Position Summary: As a member of the Behavioral Health and Psychiatric Services teams, the BH/Psychiatry Referral Coordinator maintains ongoing tracking and documentation of external behavioral health and psychiatric referrals. The BH/Psychiatry Referral Coordinator ensures complete and accurate registration for referrals, including patient demographics, diagnosis/reason for referral, insurance, and patient scheduling needs. The BH/Psychiatry Referral Coordinator follows referral guidelines to schedule and follow-up on BH referrals. The BH/Psych Referral Coordinator will assist patients in resolving barriers to care to ensure the referral is completed, such as language interpretation, transportation, or understanding the referral process. The BH/Psych Referral Coordinator acts as an advocate for patients and ensures referrals are completed by maintaining a registry of patients. The BH/Psych Referral Coordinator obtains prior authorizations and maintains communications with the primary care teams, Behavioral Health team, Psychiatric Services team, patients, and community referral partners. The BH/Psych Referral Coordinator will build and maintain good working relationships with external referral agencies.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
1. Commitment to providing cost-conscious, fiscally responsible, timely, efficient, effective, safe, patient-centered, trauma-informed, culturally competent, equitable, and participatory health care in a medically underserved community.
2. Willingness to be flexible in the development of new methods of health service delivery.
3. Ability to deal with sensitive information in a highly confidential manner.
4. Effective communication skills, both oral and written, with patients, families, visitors, co-
workers, external agencies, health care professionals, funders and other regulatory agencies.
5. Bilingual in English and another language appropriate to the health center's patient population preferred, but not required.
6. Excellent customer service skills; demonstrates cultural humility
7. Ability to function independently with minimal supervision, and to plan, coordinate, and carry out those tasks necessary to meet the job responsibilities.
8. Awareness of resources available within the health center and in the greater Worcester community to accommodate the needs of patients.
9. Processes private health information in accordance with FHCW HIPPA policies and procedures.
Program Specific Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Assists with BH/Psych referrals and tracking management activities, including but not limited to referrals to inpatient and partial hospitalizations, CBHI services, outpatient therapy, community psychiatry, and neuropsychiatric testing.
• Maintains a list of all active referrals and ensures patients are not lost to follow-up if at all avoidable.
• Assists patients with the scheduling process in collaboration with identified BH/Psych site when appropriate.
• Ensures patient has all the relevant information needed regarding their BH/Psych appointment.
• Confirms the patient has been seen for their scheduled appointment and requests clinical records from the external organization. Assists with rescheduling if the appointment was missed.
• Establishes and maintains good working relationships with external referral partners in the community, including hospitals, mental health agencies, and case management services.
• Develops and maintains an accurate list of external referral sources (all state and local agencies/programs/services), including the tracking of current availability/openings, language access, insurances accepted, modalities offered, etc.
• Communicates with referring providers at FHCW to keep them updated on the referrals process.
• Manages enrollment activities of various health insurance plans; verifies eligibility and coverage
• Works with managed care programs for insurers for the exchange of necessary patient referrals and health care information.
• Participates in Health Center Committees related to referrals.
• Assists in expansion of utilization review for managed care and assists in the planning of future projects.
• Coordinates and conducts patient education for behavioral health and psychiatric referrals; serves as a resource person to both patients and staff to provide information and answer questions regarding specific referral processes and resources.
• Processes monthly ACC list.
• Updates referral information in NextGen at each stage of the process.
• Assists in preparing monthly and quarterly reports.
• Demonstrates ability to utilize appointment and registration systems accurately
• Assures that all requests and documentation are processed and completed in a timely manner

Qualifications and Education Requirements:
One of the following combinations of education and employment experience must be met in order to be considered for the position:
Education
And
Experience
Two to four years of college, post high school training or relevant work experience in human services, behavioral health, or related field required. Relevant work experience may be substituted for education.
A minimum of two years of work experience in a patient services role, medical assistant role, case management role, or similar medical/behavioral health field required. Familiarity with Managed Care plans and referral tracking/follow-up required. Knowledge of regional behavioral health and psychiatric resources and organizations is preferred.[MD1] [MD2] [MD3] Proficiency with electronic medical systems and basic computer/data entry skills required
Strong written and verbal communication skills, excellent computer skills (Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook).