JOB SUMMARY

The Patient Accounts Lead oversees the daily operations of specific work units within the Patient Accounts Department. The Lead partners closely with Patient Accounts Supervisors to provide leadership coverage and presence to the Patient Accounts work units. This individual is responsible for ensuring effective operations through organizing, scheduling, and monitoring department workload. In addition, this individual will monitor work quality and productivity metrics and coordinate training as needed. The Lead will serve as the first line of escalation for staff questions on workflows and processes.

The incumbent is responsible for training new staff, assisting in the planning and development of training materials, assisting in the development and implementation of quality assurance processes and serves as a go-to resource to staff. This individual will be responsible for ensuring the effective operations of the day to day activities of patient accounts. This person will identify areas for improvements and develop plans for improving the quality of these processes.

The Patient Accounts Lead is responsible for resolving self-pay accounts while maintaining strong relations with patients, guarantors, clinical departments, and revenue cycle team members. Under general supervisor of the Supervisor, Patient Accounts, this individual utilizes medical billing knowledge and excellent customer service skills to effectively answer all billing related questions while attempting to collect from patients to ensure patient satisfaction and meeting UW Health’s self-pay collection goals.

The Lead assist patients to ensure swift resolution of outstanding balances by providing information regarding billing practices, policies, and patient billing statements. It is expected that the Lead will be able to handle billing disputes, research accounts to determine appropriate responsibility for account balances, assuring accuracy of billing information, making corrections as necessary, assess the patient’s ability to pay, establishing payment arrangements, and counsel patients on UW Health’s financial assistance and government programs.

This position represents UW Health and the Revenue Cycle team by adhering and upholding the UW Health Mission, Vision, and Values, and UW Health Service Performance Standards in providing the highest quality service. They will support their co-workers, engage in positive interactions, and provide helpful assistance in anticipating and responding to the needs of our customers.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Lead Responsibilities:

• Provide general assistance to the Patient Accounts team:
  • Train new staff and provide ongoing training for existing staff
  • Monitor activities performed by Patient Accounts Representatives to make sure that patient accounts are reconciled appropriately and timely
  • Complete quality improvement and productivity activities
  • Answer questions regarding team functions and assist with team direction

Core Responsibilities:

• Handle all communication with patients (in person, telephone, MyChart message, e-Mail, and voicemail), in a prompt and courteous manner
• Clearly explain charges, payments, account balance, and account status to patients to ensure first call resolution
• Communicate with Revenue Cycle teams, insurance companies, clinical staff/leadership, and others to resolve problem accounts
• Utilize outbound dialer, to make collections calls to patients on older outstanding balances. Negotiate full payment from patients and as appropriate assists patients in setting up a payment plan
• Provide education to patients on UW Health’s financial assistance policy and application process, if needed. Direct patients to the appropriate resources as necessary (e.g. Financial Counseling, Patient Relations)
• Receive, document, and respond to all patient correspondence in a prompt and courteous manner; accurately document all actions take to reconcile outstanding balances
• Verify patient coverage information and update registration as required
• As needed, assist patient in coordinating appeal processes with their insurance company
• Review self-pay undistributed and credit balance accounts and provide refunds to patients as necessary

Customer Service Standards:

• Support co-workers and engage in positive interactions.
• Communicate professionally and timely with internal and external customers
• Demonstrate friendliness by smiling and making eye contact when greeting all customers.
• Provide helpful assistance in anticipating and responding to the needs of our customers.
• Collaborate with customers in planning and decision making to result in optimal solutions.
• Ability to stay calm under pressure and deal effectively with difficult people

ALL DUTIES AND REQUIREMENTS MUST BE PERFORMED

CONSISTENT WITH THE UW HEALTH PERFORMANCE STANDARDS.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

Education

Minimum

High School Diploma or equivalent

Preferred

Associate Degree in Business, Finance, Health Information Management or related field

Work Experience

Minimum

Two years of experience in a healthcare revenue cycle or clinic operations role -or- 1 year of experience in a healthcare revenue cycle operations role plus 1 year of prior leadership experience.

Preferred

• Experience with customer service, insurance, finance, or medical office
• UW Health Revenue Cycle experience
• Epic Experience

Required Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities

• Excellent customer service, interpersonal and organizational skills
• Ability to use good judgments in highly emotional and demanding situations
• Ability to react to frequent changes in duties and volume of work
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ability to listen empathetically
• Ability to logically and accurately organize details
• Ability to manage multiple tasks with ease and efficiency
• Self-starter with a willingness to try new ideas
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision and be result oriented
• Effective interpersonal skills, including the ability to promote teamwork
• Strong problem-solving skills
• Excellent computer operating skills (keyboard, mouse)
• Ability to use various computer applications including EPIC and MS Office
• Basic math skills and knowledge of general accounting principles
• Maintains confidentiality of sensitive information
• Broad knowledge of health care business office practices and principles
• Knowledge of medical and insurance terminology, CPT, ICD coding structures, and billing forms (UB, 1500)
• Knowledge of Business Office policies and procedures
• Knowledge of local, state and federal healthcare regulations
• Knowledge of bankruptcy and collection laws and the Federal Debt Collection Act, and how outside agencies operate preferred