POSITION SUMMARY: The Scheduling Manager is responsible for the leadership, direction, and daily operations of North Country Healthcare's centralized scheduling department. This position oversees scheduling staff responsible for coordinating patient access across physician practices, outpatient hospital departments, diagnostic services, procedural areas, rehabilitation, and ancillary services. The Scheduling Manager develops standardized scheduling workflows, ensures consistent scheduling practices across the organization, monitors departmental performance, and collaborates with operational, clinical, and revenue cycle leaders to improve patient access, maximize provider capacity, reduce revenue leakage, and deliver an exceptional patient experience. The Scheduling Manager is accountable for departmental quality, productivity, customer service, and operational performance through data-driven decision making and continuous process improvement.

The anticipated hourly range for this position is $33.77/hr - $42.22/hr - $45.59/hr. Final compensation will be determined based on the selected candidate's applicable experience, skills, qualifications, and other job-related factors.

POSITION REQUIREMENTS

Education:

Associate's degree in healthcare administration, Business Administration, or related field preferred.

Licensure:

Not required

Certifications:

CRCR or other healthcare revenue cycle certification preferred.

Lean, Six Sigma, or process improvement certification preferred.

Skills

• Strong leadership and employee development skills.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Advanced organizational and project management abilities.
• Ability to analyze operational data and performance metrics.
• Strong understanding of patient access, scheduling, referrals, insurance verification, and prior authorization workflows.
• Knowledge of revenue cycle operations and payer requirements.
• Experience with electronic medical records, scheduling systems, reporting tools, and Microsoft Office.
• Ability to lead organizational change and workflow standardization.
• Strong problem-solving and conflict resolution skills.

Work Experience:

Minimum five (5) years of progressively responsible healthcare scheduling, patient access, revenue cycle, or ambulatory operations experience.

Minimum three (3) years of leadership or supervisory experience preferred.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

Leadership

1. Provides leadership, coaching, mentoring, and performance management for Scheduling Coordinators.
2. Recruits, hires, trains, and develops department staff.
3. Conducts performance evaluations and competency assessments.
4. Develops staffing plans to ensure adequate scheduling coverage across all services.
5. Fosters a culture of accountability, teamwork, collaboration, and exceptional customer service.
6. Oversees employee engagement, education, and professional development.

Department Operations

1. Oversees centralized scheduling operations across all assigned departments and service lines.
2. Develops, implements, and maintains standardized scheduling policies, workflows, and procedures.
3. Ensures scheduling protocols are consistently followed throughout the organization.
4. Collaborates with clinical leaders regarding provider scheduling templates, appointment types, scheduling rules, and clinic optimization.
5. Oversees referral intake, order management, scheduling work queues, and appointment coordination.
6. Ensures timely processing of urgent referrals and scheduling requests.
7. Identifies workflow inefficiencies and implements operational improvements.

Patient Access & Revenue Cycle

1. Partners with Revenue Integrity, Financial Counseling, Patient Access, and Clinical Operations to improve patient access.
2. Ensures scheduling processes support clean claims, prior authorization compliance, and financial clearance.
3. Monitors payer-specific scheduling requirements and operational compliance.
4. Supports initiatives to reduce denials related to scheduling, referrals, and authorizations.
5. Works collaboratively with organizational leadership to improve patient access and provider utilization.

Quality & Performance Improvement

1. Develops and maintains departmental quality assurance processes.
2. Conducts routine audits of scheduling accuracy, referral processing, documentation, and customer service.
3. Implements corrective action plans when performance standards are not achieved.
4. Leads continuous improvement initiatives using data and operational metrics.
5. Participates in organizational committees focused on patient access and revenue cycle performance.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

The Scheduling Manager is responsible for monitoring, reporting, and improving departmental performance, including but not limited to:

Patient Access

• Order-to-Schedule Turnaround Time
• Referral Processing Turnaround Time
• Schedule Utilization Rate
• Template Utilization

Contact Center Performance

• Average Speed to Answer
• Call Abandonment Rate
• Average Handle Time
• First Call Resolution
• Telephone Quality Scores

Operational Performance

• Scheduling Accuracy
• Demographic Accuracy
• Insurance Verification Accuracy
• Work Queue Aging
• Productivity per Scheduling Coordinator
• Schedule Fill Rate
• Appointment Conversion Rate

Patient Experience

• Patient Satisfaction Scores
• Complaint Resolution Timeliness
• Access-Related Patient Complaints
• Scheduling Experience Survey Results

Revenue Cycle

• Authorization-Related Denials
• Scheduling-Related Claim Errors
• Financial Clearance Completion Rate
• Revenue Leakage Related to Scheduling Errors

The Scheduling Manager is responsible for routinely analyzing departmental metrics, identifying trends, presenting performance data to leadership, and implementing action plans to improve organizational performance.

Compliance

1. Maintains compliance with HIPAA, CMS regulations, Joint Commission standards, and organizational policies.
2. Ensures staff maintain competency regarding scheduling protocols and payer requirements.
3. Maintains regulatory compliance related to patient access operations.

Non-Essential Functions

1. Participates in organizational strategic initiatives.
2. Assists with implementation of new software, scheduling technology, and workflow redesign.
3. Performs additional duties as assigned.
4. Supports North Country Healthcare's Mission, Vision, Values, and Standards of Excellence.

Physical Requirements

• Frequent sitting.
• Frequent computer use.
• Frequent telephone communication.
• Occasional standing and walking.
• Ability to occasionally lift up to 20 pounds.