Patient Financial Counselor Job Description
Patient financial counselor
provides a guide to patients in applying the medical expense reimbursement and co-payment systems of the government.
Patient Financial Counselor Duties & Responsibilities
To write an effective patient financial counselor job description, begin by listing detailed duties, responsibilities and expectations. We have included patient financial counselor job description templates that you can modify and use.
Sample responsibilities for this position include:
Interviews patients to obtain accurate demographic and financial information from self-pay and high risk patients
Documents all patient account correspondence in the appropriate note field, designated forms, or databases
Explains financial options and provides financial counseling to patients
Serves as an internal resource for reimbursement questions
Facilitates processing of financial assistance/charity care applications
Monitors outstanding high dollar patient accounts to pursue payment arrangements or other options
Performs daily payment reconciliation activities
May also assist with scheduling diagnostic or surgical procedures, conducting physician office/patient interviews, and explains hospital procedure guidelines and policies
Investigate complex reimbursement issues pursuing appropriate actions to include statusing, adjustments, refunds, and transfers or billing third party payers
Educate patients regarding transplant financial process benefit coverage
Patient Financial Counselor Qualifications
Qualifications for a job description may include education, certification, and experience.
Licensing or Certifications for Patient Financial Counselor
List any licenses or certifications required by the position: CAC, HBI, CAAS
Education for Patient Financial Counselor
Typically a job would require a certain level of education.
Employers hiring for the patient financial counselor job most commonly would prefer for their future employee to have a relevant degree such as Associate and High School Degree in Education, Business, General Education, Healthcare, Associates, Medical Terminology, Communication, Spanish, Secondary Education, Finance
Skills for Patient Financial Counselor
Desired skills for patient financial counselor include:
Occurrence reporting system and utilizes system to report potential patient safety issues
Medicaid and Medicare programs and commercial insurances
Managed care policies and medical terminology
Medical terminology
Reimbursement practices for commercial and government payers
Ambulatory Payment Classifications reimbursement methodologies
Billing systems
Governmental reimbursement rules and regulations
ICD-9/10
Desired experience for patient financial counselor includes:
Respond to complex financial questions regarding patient accounts
Review of all regulatory and third party payer billing requirements to assess their impact on the transplant team activities and ensure such issues are disseminated to the appropriate hospital personnel
Fulfill organizational responsibilities as assigned which may include
To assist outside agencies/vendors to ensure we have exhausted all other payer sources prior to a charity write off
To complete Hardee County applications timely to ensure 100% of available indigent funds have been obtained
To ensure all charity applications are complete and meet criteria for annual and biannual audits
Patient Financial Counselor Examples
1
Patient Financial Counselor Job Description
Job Description Example
Our company is growing rapidly and is searching for experienced candidates for the position of patient financial counselor. If you are looking for an exciting place to work, please take a look at the list of qualifications below.
Responsibilities for patient financial counselor
- To see all self-pay patients admitted to Heartland facility prior to discharge to determine their ability to pay
- To respond to all price estimate requests within 48 hours whether submitted online, call or visit
- Interviewing patients, families and other related parties within HIPAA guidelines and working with insurance companies to determine current insurance eligibility, benefits and coverage, including secondary insurances
- Serving as primary patient/family contact explaining cost of treatment, insurance eligibility, benefits, coverage and other available community, local and regional resources
- Estimating patient liability for services rendered, communicating with patients regarding financial responsibility and arranging for collection of the patient portion due to be collected before discharge
- To assist in special projects as requested by Leadership
- Financial Background (Banking, Patient Access, or Medical Billing) (Preferred)
- Minimum of two (2) years of direct switchboard/PBX experience (Preferred)
- Promptly and courteously assists and provides accurate information to patients regarding their accounts or services face to face, e-mail, fax, regular mail correspondence, phone call
- Serves as a liaison between the patient, providers, external departments or other responsible person(s) to ensure that charges are applied appropriately, transactions are recorded and appropriately maintained and account balances and discrepancies are resolved within the prescribed period
Qualifications for patient financial counselor
- Ensures appropriate authorizations are obtained timely and accurate estimates for upcoming procedures are provided
- Plans, organizes, and prioritizes work to discuss with patients the importance of patients financial responsibility
- Provides Best in Class service to every patient inquiry received to ensure and maintain high levels of patient satisfaction
- Ability to multi-task and coordinate more than one event at a time
- Ensure all insurance, demographic, and eligibility information is obtained and entered into the system in an accurate manner
- Performs insurance verification process on all third party payers
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Patient Financial Counselor Job Description
Job Description Example
Our company is looking to fill the role of patient financial counselor. To join our growing team, please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications.
