Administrative Assistant Engagement Specialist

General Purpose

The Administrative Assistant: Engagement Specialist serves as the primary point of contact for individuals seeking community behavioral health services. This role is responsible for coordinating client intake, eligibility verification, enrollment, insurance authorization, and referral management while ensuring a positive and supportive experience for clients and families. The AA Engagement Specialist works collaboratively with clinical, administrative, and community partners to ensure timely access to behavioral health services and compliance with organizational and regulatory requirements.

The position supports clients from their initial request for services through successful completion of the initial assessment and warm handoff to the appropriate clinical team. The AA Engagement Specialist helps clients navigate the administrative requirements necessary to begin services, including completion of intake documentation, collection and entry of required information, scheduling, payer-source identification and research, and proactive follow-up when information or required steps remain incomplete. The position identifies and reports barriers to access, recommends opportunities to improve operations, and supports efforts to improve access to care and performance related to Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic data measures. The position provides non-clinical administrative engagement and does not provide clinical services or case management.

To perform this job successfully, and individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities

• Provides professional, respectful, and client-focused administrative support to clients, staff, and members of the public in person, by telephone, electronically, and through other approved communication methods.
• Organizes and prioritizes large volumes of information, telephone calls, client needs, administrative tasks, and assigned client engagement responsibilities.
• Accurately, quickly, and courteously receives incoming emergency and non-emergency calls, responds to inquiries, takes messages, and appropriately routes or addresses routine and non-routine questions.
• Works cooperatively with other Administrative Assistants to provide telephone, scheduling, front-office, and general administrative coverage as operational needs require.
• Accurately and efficiently utilizes the Electronic Health Record (EHR) and other approved systems to enter and maintain client information, schedule appointments, document administrative activities, and support continuity of services.
• Serves as the primary point of contact for individuals and families seeking community behavioral health services, coordinating administrative activities from the initial request for services through engagement, successful completion of the initial assessment, and transition to the appropriate clinical team.
• Guides assigned clients through administrative intake requirements and helps clients understand what information, documentation, appointments, and actions are necessary to begin services.
• Coordinates client intake and enrollment activities, including completion of required documentation, eligibility verification, appointment coordination, payer identification, insurance authorization, referral management, and follow-up on outstanding requirements.
• Provides clients and families with clear explanations, responsive communication, and supportive assistance throughout the intake and engagement process to promote a positive experience and reduce barriers to accessing care.
• Collects, reviews, tracks, and assists with completion of required registration documents, consents, releases of information, demographic information, insurance information, financial documentation, and other required intake materials.
• Ensures required client information and documentation are collected and entered accurately and timely to support organizational requirements, state reporting requirements, payer requirements, and other applicable administrative standards.
• Performs insurance eligibility verification and conducts detailed payer-source research when insurance coverage or payer information is incomplete, conflicting, inactive, unclear, or requires additional investigation.
• Coordinates administrative insurance-authorization requirements within the scope of the position, including gathering required information, submitting or routing authorization requests through approved processes, tracking authorization status, and escalating unresolved issues that may delay access to services.
• Uses approved payer portals, eligibility systems, client-provided information, and other available resources to identify and verify appropriate payer sources and resolve insurance-related discrepancies within the scope of the position.
• Coordinates referral management activities by receiving and reviewing referrals, confirming required information, communicating with referral sources and internal teams, tracking referral status, and supporting timely connection to appropriate behavioral health services.
• Communicates proactively with clients to obtain missing information or documentation, provide appointment reminders, clarify administrative requirements, and address incomplete steps that may delay access to services.
• Tracks assigned clients through required screening, scheduling, intake, and initial assessment activities and follows up when appointments are cancelled, missed, delayed, or when the client becomes difficult to engage.
• Supports efforts to improve access to care by monitoring assigned clients’ progression through referral, intake, enrollment, scheduling, and initial service connection and promptly addressing or escalating delays.
• Accurately documents and maintains information needed to support applicable Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic data measures, organizational access goals, and required reporting.
• Uses available reports, work queues, and client-level information to identify incomplete activities, missed follow-up, access delays, and opportunities to improve successful engagement in services.
• Identifies administrative barriers that may interfere with a client's ability to complete the intake process and works collaboratively with the client and appropriate internal staff to address, resolve those barriers.
• Reports recurring barriers to access, enrollment delays, referral concerns, authorization issues, and other operational challenges to the Program Supervisor.
• Identifies and recommends practical workflow or operational improvements that may reduce barriers, strengthen client engagement, and improve timely access to care.
• Collaborates with screening staff, clinicians, administrative staff, billing, enrollment resources, community partners, referral sources, and other involved parties to coordinate intake, eligibility verification, engagement, insurance authorization, referral management, and timely access to behavioral health services while maintaining responsibility for administrative follow-through.
• Maintains awareness of outstanding requirements for assigned clients and follows identified issues through completion, resolution, or appropriate escalation.
• Documents client contacts, outreach attempts, payer-source research, outstanding requirements, administrative barriers, actions taken, and other relevant engagement activities in the appropriate organizational system.
• Supports a clear transition following successful completion of the initial assessment so that ongoing administrative needs may be managed through the standard Administrative Assistant workflow and clinical responsibility transitions to the appropriate clinical team.
• Maintains and updates client and organizational records and retrieves information from files or electronic systems as needed.
• Handles confidential and non-routine information appropriately and explains organizational procedures and administrative requirements when necessary.
• Drafts written responses and communicates by telephone, electronic communication, or other approved methods when necessary.
• Responds to regularly occurring requests for information and serves as an information resource to clients, staff, and the general public.
• Works independently and collaboratively with team members on special, nonrecurring, and ongoing projects.
• Participates in job-related training, education, and professional development activities necessary to maintain competency in administrative processes, payer-source research, technology, client engagement practices, and organizational requirements.
• Attends required staff meetings and contributes to team communication, workflow improvement, and coordination of client services.
• Maintains prompt and regular attendance.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Duties (if any)

• None