How does our product help your team or company achieve its objectives?
☛ How are our companies aligned (mission, strategy, culture, etc.)?
☛ How many people are on your team? What are their roles?

☛ What training or experience has prepared you to excel in this role?
☛ What specific interests or specialties do you have in case management, if any?
☛ Walk us through your typical day at work.
☛ What information do you need to have to create the patient’s health care plan?
☛ How do you manage transitions in a patient’s health care plan?
☛ How much negotiation do you have to do on a day-to-day basis?
☛ How would you rate yourself on providing necessary information to a patient’s entire care team?
☛ Describe a time you worked with members of a patient’s care team to achieve a significantly successful outcome.
☛ Described a time you communicated complex medical information to patient in a way that was easy for them to understand.
☛ How do you work with your patient to evaluate the care they received while in the hospital?
☛ How would you minimize your patient’s time in the hospital?
☛ What is your experience with helping families arrange long-term care for patients?
☛ Recall a time you had to manage conflicting priorities.
☛ In what ways have you demonstrated cultural sensitivity?
☛ What’s stressful about being a case manager?
☛ How do you demonstrate leadership in this position?

☛ How did you hear about our product?
☛ How long had you been looking for a solution to this problem?
☛ Were you comparing alternative solutions? Which ones?
☛ Would you describe a few of the reasons you decided to buy our product?
☛ What was the criteria you used when making the decision to buy our product?
☛ Were there any high-level initiatives or goals that prompted the decision to buy? For example, was this decision motivated by a company-wide vision?
☛ What was the buying process like? Did you notice anything exceptional or any points of friction?
☛ How would you have changed the buying process, if at all?
☛ Who were the decision makers from your team that were involved in the buying process?

☛ How long have you been using our product?
☛ How many different people at your company use our product?
☛ Are there multiple departments or teams using our product?
☛ How do you and your team currently use the product? What types of goals or tasks are you using the product to accomplish?
☛ If there are other teams or departments using our product, do you know how they’re using it?
☛ What was the most obvious advantage you felt our product offered during the sales process?
☛ Were there any other advantages you discovered after using the product more regularly?
☛ Are there any metrics or KPIs you track with our product? What are they?
☛ Were you tracking any metrics prior to using our product? What were they?
☛ How has our product impacted your core metrics?

I would give myself a realistic 9. I believe that I can get along well with people from diverse backgrounds, the proof of which is the 100% case management success that I have enjoyed so far.

At one position in my past, the law firm I joined did not have a system in place to ensure that everyone was properly aware of relevant deadlines and court schedules. As a result, there had been some instances of double booking and even a missed court date. In the legal context, these are extremely serious issues that can result in the derailment of a client’s entire case. Therefore, I made it my immediate priority to upgrade the firm’s case management software and ensure that all personnel were trained in its use. This ensured that everyone who needed access to a case’s schedule had it and would be able to avoid scheduling conflicts. The system also created advance reminders that enabled timely meeting of deadlines for document submissions. As a result, the number of scheduling errors decreased substantially, as did the amount of related stress and wasted productivity.

Tests job knowledge

As a case manager, I am highly aware of my role in maintaining and controlling the information for a given case. This means that access to case information is only given to authorized persons at the law firm. I am also careful never to discuss clients and their circumstances outside the purview of what is necessary in the course of providing legal services, even with my coworkers at the firm. In addition, I keep my personal social life, including social media, completely separate from my professional activities. I do not discuss clients with my friends and family at all. Even disguised or vaguely stated descriptions can be unethical, as they violate the expectation the client has of complete confidentiality in what are often highly sensitive matters.

Asking how a candidate would run the case manager position is a good way to assess her ability to answer a theoretical question and assess her knowledge of the organization. The interviewer may look for examples from the candidate's past that are relevant to the case manager position. For instance, the candidate may reveal details of her previous responsibilities related with client assessment, developing individual service plans, liaising with associates, fund management and administration.

As someone who knows the system inside out, I believe that I am a great choice when it comes to working as case manager at your facility. Excellent knowledge of case management principles, healthcare management and reimbursement, coupled with exceptional communication skills is what I have to offer to you.

As a case manager at a criminal defense firm, I have been the first point of contact for many types of clients, including those accused of heinous crimes. However, no matter what insights my knowledge of the case gives me as to the potential truth of those accusations, my job is to help these people get the best possible access to the representation provided to them by law. Doing the best possible job means establishing good rapport with the client, with tact and sensitivity.

Reveals more about work history.