Financial Counselor, Behavioral Health

Vail Health has become the world’s most advanced mountain healthcare system. Vail Health consists of an updated 520,000-square-foot, 56-bed hospital.  This state-of-the-art facility provides exceptional care to all of our patients, with the most beautiful views in the area, located centrally in Vail. Learn more about Vail Health here.

About the opportunity:

The role of the Financial Counselor is to increase health insurance coverage for patients, ensure access to Olivia’s Fund Scholarship (OFS) and Employment Assistance Programs (EAPs) for eligible participants, and support the complex insurance, billing, and access needs of the most vulnerable members of the community. The Financial Counselor will support patients with billing, payment, and financial navigation questions to maximize the revenue captured by Vail Health Behavioral Health and minimize associated financial hardship for patients due to their cost of care.

  What you will do:

1. Determines the financial responsibility of patients. Assists patients/representatives with establishing payment plans. Collects required deposits and payments due on accounts. Serves as a point of contact for all patient or potential patient benefit questions. Works to identify and communicate behavioral health benefits, patient responsibility, and any limitations.
2. Provides enrollment assistance and health coverage education to uninsured children, adults, and families to help them access behavioral health care.
3. Works with the scheduling teams and behavioral health providers to ensure all appropriate prior- and pre-authorizations are completed on time including providing the patient information about deductibles, co-payments, etc. and problem-solving ways to support patients who are under-insured or unable to cover the cost of services.
4. Works directly with insurance companies, Medicaid, Medicare, Employee Assistance Programs, Olivia’s Fund Scholarship, etc. to understand behavioral health benefits, advocates for increased coverage, problem-solves barriers for payment and service provision, and helps patients navigate payer sources.
5. Serves as a point of contact for all patient financial queries. Works with Eagle Valley Behavioral Health and Vail Health billing departments to explore and research patient concerns.
6. Participates in quality control audits of processes that impact billing, including patient registration, appointment type coding, prior authorizations, insurance confirmation, and payer set-up in electronic health record.
7. Utilizes the behavioral health financial navigation reference guides to ensure accurate, precise, and timely implementation of policies and procedures impacting billing and patient experience.
8. Tracks and manages financial programs and referrals including Olivia’s Fund, Employee Assistance Programs, Worker’s Compensation, Veterans Affairs, etc. and communicates with Revenue Cycle and third-party vendors to address billing questions.
9. Accurately tracks and monitors assistance and enrollment numbers, billing concerns, patient stories, and issues related to enrollment, registration, and behavioral health billing. 
10. Attends and successfully completes all required training programs, participates in weekly calls, webinars, and other professional development opportunities. Assists in training of staff. 
11. Models the principles of a Just Culture and Organizational Values.
12. Performs other duties as assigned. Must be HIPAA compliant, comply with procedural guidelines, and maintain confidentiality.

This description is not intended and should not be construed to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills and efforts or work conditions associated with the job. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the general nature and level of the job.   What you will need:   Experience:

• Two years of similar work experience defined through prior roles with a similar level of communication, organization, customer service and exposure to regular/recurring financial transactions, preferred.
• Previous hospital admissions or patient accounts office experience, preferred.
• Bilingual in English and Spanish, preferred.

License(s):

• N/A

Certification(s):

• N/A

Computer / Typing:

• Must possess, or be able to obtain within 90 days, the computers skills necessary to complete online learning requirements for job-specific competencies, access online forms and policies, complete online benefits enrollment, etc.

Must have working knowledge of the English language, including reading, writing, and speaking English.   Education: