Financial Counselor - Patient Access, FT ***$5,000 SIGN ON BONUS***

***$5,000 SIGN ON BONUS AFTER SIGNING 2-YEAR CONTINGENT AGREEMENT***

JOB SUMMARY

The Financial Counselor is responsible for visiting patients and/or family members bedside and in the counselor’s office.  Financial Counselor executes and maintains the charity and discount programs.  This includes the maintenance of logs, continuing self-education of applicable laws/rules, ability to articulate rules and policies to customers, and responsible for keeping the director up to date.  The director should be notified of any possible issues, change in law/rules, or shift in trends.

This position provides support with the HCAP and Medicare Bad Debt logs and their audits. This includes oversight and maintenance of logs, internal auditing, preparation of schedules and other documentation required for cost reporting and audits.

The Financial Counselor collects on self-pay account which includes working an assigned alpha section.  Patients are screened for financial aid and payment plans in compliance with Hospital polices as well as state and federal laws. 

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

General knowledge of payer processing and requirements, understanding of claim editing, knowledge of general accounting principles and transaction balancing standards, ability to understand data presented by system generated reports, ability to prioritize duties and assignments and meet deadlines, understanding of multiple systems data exchange. Ability to establish and maintain relationships with management staff, employees, and the general public.  Ability to present facts and recommendations effectively in oral and written form.  Ability to manage multiple projects.

PRIMARY JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

• Visit inpatient self-pay and Medicare w/o secondary patients by 9am.
• Call on inpatient/observation discharges from Saturday and Sunday by 10am Monday morning.
• Report new insurance information to Case Management.
• Ensure effective collections by tracking payment trends.
• Monitor productivity and efficiency by measuring self-pay payments, bad debt write-offs and account aging.

• Oversee education and training of collection, charity and discount policy.
• Assist patients requiring or requesting intervention.
• Assist with drafting departmental collection policies and procedures.
• Identify appropriate external and internal resources to resolve missing or incorrect data
• Responding to incoming calls
• Maintain an average hold time of less than 2 minutes
• Document contacts and information obtained
• Escalate issues to management as necessary
• Maintain consistent audit trail including notating patient accounts accurately and professionally
• Ensure compliance with hospital and department policies and procedures and pertinent laws and regulations
• Work assigned situations to completion
• Work closely with partnering vendors in the resolution of patient accounts
• Process financial assistance applications to completion
• Monitor payment plans
• Demonstrate ability to reconcile patient accounts including all payments and adjustments
• Maintain correspondence backlog to less than one business day
• Resolve 85% of calls in less than five minutes

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Assume backup coverage for Cashier position as needed.
• Attend seminars and conferences.
• Understanding and working towards best practice measurements.

• Perform tasks that are supportive in nature to the essential functions of the job.

• Participate in staff meetings, educational programs, committees, QI activities and mandatory in-services.

• Demonstrate initiative in personal/ professional development.

• Present a professional image.

• Assist with control of costs through the judicious use of human and material resources.
• Other duties as assigned.