Director, Central Billing Office (Salaried, Full time)

Organization Overview, Mission, Vision, and Values

Our mission is to improve the health of people in the communities we serve through compassionate, high-quality care, prevention, and wellness education. Washington Regional Medical System is a community-owned, locally governed, non-profit health care system located in Northwest Arkansas in the heart of Fayetteville, which is consistently ranked among the Best Places to live in the country. Our 425-bed medical center has been named the #1 hospital in Arkansas for five consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report. We employ 3,200+ team members and serve the region with over 40 clinic locations, the region’s only Level II trauma center, and five Centers of Excellence - the Washington Regional J.B. Hunt Transport Services Neuroscience Institute; Washington Regional Walker Heart Institute; Washington Regional Women and Infants Center; Washington Regional Total Joint Center; and Washington Regional Pat Walker Center for Seniors.

Position Summary

The Director, Central Billing Office provides strategic and operational leadership for the health system’s centralized patient financial services functions. Reporting to the Vice President, Revenue Cycle, this role is responsible for system-wide oversight of billing, claims management, insurance follow-up, denial prevention and appeals, cash posting, patient collections, and accounts receivable performance for both hospital and professional services as applicable.

The Director leads a high-performing billing office operation that drives compliant reimbursement, improves cash acceleration, strengthens financial controls, and supports accurate, timely, and patient-centered financial experience. This position partners closely with the Director of Patient Financial Access and the Director of Coding Services, along with operational, clinical, compliance, finance, managed care, and information technology leaders, to optimize end-to-end revenue cycle performance and reduce avoidable revenue leakage across the enterprise.

Essential Position Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for the Central Billing Office across the health system, ensuring standardized, efficient, and compliant billing and collection processes for hospital and professional services.

• Direct end-to-end billing office functions including claim edit resolution, claim submission, insurance billing, payer follow-up, denial management, appeals, cash posting, credit balance oversight, bad debt workflows, and patient collections.

• Establish and monitor key performance indicators for accounts receivable, cash collections, denial rates, aged AR, clean claim performance, underpayments, productivity, quality, and cost to collect; drive action plans to improve results.

• Lead, develop, and mentor managers and staff within the Central billing Office; establish clear expectations, accountability standards, training programs, and succession planning to build a high-performing revenue cycle team.

• Partner closely with the Director of Patient Financial Access and the Director of Coding Services to improve handoffs, reduce preventable denials, strengthen charge and claim integrity, and optimize end-to-end revenue cycle performance under the direction of the Vice President, Revenue Cycle.

• Collaborate with hospital, clinic, ASC, dialysis, imaging, and procedural service line leaders to support accurate billing workflows, timely issue resolution, and consistent billing practices across multiple care settings.

• Oversee denial prevention and recovery strategies, including denial trend analysis, root cause identification, appeal prioritization, payer escalation, and cross-functional corrective actions that improve reimbursement and reduce revenue leakage.

• Ensure the accurate and timely posting of payments and contractual adjustments, reconciliation of remittances and deposits, and investigation of payment variances, underpayments, and unresolved credit balances.

• Direct patient collection strategies that support organizational policies, regulatory requirements, and a respectful patient financial experience, including billing communications, payment plan practices, financial assistance escalation pathways, and vendor oversight where applicable.

• Maintain compliance with applicable federal and state regulations, payer rules, contractual requirements, privacy standards, and organizational policies related to billing, collections, refunds, and reimbursement practices.

• Support system audits, payment reviews, payer disputes, and regulatory responses by ensuring documentation, reporting, and operational controls are in place and by coordinating timely follow-up on identified findings.

• Lead process improvement, automation, and technology optimization initiatives within the billing office, leveraging reporting tools and work queue management to improve efficiency, quality, transparency, and financial performance.

• Develop and manage departmental budgets, staffing plans, outsourcing relationships, and operational resources to meet service expectations and financial targets while sustaining strong internal controls.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration, business administration, finance, accounting, or a related field is required. Master’s degree in healthcare administration, business administration, finance, or a related field is preferred.

• Licensure and Certifications: Professional certification in healthcare financial management or revenue cycle (for example, HFMA CRCR, CHFP, or comparable certification) is preferred.

• Experience: Minimum 7 years of progressive leadership experience in healthcare billing office, patient financial services, or revenue cycle operations is required, including direct oversight of billing, insurance follow-up, collections, denial management, and accounts receivable teams. Multi-entity or multi-site health system experience strongly preferred. Demonstrated success leading performance improvement initiatives, managing billing office KPIs, partnering across patient access and coding functions, and working with hospital and professional billing processes is preferred. Experience with payer contracts, regulatory requirements, audit response, vendor management, and revenue cycle technology platforms is strongly preferred.