Job Description

Under the supervision and direction of the Team Leader/Program Director, the Program Assistant provides administrative and clerical support to the Director and staff and functions as the liaison between agency departments and programs. The Program Assistant is responsible for managing medical records, operating and coordinating the management information system, maintaining accounting and budget records for recipient and program expenditures and performing reception activities such as triaging calls and coordinating communication between the program and recipients. This work is carried out under varying conditions of direction and availability of guidelines and by the skilled use of various kinds of equipment, such as computers with a variety of software packages and other automated systems.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS: List all essential job duties. (To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty listed satisfactorily with or without a reasonable accommodation. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with a disability to perform the essential duties unless this causes undue hardship to the agency.)

1. Responsible for overall office management: keeps the staff office area organized and operating efficiently, including all filing, keeping the office equipment in good working order, maintains a supply of all forms and updates bulletin boards in a timely manner.
2. Responsible for Purchase Order management: monitors the inventory of program and office supplies and prepares purchase orders as needed. Follows through with the purchasing process by placing orders, confirming deliveries and providing documentation to and from the Finance department.
3. Responsible for development of program monitoring systems, such as client chart tracking systems to ensure that chart forms that need updating are completed on time by the staff. Ensure that all monthly reports are typed, submitted and routed on time to the appropriate person.
4. Provides reception services: receives phone calls and visitors with courtesy and professionalism, takes accurate phone messages, directs incoming and outgoing calls and faxes in a timely and accurate manner.
5. Cleans and maintains equipment and resolves routine problems with equipment and systems.
6. Develops and revises work methods as needed.
7. Maintains inventory and requisitions office supplies.
8. May be required to take minutes at meetings and produce a final typed copy for distribution to appropriate individuals either by hard-copy or electronically.
9. Designs, sets up and maintains electronic and hard-copy files of correspondence/documents, codes and files material, searches for requested material and periodically purges obsolete material for storage in records center or for appropriate disposal.
10. Types and distributes meeting notes, correspondence and reports. Organizes the flow of paper in the office.
11. Greets visitors, recipients, answers telephones, responds to standard inquiries concerning program activities and procedures, and refers more technical questions to appropriate staff.

1. Develops, maintains and updates program manuals and information.
2. Transmits instructions from supervisor to appropriate staff orally, in writing or electronically and follows-up to see that instructions are followed and deadlines are met.
3. Other related duties that may be assigned.

BILLING RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Prepares and submits initial Medicare and Medicaid bills either electronically or by hard copy submission to ICL Accounting/Billing Department.

2. Reviews and confirms that appropriate billing documentation has been obtained.

3. Secures medical documentation required by payers.

4. Runs assigned daily billing reports to determine account needs and updates files with current billing information.

5. Maintains knowledge of Medicaid and Medicare guidelines and applies that knowledge to billing as required by individual contracts.

6. Understands Medicaid/Medicare and Insurance billing including coordination of benefits.

7. Works collaboratively with clinical staff and other staff to ensure that correct diagnosis/procedures are reported to Medicaid/Medicare and third party insurance carriers.

8. Monitors electronic transmission of claims to avoid delay in processing. Check and balance all claims/services were loaded and file was received.

9. Identifies monitors and corrects errors made on electronic and paper claims and follows up until service is properly documented and resubmit claims.

10. Works with Supervisor to maintain accuracy of reference materials and implementation of new billing codes and fee schedules.

11. Multi-tasks in various computer applications to gather billing and collection information.

12. Verifies data entry to ensure accuracy of imported/keyed data.

13. Works unbilled revenue reports to verify pending claims and bring them closure.

14. Reconciles open accounts to clearly establish client responsibility.

15. Performs related duties as required or as assigned by Supervisor

ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Ability to become proficient with EHR software.
• Knowledge of Medicare, Medicaid and Managed Care guidelines.
• Ability to establish effective working relationships with a variety of people at all levels of the organization.
• Knowledge of office and secretarial practices and procedures.
• Knowledge of proper grammatical usage, punctuation and spelling.
• Knowledge of agency policies and program policies, procedures and functions.
• Ability to use office equipment (e.g. computer, fax, copy machine, scanner, etc.).
• Ability to organize office operations.
• Ability to produce letters, tables, documents, etc., using an alphanumeric keyboard.
• Ability to design and maintain filing systems.
• Ability to resign forms for the collection of information.
• Ability to determine priorities.
• Ability to maintain program accounts.
• Ability to interact with consumers in a respectful and professional manner.
• Knowledge of agency procedures, formats and guidelines for the receipt, processing and distribution of correspondence, forms, memoranda, documents and other material.
• Ability to use and maintain office equipment and systems.
• Ability to manipulate an alphanumeric keyboard (computer and typewriter) to produce documents, such as letters, memos, reports, charts and forms, with a high degree of accuracy and within required time frames.
• Ability to format, use and prepare forms, charts, tabular listings and other documents.
• Ability to organize materials to establish and maintain electronic and hard-copy files.
• Ability to understand and use basic office reference material, such as equipment manuals, procedure manuals and dictionaries.
• Ability to proofread and correct errors.
• Ability to communicate basic information clearly and politely by telephone or in person.
• Ability to report for work as scheduled on a consistent basis.
• Ability to understand and adhere to internal and external laws, rules and policies.
• Ability to relate to all levels of staff in the organization and to consumers in a respectful, businesslike manner.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

High School Diploma or GED plus at least two years of clerical or secretarial experience, or graduate of secretarial school. Preferably education should include coursework in bookkeeping/business. AA degree preferred but not required. Post-high school courses in Medicare/Medicaid billing, data processing, medical terminology or Accounting highly desirable. At least one year of Medical Billing or other insurance billing preferred.

Must be able to satisfactorily use computer work processing equipment and programs (Microsoft Word) and type letters, reports, forms and other documents.