Manager of Billing and Collections

Job Title : Manager of Billing and Collections

Reports to: Director of Reimbursement and Payer Operations

Summary

The Manager of Billing and Collections is responsible for the strategic leadership, operational oversight, and performance management of all accounts receivable functions, including billing, collections, denial management, transplant global billing, payer relations, payer escalations, and reimbursement optimization initiatives. This role ensures the timely and accurate resolution of outstanding accounts receivable while driving process improvements, regulatory compliance, and financial performance across the revenue cycle for over 1000 providers with increasing annual gross charges.

The manager serves as the primary escalation point for complex payer issues and reimbursement challenges, partnering with internal stakeholders and external payers to resolve systemic issues, reduce denials, improve cash flow, and maximize reimbursement. This position provides leadership to management and frontline teams while overseeing payer-focused projects, contract implementation support, and strategic initiatives designed to improve revenue cycle outcomes

Leadership Operational Management

Interact and partner with multiple internal departments to ensure timely and accurate billing of claims and collection of balances owed to the University of Illinois Physicians group.

Provides strategic leadership and oversight for all Claims Accounts Receivable operations, including billing, follow-up, denial management, cash acceleration, and collections.

Directly manages Claims AR supervisors, and team leads while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Establishes departmental goals, performance standards, productivity metrics, and quality assurance measures.

Monitors key performance indicators (KPIs) and develops action plans to improve AR performance, denial rates, aging, and reimbursement outcomes.

Oversees supervisor development, coaching, mentoring, performance evaluations, and succession planning.

Ensures compliance with organizational policies, payer requirements, industry regulations, and reimbursement guidelines.

Oversees all billing activities, including professional billing, transplant global billing, government payers, commercial payers, and managed care plans.

Manages denial prevention and denial management strategies to improve first-pass resolution and reduce avoidable write-offs.

Ensures timely resolution of complex accounts, underpayments, reimbursement discrepancies, and aged receivables.

Reviews and analyzes reimbursement trends, payment variances, contractual compliance, and payer performance.

Identifies root causes of revenue leakage and develops corrective action plans to improve reimbursement outcomes.

Payer Relations Escalations

Serves as the primary operational liaison for payer escalations and complex reimbursement disputes.

Leads payer meetings and business reviews to address recurring denial patterns, payment delays, system issues, and contractual concerns.

Develops and maintains strong relationships with government, managed care, commercial, and specialty payers.

Coordinates cross-functional efforts to resolve systemic payer issues impacting reimbursement and account resolution.

Escalates unresolved payer concerns and negotiates solutions to improve payment accuracy and timeliness.

Supports contract implementation, payer policy changes, reimbursement initiatives, and operational readiness activities.

Project Management Process Improvement

Leads payer-related projects, reimbursement initiatives, workflow redesigns, system enhancements, and revenue cycle optimization efforts.

Collaborates with contracting, finance, compliance, patient access, HIM, coding, and clinical operations teams to improve revenue cycle performance.

Utilizes data analytics to identify operational opportunities and drive process improvements.

Develops and implements standard operating procedures, workflows, and best practices.

Oversees system testing, payer implementation projects, and revenue cycle technology enhancements.

Collaborates and partners with the Director of Reimbursement and Payer Operations on strategic process improvements and specialized projects.

Reporting Financial Performance

Analyzes and presents AR performance, denial trends, payer outcomes, cash collection metrics, and operational reports to executive leadership.

Develops action plans to achieve organizational goals related to cash collections, AR aging, denial reduction, and reimbursement optimization.

Monitors departmental resource allocation, and operational efficiencies.

Provides recommendations for strategic initiatives based on financial and operational analysis.

Compliance Quality Assurance

Maintains expertise in payer regulations, CMS guidelines, reimbursement methodologies, and industry best practices.

Ensures compliance with federal, state, and payer-specific bil…