Patient Access Coordinator in Richmond Area, Virginia at Nephrology Specialists PC

COMMONWEALTH KIDNEY DOCTORS

Patient Access Coordinator

Position Type: Full-Time Reports To: Front Office Team Lead

Good-Faith Wage Range: $20.00 to $24.00 per hour. This range represents the minimum and maximum hourly wage Commonwealth Kidney Doctors has set in good faith for this position at the time of posting. Final compensation within the range will be based on job-related factors, including experience, qualifications, skills, and business needs.

Summary

The Patient Access Coordinator is a front-office and patient-access support position for Commonwealth Kidney Doctors. This role is responsible for creating a professional, organized, and welcoming first point of contact for patients, families, referring offices, hospitals, dialysis units, providers, and other members of the care team. The position supports daily office flow by managing check-in and check-out, scheduling, patient information updates, insurance verification, phones and voicemail, patient payments, administrative chart preparation, and timely routing of messages and records. The Patient Access Coordinator requires strong attention to detail, dependable attendance, effective communication, sound judgment with confidential information, and the ability to keep front-office workflows moving consistently across practice locations.

Key Responsibilities

• Greet patients, families, visitors, vendors, and outside offices in a professional and helpful manner while maintaining an organized front-desk environment.
• Complete patient check-in and check-out workflows accurately, including demographic updates, insurance updates, consent forms, appointment documentation, and required visit paperwork.
• Verify insurance information, identify missing or incomplete registration items, and communicate patient-access issues to the appropriate team member before they delay care or clinic flow.
• Schedule, reschedule, cancel, and confirm appointments using Athena or the designated scheduling system, while following practice guidelines for provider schedules, location availability, follow-up timing, and patient needs.
• Answer incoming calls, monitor voicemail, return calls when appropriate, document necessary information, and route messages promptly to the correct provider, clinical team member, billing team member, or administrative contact.
• Collect copays, balances, and other approved patient payments according to practice procedures, and handle receipts, payment documentation, and related questions with accuracy and confidentiality.
• Prepare charts administratively before scheduled visits by confirming that registration information and any insurance referral documents, are available or requested as needed.
• Receive, scan, index, and route incoming records, forms, faxes, lab results, hospital documentation, and outside-office communications to support timely provider review and accurate EMR documentation.
• Support smooth patient flow throughout the clinic day by communicating delays, schedule changes, urgent patient concerns, and operational issues to the appropriate team member or supervisor.
• Assist with multi-site coverage and provide front-office support at other Commonwealth Kidney Doctors locations as assigned.
• Maintain confidentiality and comply with HIPAA and practice policies when handling patient information, payments, records, conversations, and electronic communications.
• Perform other duties as assigned within the scope of the role to support patient access, office operations, and the overall patient experience.

Skills & Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent required.
• Prior experience in a medical office, patient access, front desk, call center, receptionist, or comparable administrative role preferred.
• Working knowledge of outpatient medical office workflows, including registration, scheduling, insurance verification, referrals, records management, phone triage routing, and time-of-service collections.
• Ability to communicate clearly, calmly, and professionally with patients, families, providers, coworkers, referring offices, hospitals, dialysis units, pharmacies, and other outside organizations.
• Ability to manage frequent interruptions, changing priorities, multiple work queues, and time-sensitive requests in a fast-paced specialty practice environment.
• Strong attention to detail and follow-through when updating patient information, scheduling appointments, collecting payments, routing messages, and maintaining EMR documentation.
• Proficiency with EMR systems, telephone systems, scanning, faxing, email, standard office technology, and basic computer workflows; Athena experience preferred.
• Ability to use sound judgment, maintain professionalism, and protect confidential information during sensitive patient interactions and high-volume front-office activity.

Preferred Experience

• Prior experience in an outpatient specialty practice, internal medicine, nephrology, dialysis-related setting, hospital-based office, or comparable medical environment preferred.
• Experience with Athena, insurance verification, referral documentation, medical records routing, patient collections, multi-line phones, or multi-site office coverage preferred.
• Experience working with patients who have chronic medical conditions or complex follow-up needs preferred.

Physical Requirements / Work Environment

This position primarily performs work in a standard office and medical practice environment with frequent in-person, telephone, and electronic communication. The employee must be able to remain in a stationary position for extended periods, move about the office as needed, and alternate between sitting and standing throughout the workday. The role requires the ability to operate standard office equipment, including computers, phones, printers, copiers, scanners, fax equipment, payment-processing tools, and other typical medical office resources. The employee must be able to communicate effectively in person, by phone, and in writing.

