Patient Intake Specialist

Unicare Health•Thousand Oaks, CA

10d•Onsite

About The Position

Patient Intake Specialist, DMEPOS Unicare Health | Newbury Park, CA (Onsite) About Unicare Founded in 1988, Unicare Health helps patients with complex medical needs thrive at home through compassionate care, expert clinical support, and trusted partnership with families and healthcare providers. We are a leading, innovative provider of home respiratory care, durable medical equipment, and home medical supplies, poised for high growth. We don't just deliver machines; we deliver life-sustaining care and services. Our vision is to empower complex respiratory patients to live their most full, joyful, comfortable, and active lives possible. Our guiding principle is simple: serious care delivered with compassion. Our revenue cycle team is central to that mission, ensuring accurate, timely reimbursement so clinicians and families can stay focused on care. What We Stand For Relentless pursuit of improved outcomes. We proactively solve problems, move quickly, and collaborate so every patient achieves the best possible clinical and quality-of-life results. Serious care delivered with compassion. We combine clinical rigor and high standards with empathy, warmth, and respect in every interaction. Patients and families first. Every decision is guided by what will most support the comfort, confidence, and daily lives of the people we serve. Experience matters as much as equipment. We deliver not only advanced technology, but also education, responsiveness, and ongoing support that make care easier at home. Position Summary We are seeking a detail-oriented, professional, and patient-focused individual to join our team as a Patient Intake Specialist. This role is the front door of our revenue cycle. You will own the new patient intake experience end to end, qualifying referrals, verifying insurance and eligibility, securing prior authorizations, and preparing complete, billable documentation so that every downstream billing step is set up for success. The quality of your work directly determines whether our life-sustaining respiratory and DME services can be delivered and reimbursed without delay. This is a foundational hire. As one of the first members of our revenue cycle team, you will report directly to the Vice President of Revenue Cycle Management and Compliance and work side by side with senior leadership to build the function from the ground up. For a high performer, this is a rare opportunity to grow into a functional leadership role as the team and organization scale. This is a full-time, onsite role based in our Newbury Park office. Teammates work a standard 8-hour day plus lunch and are expected onsite during core office hours of Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM PST. How the Role Works This role owns the front end of the DMEPOS revenue cycle: new patient intake, qualification, and the hand-off of clean, billable documentation to the billing team. You are the quality gate between the referral and the claim. As Unicare scales, strong performers in this role have a clear path to depth and leadership within the intake and qualification function, or to broaden into the full revenue cycle.

Requirements

2+ years of DMEPOS intake, patient registration, or front-end revenue cycle experience
Hands-on familiarity with home respiratory therapies, including ventilators, oxygen therapy, CPAP, and BiPAP, and the documentation and qualification requirements each carries
Experience verifying eligibility and benefits and securing prior authorizations across California Medicaid (Medi-Cal), Medicare, and commercial payers; strong Medi-Cal DMEPOS experience is a top priority
Demonstrated experience coordinating home medical supplies and recurring supply drops, not solely capital equipment such as ventilators; supply-side fluency (resupply cadence, consumables, inventory coordination) is essential
Working knowledge of how DMEPOS documentation and ICD-10 diagnoses map to billable HCPCS codes and modifiers; formal medical coding certification is not required, what matters is practical DMEPOS qualification fluency
Patient-friendly customer service skills are critical; this role carries a meaningful volume of inbound and outbound patient and family calls, including escalations, and requires warmth, patience, and professionalism on every one
A strong coordinator and team player who works closely with clinical, billing, and delivery colleagues throughout the new patient intake process and the ongoing patient experience, so mission-aligned care is delivered without gaps
Proficiency with the Microsoft Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel) and a fundamental understanding of how EMR/EHR, order management, and billing systems work together
Tech-savvy and comfortable in an automation-forward operation, with the aptitude to learn new systems fast and improve how work gets done rather than relying on manual process
Uncompromising integrity, with a commitment to HIPAA compliance and to preventing fraud, waste, and abuse in every account action
Able to work full-time and onsite in Newbury Park, covering a standard 8-hour day plus lunch and present during core office hours of Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM PST
Strong attention to detail, follow-through, and ownership

Nice To Haves

Bilingual in English and Spanish, given the families we serve
Pediatric and/or home respiratory (oxygen, PAP, ventilator, nebulizer) intake or billing experience
Experience building or tracking revenue cycle metrics and reporting to leadership
Experience in a high-growth or ground-floor environment
California Home Medical Device Retailer (HMDR) Exemptee certificate

Responsibilities

Own the new patient intake process end to end, receiving and processing referrals across phone, email, fax, and system-based channels
Capture and verify complete, accurate patient demographic, insurance, and clinical information at intake, setting every downstream billing step up for success
Document intake activity accurately and manage the subsequent workflow, tracking each new patient through qualification, documentation, and claim submission so nothing stalls between steps
Coordinate scheduling for respiratory therapists and for equipment and supply drops, managing overall patient registration
Obtain and manage prior authorizations through to approval, tracking expirations and renewals
Partner with referral sources, whether human contacts or EMR/EHR systems, to secure accurate and complete demographic, insurance, and clinical information
Verify eligibility, benefits, and prior authorization requirements before service and claim submission
Ensure documentation meets DMEPOS qualification standards (WOPD, CMN, proof of delivery, medical necessity)
Translate inventory, clinical documentation, and ICD-10 diagnoses into accurate, billable HCPCS codes for respiratory, DME, and supply items
Serve as the quality gate between intake and claims, ensuring the billing function receives everything required to bill cleanly
Build and track metrics around incoming new patients and referral volume, surfacing trends to leadership
Handle patient escalation calls to the office with strong customer service, protecting the patient and family experience at every touchpoint
Coordinate with billing, documentation, and clinical teams to close gaps that affect reimbursement
Work fluently in a technology-driven, automation-heavy environment, adopting EMR/EHR systems, order management platforms, and workflow tools quickly and using them to work efficiently at scale
Ensure intake and qualification practices comply with payer rules, CMS DMEPOS requirements, and applicable regulations