Diana Hill

Text version of Diana Hill's keynote remarks

Hello, my name is Diana Hill. I am a Financial Counselor at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
While the clinical staff is tasked with ensuring the physical healing of our patients, a good deal of my time is spent helping those whom our founding sisters referred to as, “Our Dear Lord’s.” These are our patients and their families who have little or no means to pay for our services. I make sure these families complete the paperwork to determine their child’s eligibility for state programs such as Medicaid or for financial assistance. I take great pride in helping these children get coverage for their medical expenses. I believe all children in the United States have a right to health care, yet many never receive the attention they need because their family has no means to pay and are unaware of services available to them. I am always respectful of our patients and their families no matter the financial challenges.

I would like to share a story. I met a little boy who had just been diagnosed with cancer. His family had no insurance and did not qualify for Medicaid.  His mother came to my office and told me that her son would soon be discharged from the hospital and would need to begin chemotherapy. She didn’t know what else to do but cry. She didn’t know how she would afford it.  I comforted her and told her we had one more option. 

I remembered a patient who had been transferred from another facility, and I called the caseworker. I didn’t hear back for two days. When she called, I explained the situation. The caseworker knew both our patient and his mother and told me what we would need to do.  I gathered all the required information and immediately sent it to the caseworker. Again, I didn’t hear back for two days – and by then the boy had been discharged.

But his mother called me to tell me about the progress of this happy and beautiful little boy, and the caseworker finally called to say he now had coverage – under Missouri Medicaid MC+ for kids! Not only that, his siblings were covered as well! And the coverage was retroactive to before his horrible ordeal began.

His mother came to my office, and we were both jumping up and down and crying at the same time. She kept calling me her “big Angel”; which I took with pride.

Knowing that I had pleased a family with my compassion, caring and willingness to go that extra mile put a smile on my face.  I enjoy my job, and when I think about doing other things, I always think, I may not be able to provide medical care, but I try to provide the spiritual and financial care needed to the patients I am honored to work with.