Financial Counselor

Acadia Healthcare•Conway, AR

About The Position

The Financial Counselor helps patients and their families understand insurance benefits, financial obligations, and 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 and requires compassion, empathy, patience, and emotional intelligence when assisting people with challenging financial and healthcare situations. The Financial Counselor works with patients, guarantors, and internal healthcare teams to resolve insurance and financial issues, support reimbursement and account resolution, and comply with applicable payer, government, and organizational requirements. The position also contributes to revenue cycle performance, patient satisfaction, audits, reporting, training, and process improvement.

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.
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 explain 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 with 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 comply with organizational policies, regulatory requirements, privacy standards, and performance improvement initiatives.

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 information 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 educate patients about 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 collection, charity care, financial assistance, and adjustment logs and ensure accurate, timely reporting.
Analyze patient account information and take appropriate actions 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.
Comply with applicable federal, state, payer, and organizational policies related to patient financial services.
Assist with special projects, audits, reporting requests, and process improvement initiatives.
Support departmental goals related to revenue cycle performance, collections, and patient satisfaction.
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.
Maintain confidentiality and communicate clearly and professionally with patients, families, visitors, physicians, coworkers, and other healthcare team members.
Demonstrate reliable attendance, excellent customer service, patient-focused behavior, teamwork, and adherence to safety, compliance, and ethical standards.