The employee may occasionally need to bend, stoop, reach, grasp, and lift or carry office supplies, files, paper, or office materials typically weighing up to 15 pounds, and occasionally up to 25 pounds. The position requires the ability to tolerate frequent interruptions, maintain attention to detail, and remain professional while managing competing patient, provider, and operational needs. Specific physical requirements may vary slightly based on business and operational needs.

Commonwealth Kidney Doctors will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities to enable them to perform the essential functions of the job, consistent with applicable law.

Key Responsibilities

• Greet patients, families, visitors, vendors, and outside offices in a professional and helpful manner while maintaining an organized front-desk environment.
• Complete patient check-in and check-out workflows accurately, including demographic updates, insurance updates, consent forms, appointment documentation, and required visit paperwork.
• Verify insurance information, identify missing or incomplete registration items, and communicate patient-access issues to the appropriate team member before they delay care or clinic flow.
• Schedule, reschedule, cancel, and confirm appointments using Athena or the designated scheduling system, while following practice guidelines for provider schedules, location availability, follow-up timing, and patient needs.
• Answer incoming calls, monitor voicemail, return calls when appropriate, document necessary information, and route messages promptly to the correct provider, clinical team member, billing team member, or administrative contact.
• Collect copays, balances, and other approved patient payments according to practice procedures, and handle receipts, payment documentation, and related questions with accuracy and confidentiality.
• Prepare charts administratively before scheduled visits by confirming that registration information and any insurance referral documents, are available or requested as needed.
• Receive, scan, index, and route incoming records, forms, faxes, lab results, hospital documentation, and outside-office communications to support timely provider review and accurate EMR documentation.
• Support smooth patient flow throughout the clinic day by communicating delays, schedule changes, urgent patient concerns, and operational issues to the appropriate team member or supervisor.
• Assist with multi-site coverage and provide front-office support at other Commonwealth Kidney Doctors locations as assigned.
• Maintain confidentiality and comply with HIPAA and practice policies when handling patient information, payments, records, conversations, and electronic communications.
• Perform other duties as assigned within the scope of the role to support patient access, office operations, and the overall patient experience.

Skills & Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent required.
• Prior experience in a medical office, patient access, front desk, call center, receptionist, or comparable administrative role preferred.
• Working knowledge of outpatient medical office workflows, including registration, scheduling, insurance verification, referrals, records management, phone triage routing, and time-of-service collections.
• Ability to communicate clearly, calmly, and professionally with patients, families, providers, coworkers, referring offices, hospitals, dialysis units, pharmacies, and other outside organizations.
• Ability to manage frequent interruptions, changing priorities, multiple work queues, and time-sensitive requests in a fast-paced specialty practice environment.
• Strong attention to detail and follow-through when updating patient information, scheduling appointments, collecting payments, routing messages, and maintaining EMR documentation.
• Proficiency with EMR systems, telephone systems, scanning, faxing, email, standard office technology, and basic computer workflows; Athena experience preferred.
• Ability to use sound judgment, maintain professionalism, and protect confidential information during sensitive patient interactions and high-volume front-office activity.

Preferred Experience

• Prior experience in an outpatient specialty practice, internal medicine, nephrology, dialysis-related setting, hospital-based office, or comparable medical environment preferred.
• Experience with Athena, insurance verification, referral documentation, medical records routing, patient collections, multi-line phones, or multi-site office coverage preferred.
• Experience working with patients who have chronic medical conditions or complex follow-up needs preferred.

Physical Requirements / Work Environment

This position primarily performs work in a standard office and medical practice environment with frequent in-person, telephone, and electronic communication. The employee must be able to remain in a stationary position for extended periods, move about the office as needed, and alternate between sitting and standing throughout the workday. The role requires the ability to operate standard office equipment, including computers, phones, printers, copiers, scanners, fax equipment, payment-processing tools, and other typical medical office resources. The employee must be able to communicate effectively in person, by phone, and in writing.

The employee may occasionally need to bend, stoop, reach, grasp, and lift or carry office supplies, files, paper, or office materials typically weighing up to 15 pounds, and occasionally up to 25 pounds. The position requires the ability to tolerate frequent interruptions, maintain attention to detail, and remain professional while managing competing patient, provider, and operational needs. Specific physical requirements may vary slightly based on business and operational needs.

Commonwealth Kidney Doctors will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities to enable them to perform the essential functions of the job, consistent with applicable law.