Head of Payer Relationships Strategy

HEAD OF PAYER RELATIONSHIPS STRATEGY Marvin Behavioral Health | Full-Time | Remote POSITION OVERVIEW The Head of Payer Relationships Strategy is a senior leader responsible for driving Marvin's payer strategy, contract performance, fee schedule management, and provider credentialing function. This role serves as the primary owner of all payer relationships and is the internal expert on how Marvin gets paid. While the Director provides strategic oversight of the broader revenue cycle operation and partners closely with the RCM Manager, their core focus is external: negotiating contracts, managing fee schedules, resolving complex payer issues, and ensuring every provider is credentialed and enrolled before a single claim is submitted. This is a player-coach role. The Head of Payer Relationships Strategy sets strategy and builds systems, but also personally engages payers when it matters most — picking up the phone on a wrongful denial, leading a contract renegotiation, or stepping in on a credentialing escalation. The ideal candidate is a seasoned RCM professional who has deep payer contracting expertise and takes pride in both strategic thinking and hands-on execution. This is a hybrid role with an expectation of 1-2 days per week in our LA , NYC or Denver Office, the remainder of the days remote work. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Payer Relations & Contract Management — Primary Focus - Own the full lifecycle of all payer contracts: negotiation, execution, renewal, and ongoing performance monitoring - Analyze payer fee schedules and reimbursement rates across all contracts; identify underpayment gaps and drive renegotiation to improve rates - Maintain and update the practice's chargemaster and fee schedules in the EHR/practice management system (AdvancedMD); ensure rates are accurate and current across all payers and service lines - Conduct annual fee schedule reviews in partnership with Finance to ensure contracted rates remain strategically aligned with the cost of care - Ensure compliance with payer policies, mental health parity laws, and applicable state and federal billing regulations - Serve as the primary point of contact for all payer representatives; maintain direct, active relationships and know who to call to get things done - Personally escalate and resolve complex payer disputes, wrongful denials, and underpayment issues that require direct payer intervention - Write and oversee escalated appeal letters; ensure appeals are clinically supported, accurate, and submitted within timely filing requirements - Monitor payer policy changes and communicate impacts to clinical, compliance, and billing teams proactively Fee Schedule Oversight - Own fee schedule management end-to-end: negotiation, loading, maintenance, and reconciliation - Ensure fee schedules are correctly loaded in AdvancedMD for every payer and updated promptly when contracts change - Audit reimbursements against contracted rates to identify systematic underpayments; initiate recovery and corrective action - Track fee schedule performance across payers and present findings and recommendations to executive leadership - Partner with Finance on chargemaster strategy to ensure billed charges reflect the appropriate markup above contracted rates Provider Credentialing & Enrollment - Oversee the credentialing function with a dedicated credentialing team member handling day-to-day execution; own the standards, timelines, and outcomes - Ensure all providers are credentialed and enrolled with relevant payers accurately and on time; hold the process to turnaround benchmarks that protect billing continuity - Maintain an accurate credentialing database tracking licensure, certifications, DEA, malpractice coverage, and all expirables; manage renewals proactively, never reactively - Coordinate credentialing timelines with recruiting, onboarding, and partner launch schedules to prevent credentialing gaps from becoming billing gaps - Personally step in on complex enrollment issue…