Behavioral Health Patient Placement Specialist

When you join the growing BILH team, you're not just taking a job, you’re making a difference in people’s lives.

The Behavioral Health Patient Placement Specialist serves as a key clinical member of the BILH Behavioral Health Transfer Center, supporting the centralized coordination, review, authorization, and placement of patients requiring inpatient behavioral health services across the health system.

This office-based role is responsible for conducting comprehensive clinical reviews of referrals, facilitating admission decisions, coordinating patient placement, obtaining payer authorizations, and escalating clinical concerns to appropriate leadership and medical staff. The coordinator functions as both a clinical and operational liaison, ensuring patients are matched to the most appropriate level of care while promoting timely access, regulatory compliance, and exceptional patient outcomes.

Working collaboratively with inpatient behavioral health units, emergency departments, referring hospitals, providers, insurers, and community partners, the Behavioral Health Patient Placement Specialist plays an integral role in optimizing system-wide bed capacity, facilitating seamless patient transitions, and advancing operational excellence throughout the behavioral health continuum.

Job Description

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Conduct comprehensive clinical reviews of electronic medical records, referral documentation, psychiatric evaluations, and supporting clinical information to determine appropriateness for admission to inpatient behavioral health programs.
• Conduct clinical review of referrals and apply established admission, exclusion, and level of care criteria to determine placement options; escalate cases requiring physician, psychiatric or leadership review in accordance with established protocols.
• Assess patient acuity, treatment needs, medical and psychiatric complexity, and level-of-care requirements to facilitate appropriate placement decisions.
• Coordinate and facilitate the admission process for accepted patients, ensuring timely and efficient placement across behavioral health services.
• Collaborate with referring hospitals, emergency departments, community providers, and other referral sources to obtain necessary clinical information and coordinate patient transitions.
• Participates in and leads quality improvement initiatives that enhance behavioral health patient access, placement efficiency, patient flow, and care coordination across the health system.
• Serve as a central resource and liaison for behavioral health placement inquiries from internal and external stakeholders.
• Identify complex, high-risk, or clinically concerning cases requiring additional review and appropriately escalate clinical concerns to the Director of Behavioral Health Admissions, psychiatrist/physician on call, nursing leadership, or other designated clinical leaders.
• Escalate concerns related to medical stability, patient safety risks, behavioral acuity, regulatory requirements, capacity limitations, or admission appropriateness.
• Collaborate with physicians, advanced practice providers, nursing leaders, and interdisciplinary teams to resolve clinical barriers to admission and placement.
• Support clinical decision-making by communicating accurate and timely clinical information to appropriate stakeholders.
• Obtain, coordinate, and document prior authorizations and payer approvals for inpatient behavioral health admissions, transfers, and other services as clinically indicated.
• Collaborate with commercial insurers, managed care organizations, Medicaid, Medicare, and other payers to facilitate authorization determinations and ensure timely access to care.
• Communicate authorization status, limitations, and coverage determinations to internal clinical teams and relevant stakeholders.
• Partner with behavioral health units across the system to optimize bed utilization, patient flow, and capacity management.
• Monitor patient placement activities and contribute to achieving system-wide throughput and access goals.
• Establish and maintain collaborative relationships with referral sources, payers, physicians, clinical teams, hospital departments, and community partners.
• Participate in the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of workflows and operational processes designed to enhance access to behavioral health services.
• Support data collection, reporting, and quality improvement initiatives related to behavioral health admissions, transfers, and placement activities.
• Maintain a thorough understanding of regulatory standards and ensure compliance with applicable requirements from DMH, DPH, The Joint Commission, CMS, commercial payers, and other governing agencies.
• Promote a culture of quality, safety, patient-centered care, and continuous improvement throughout the admissions and transfer process.
• Complete all required competencies, certifications, and annual training requirements, including CPR, risk management, de-escalation training, and other required organizational education.
• Perform additional duties and responsibilities as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS & EDUCATION

• Master's degree in Nursing, Social Work, Counseling, Psychology, Healthcare Administration, or another behavioral health or healthcare-related field.
• Minimum of two (2) years of experience in behavioral health, psychiatric services, care coordination, case management, utilization management, transfer center operations, patient placement, emergency psychiatry, or related clinical settings.
• Demonstrated knowledge of behavioral health diagnoses, psychiatric admission criteria, level-of-care determinations, risk assessment, and behavioral health treatment systems.
• Understanding of medical comorbidities and their impact on behavioral health treatment planning and placement decisions.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications and electronic medical record systems; Epic experience preferred.
• Experience interpreting medical necessity criteria and working with managed care organizations and payer authorization processes.
• Exceptional communication, critical thinking, organizational, and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across multidisciplinary teams and external partners.
• Strong commitment to patient-centered care, operational excellence, and continuous process improvement.

Competencies

• Decision Making: Ability to make decisions that are guided by general instructions and practices requiring some interpretation. May make recommendations for solving problems of moderate complexity and importance.
• Problem Solving: Ability to address problems that are varied, requiring analysis or interpretation of the situation using direct observation, knowledge and skills based on general precedents.
• Independence of Action: Ability to follow precedents and procedures. May set priorities and organize work within general guidelines. Seeks assistance when confronted with difficult and/or unpredictable situations. Work progress is monitored by supervisor/manager.
• Written Communications: Ability to communicate clearly and effectively in written English with internal and external customers.
• Oral Communications: Ability to comprehend and converse in English to communicate effectively with medical center staff, patients, families and external customers.
• Knowledge: Ability to demonstrate full working knowledge of standard concepts, practices, procedures and policies with the ability to use them in varied situations.
• Team Work: Ability to work collaboratively in small teams to improve the operations of immediate work group by offering ideas, identifying issues, and respecting team members.
• Customer Service: Ability to provide a high level of customer service to patients, visitors, staff and external customers in a professional, service-oriented, respectful manner using skills in active listening and problem solving. Ability to remain calm in stressful situations.

Social/Environmental Requirements

• Work requires close attention to detail for tasks to be accurately completed. Ability to take intermittent breaks during the work day as to not compromise the work.
• Works is varied every day and the employee needs to be adaptable to respond to these changes and use independent judgement and manage priorities.
• No substantial exposure to adverse environmental conditions.
• Health Care status: NHCW: No patient contact. – Health Care worker Status may vary by department

Sensory Requirements:

Close work (paperwork, visual examination), Monitor Use, Visual monotony, Visual clarity, Conversation, Telephone and Background noise

Physical Nature of the Job:

Sedentary Work: Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally in carrying, lifting, pushing, pulling objects. Sitting most of the time, with walking and standing required only occasionally

This job requires constant sitting with computer monitor and keyboard use. There may be occasional fine manipulation using one hand.

Pay Range

$36.00 - $48.45

The pay range listed for this position is the base hourly wage range the organization reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for this position at this time. Actual compensation is determined based on several factors, that may include seniority, education, training, relevant experience, relevant certifications, geography of work location, job responsibilities, or other applicable factors permissible by law. Compensation may exceed the base hourly rate depending on shift differentials, call pay, premium pay, overtime pay, and other additional pay practices, as applicable to the position and in accordance with the law.

As a health care organization, we have a responsibility to do everything in our power to care for and protect our patients, our colleagues and our communities. Beth Israel Lahey Health requires that all staff be vaccinated against influenza (flu) as a condition of employment.

More than 35,000 people working together. Nurses, doctors, technicians, therapists, researchers, teachers and more, making a difference in patients' lives. Your skill and compassion can make us even stronger.