Responsibilities for patient financial counselor
- Assists patients in obtaining financial assistance
- Initiates and coordinates the acquisition and receipt of all credentialing documentation from new and existing providers
- Follows policies and procedures to contribute to the efficiency of the business and front office
- Review patient's Radiation Oncology treatment plan
- Communicating with patients and insurance companies on the phone
- Appropriately documenting and reporting payment information
- Educating patients about payment options and financial assistance
- Negotiating and strategizing patient payment arrangements
- Updating patient accounts and balances
- Reviewing and processing patient and insurance company forms
Qualifications for patient financial counselor
- Must possess adequate math and computer skills
- Previous financial counseling experience preferred
- Previous benefits verification experience preferred
- Minimum three years of medical business office experience with insurance procedures and patient interaction
- Additional clinical background preferred
- Provides initial insurance verification/patient registration for upcoming appointments
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Patient Financial Counselor Job Description
Job Description Example
Our company is growing rapidly and is hiring for a patient financial counselor. If you are looking for an exciting place to work, please take a look at the list of qualifications below.
Responsibilities for patient financial counselor
- Assists patients in developing a financial plan and assesses for financial disparities, completing applications for financial assistance (i.e., Medicaid/Medicaid Disability, County Health Plans, McAuley Support)
- Secures other financial assistance, if needed
- Answer calls from a phone queue regarding patient account inquiries, payments, financial assistance, estimates, settlements, payment plans for both the hospital and physician billing
- Make outbound calls to patients whose accounts are delinquent
- May serve as a liaison in the community, providing education and offering financial assistance
- Read and interpret insurance plan benefits
- Identify performance improvement opportunities across revenue cycle including registration, clinic operations, information technology, charge entry, coding, documentation, billing
- Experience with Medicaid, Charity, Social Security, Disability, and Long Term Care is preferred
- Follows departmental and hospital policies and procedures as they pertain to this position
- Identifies and focuses on new opportunities which will improve work flow within Team
Qualifications for patient financial counselor
- Experience with health insurance guidelines, programs and plans
- Strong communication skills to effectively provide education and financial counseling to patients and families related to their payment plans, accounts
- Strong background knowledge of insurance plans (commercial, government, and workers comp)
- Minimum two (2) years' experience in a healthcare related call center environment preferred
- Minimum of three (3) years' hospital or physician collections and/or financial counseling experience
- Working proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook
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Patient Financial Counselor Job Description
Job Description Example
Our innovative and growing company is searching for experienced candidates for the position of patient financial counselor. If you are looking for an exciting place to work, please take a look at the list of qualifications below.
Responsibilities for patient financial counselor
- Evaluates work flows and processes
- Actively participates in Team business decisions
- Identifies training and educational opportunities and needs
- Gathers data to measure Team effectiveness and productivity
- Reviews procedures and recommends changes and improvements
- Performs adhoc projects related to unanticipated needs
- Interviews, trains, evaluate staff
- Research and resolves outstanding billing issues or problems
- Councils patients on costs of services
- Research denied claims through review of system/account/process to reconcile information
Qualifications for patient financial counselor
- Ability to pass a data entry test with a score of 6000 kpm with less than 5% error rate
- Demonstrates respect, courtesy and empathy, and maintaining a positive work relationships
- Positively contributes to a team environment
- Working knowledge of government and third party payers
- Demonstrates competence in registration, billing and federal payer programs
- Demonstrates excellent financial, analytical, negotiation and decision-making skills
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Patient Financial Counselor Job Description
Job Description Example
Our innovative and growing company is searching for experienced candidates for the position of patient financial counselor. Please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications. While this is our ideal list, we will consider candidates that do not necessarily have all of the qualifications, but have sufficient experience and talent.
Responsibilities for patient financial counselor
- Discuss loan options for payment of outstanding balances
- Performs insurance verification and pre-certification activities for procedures when necessary
- All functions are performed in defined turnaround times, using exceptional customer service skills, focused on protecting the patient's well-being, the financial best interests of BTNRH
- Of their charges through suitable payment arrangements and/or financial assistance
- On self pay accounts
- Access the Financial Counselor Appointment Report and contacts patient insurance plans to request approval for services at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and our partner facilities
- Professionally and effectively communicates with the clinical team the status of the insurance approval request
- Prepares Financial Waivers, Advanced Beneficiary Notices (ABN) and Drug Assistance applications for patients with insurance plans that may not cover services at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the patient wants to proceed with care
- Screens self-pay patients for eligibility for state and payer programs
- Prepares self-pay estimates, accurately explains the details of the estimate to the patient and obtains patient signature on the estimate
Qualifications for patient financial counselor
- Minimum 3 years' experience in healthcare billing required
- Working knowledge of community resources related to financial resources
- Ability to integrate the analysis of data to discover facts or develop knowledge, concepts or interpretations
- Clear understanding of the impact financial counseling has on Revenue Cycle operations and financial performance
- Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, healthcare or an equivalent combination of education and experience
- Minimum five (5) years’ medical business office experience with insurance procedures and patient interaction