Director, Patient Access Center

The Director, Patient Access Center, provides strategic and operational leadership for all patient access center functions in an ambulatory healthcare setting, ensuring efficient, compliant, and patient-centered access to care. Oversees centralized scheduling, registration, insurance verification, referral management, and call center operations. The Director partners with clinical, operational, revenue cycle, and executive leadership to improve patient throughput, optimize access workflows, enhance financial performance, and deliver an exceptional patient experience across the continuum of care. ### Responsibilities - Direct and oversee all patient access operations, including scheduling, preregistration, registration, insurance verification, scheduling from the referrals, and call center functions of the Access center. - Develop and execute strategic initiatives to improve patient access, reduce delays in care, and enhance the overall patient experience. - Lead, mentor, and develop managers, supervisors, and frontline teams to build a high-performing, patient-centered access organization. - Establish departmental goals, key performance indicators, and service standards to drive operational excellence and accountability. - Monitor access center productivity, call center performance, registration quality, and financial clearance outcomes to identify opportunities for improvement. - Partner with revenue cycle leadership to reduce denials, improve front-end collections, strengthen data integrity, and optimize reimbursement outcomes. - Collaborate with clinical operations and physician leadership to improve scheduling efficiency, referral conversion, and patient throughput. - Oversee department budgeting, staffing models, workforce planning, and resource allocation to support organizational growth. - Ensure compliance with organizational policies, payer requirements, and applicable federal and state healthcare regulations. - Lead technology optimization efforts related to scheduling platforms, EHR workflows, patient communication systems, and access automation tools. - Participate in organizational committees and executive initiatives related to patient flow, access strategy, and service excellence. - Perform other duties as assigned. ### Qualifications - Strong knowledge of healthcare access operations, scheduling workflows, registration, insurance verification, referral management, and revenue cycle functions. - Advanced understanding of patient access performance metrics including abandonment rates, scheduling lag, denial prevention, registration accuracy, and financial clearance outcomes. - Strong leadership skills with the ability to lead large, multi-site teams through managers and supervisors. - Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills with a data-driven leadership approach. - Strong knowledge of regulatory compliance including HIPAA, CMS, payer requirements, and revenue integrity standards. - Ability to develop operational strategies that improve patient access, service delivery, and organizational efficiency. - Strong interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to influence leaders across clinical and administrative functions. - Experience leading process improvement initiatives using Lean, Six Sigma, or similar methodologies. - Proficiency with EHR systems such as Epic, Cerner, scheduling platforms, and patient access technologies.