Financial Counselor

Rio Vista Behavioral Health•El Paso, TX

12d

About The Position

The Financial Counselor helps patients and their families understand insurance benefits, financial obligations, and available payment options while supporting accurate financial clearance. The role performs insurance verification, financial counseling, upfront collections, payment arrangement administration, financial assistance screening, and patient account maintenance. It serves as a patient advocate, using compassion, empathy, patience, and emotional intelligence when supporting people through financial and healthcare challenges. The Financial Counselor works with admissions, revenue cycle, business office, and clinical teams to resolve insurance and financial issues affecting patient accounts. The role also supports departmental revenue cycle, collections, and patient satisfaction goals, and assists with projects, audits, reporting, process improvements, training, and other business office functions as needed.

Requirements

High school diploma or equivalent required.
At least three years of experience in healthcare financial counseling, patient access, patient accounting, medical billing, collections, or a related healthcare revenue cycle function.
Experience working with Commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid insurance programs required.
Thorough knowledge of Commercial Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and patient financial responsibility requirements.
Knowledge of healthcare billing, reimbursement, revenue cycle, and collection practices.
Strong customer service and interpersonal skills.
Ability to communicate complex insurance and financial information clearly, compassionately, and understandably.
Strong problem-solving, analytical, and critical-thinking skills.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Ability to manage sensitive conversations with professionalism, empathy, and discretion.
Proficiency in patient accounting systems, electronic health records, and Microsoft Office applications.
Strong organizational skills and attention to detail and accuracy.
Ability to prioritize multiple tasks and meet deadlines in a fast-paced healthcare environment.
Ability to maintain confidentiality of patient, employee, and organizational information.

Nice To Haves

Associate's degree in Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
Five or more years of healthcare financial counseling, collections, or revenue cycle experience.
Experience in a hospital, behavioral health, or acute care environment.

Responsibilities

Verify insurance eligibility, benefits, authorizations, and coverage to support accurate estimates of patient financial responsibility.
Audit admission and registration documentation for accuracy, completeness, and compliance with organizational requirements.
Review, update, and maintain patient demographic, insurance, and guarantor information in designated patient accounting systems.
Explain insurance benefits, coverage limitations, deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, out-of-pocket expenses, and payment options to patients and guarantors.
Collect patient financial responsibility amounts and outstanding balances in accordance with organizational policies.
Facilitate payment arrangements and explain available financial assistance programs.
Complete financial assistance applications and obtain, review, and validate required income and expense documentation.
Prepare and process charity care requests, administrative adjustment requests, and payment plan documentation as appropriate.
Maintain accurate and timely collection, charity care, financial assistance, and adjustment logs and reporting.
Analyze patient account information and take appropriate action to support timely reimbursement and account resolution.
Collaborate with admissions, revenue cycle, business office, and clinical teams to resolve insurance and financial issues affecting patient accounts.
Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, payer, and organizational policies related to patient financial services.
Assist with special projects, audits, reporting requests, and process improvement initiatives.
Participate in training and educational activities to maintain knowledge of insurance regulations, reimbursement practices, and organizational procedures.
Provide backup support for other business office functions and perform other duties as assigned.
Comply with organizational policies, procedures, regulatory requirements, performance improvement initiatives, privacy regulations, safety requirements, and ethical standards.
Communicate professionally and effectively with patients, families, visitors, physicians, coworkers, and healthcare team members.
Maintain constructive working relationships and promote teamwork, mutual trust, respect, collaboration, and cooperation.
Maintain regular, reliable, and predictable attendance and consistently demonstrate customer service and patient-focused behaviors.