Patient Intake Specialist

Unicare Health; Thousand Oaks (CA); On-site; USD 52,000 - 68,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

Retirement plan

PTO

Job summary

Unicare Health is seeking a detail-oriented Patient Intake Specialist for onsite work in Newbury Park, CA. You will own the new patient intake experience, verify insurance, secure prior authorizations, and prepare complete, billable documentation to enable clean billing downstream.

You will join a growth-focused revenue cycle team and report to leadership. The role offers an onsite schedule, standard business hours, and opportunities to advance into leadership as the team scales.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of DMEPOS intake or front-end revenue cycle experience.
• Familiar with home respiratory therapies and documentation requirements.
• Experience verifying eligibility and securing prior authorizations (Medi-Cal/Medicare).
• Proficient with EMR/EHR systems and Microsoft Office.
• Strong HIPAA compliance and patient privacy focus.
• Ability to coordinate deliveries and renewals with care providers.
• Bilingual English/Spanish is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own the new patient intake process end to end across channels.
• Capture and verify complete patient demographics, insurance, and clinical information at intake.
• Coordinate scheduling for respiratory therapists and equipment drops.
• Obtain and manage prior authorizations through to approval.
• Translate documentation into billable HCPCS codes for respiratory, DME, and supplies.
• Ensure intake documentation meets DMEPOS qualification standards.
• Collaborate with billing, documentation, and clinical teams to close gaps.
• Track intake metrics and surface trends for leadership.
• Provide compassionate customer service during patient escalations.

Skills

DMEPOS intake

Home respiratory equipment

Eligibility verification

EMR/EHR systems

HIPAA compliance

Microsoft Office

Medicare/Medi-Cal knowledge

Customer service

Attention to detail

Tools

EMR/EHR platforms

Job description

Patient Intake Specialist, DMEPOS Unicare Health | Newbury Park, CA (Onsite)

About Unicare

Founded in 1988, Unicare Health helps patients with complex medical needs thrive at home through compassionate care, expert clinical support, and trusted partnership with families and healthcare providers. We are a leading, innovative provider of home respiratory care, durable medical equipment, and home medical supplies, poised for high growth. We don't just deliver machines; we deliver life-sustaining care and services. Our vision is to empower complex respiratory patients to live their most full, joyful, comfortable, and active lives possible.

Our guiding principle is simple: serious care delivered with compassion. Our revenue cycle team is central to that mission, ensuring accurate, timely reimbursement so clinicians and families can stay focused on care.

What We Stand For

• Relentless pursuit of improved outcomes. We proactively solve problems, move quickly, and collaborate so every patient achieves the best possible clinical and quality-of-life results.
• Serious care delivered with compassion. We combine clinical rigor and high standards with empathy, warmth, and respect in every interaction.
• Patients and families first. Every decision is guided by what will most support the comfort, confidence, and daily lives of the people we serve.
• Experience matters as much as equipment. We deliver not only advanced technology, but also education, responsiveness, and ongoing support that make care easier at home.

Position Summary

We are seeking a detail-oriented, professional, and patient-focused individual to join our team as a Patient Intake Specialist. This role is the front door of our revenue cycle. You will own the new patient intake experience end to end, qualifying referrals, verifying insurance and eligibility, securing prior authorizations, and preparing complete, billable documentation so that every downstream billing step is set up for success. The quality of your work directly determines whether our life-sustaining respiratory and DME services can be delivered and reimbursed without delay.

This is a foundational hire. As one of the first members of our revenue cycle team, you will report directly to the Vice President of Revenue Cycle Management and Compliance and work side by side with senior leadership to build the function from the ground up. For a high performer, this is a rare opportunity to grow into a functional leadership role as the team and organization scale. This is a full-time, onsite role based in our Newbury Park office. Teammates work a standard 8-hour day plus lunch and are expected onsite during core office hours of Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM PST.

How the Role Works

This role owns the front end of the DMEPOS revenue cycle: new patient intake, qualification, and the hand-off of clean, billable documentation to the billing team. You are the quality gate between the referral and the claim. As Unicare scales, strong performers in this role have a clear path to depth and leadership within the intake and qualification function, or to broaden into the full revenue cycle.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the new patient intake process end to end, receiving and processing referrals across phone, email, fax, and system-based channels
• Capture and verify complete, accurate patient demographic, insurance, and clinical information at intake, setting every downstream billing step up for success
• Document intake activity accurately and manage the subsequent workflow, tracking each new patient through qualification, documentation, and claim submission so nothing stalls between steps
• Coordinate scheduling for respiratory therapists and for equipment and supply drops, managing overall patient registration
• Obtain and manage prior authorizations through to approval, tracking expirations and renewals
• Partner with referral sources, whether human contacts or EMR/EHR systems, to secure accurate and complete demographic, insurance, and clinical information
• Verify eligibility, benefits, and prior authorization requirements before service and claim submissionEnsure documentation meets DMEPOS qualification standards (WOPD, CMN, proof of delivery, medical necessity)
• Translate inventory, clinical documentation, and ICD-10 diagnoses into accurate, billable HCPCS codes for respiratory, DME, and supply items
• Serve as the quality gate between intake and claims, ensuring the billing function receives everything required to bill cleanly
• Build and track metrics around incoming new patients and referral volume, surfacing trends to leadership
• Handle patient escalation calls to the office with strong customer service, protecting the patient and family experience at every touchpoint
• Coordinate with billing, documentation, and clinical teams to close gaps that affect reimbursement
• Work fluently in a technology-driven, automation-heavy environment, adopting EMR/EHR systems, order management platforms, and workflow tools quickly and using them to work efficiently at scale
• Ensure intake and qualification practices comply with payer rules, CMS DMEPOS requirements, and applicable regulations

Qualifications

Required

• 2+ years of DMEPOS intake, patient registration, or front-end revenue cycle experience
• Hands-on familiarity with home respiratory therapies, including ventilators, oxygen therapy, CPAP, and BiPAP, and the documentation and qualification requirements each carries
• Experience verifying eligibility and benefits and securing prior authorizations across California Medicaid (Medi-Cal), Medicare, and commercial payers; strong Medi-Cal DMEPOS experience is a top priority
• Demonstrated experience coordinating home medical supplies and recurring supply drops, not solely capital equipment such as ventilators; supply-side fluency (resupply cadence, consumables, inventory coordination) is essential
• Working knowledge of how DMEPOS documentation and ICD-10 diagnoses map to billable HCPCS codes and modifiers; formal medical coding certification is not required, what matters is practical DMEPOS qualification fluency
• Patient-friendly customer service skills are critical; this role carries a meaningful volume of inbound and outbound patient and family calls, including escalations, and requires warmth, patience, and professionalism on every one
• A strong coordinator and team player who works closely with clinical, billing, and delivery colleagues throughout the new patient intake process and the ongoing patient experience, so mission-aligned care is delivered without gaps
• Proficiency with the Microsoft Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel) and a fundamental understanding of how EMR/EHR, order management, and billing systems work together
• Tech-savvy and comfortable in an automation-forward operation, with the aptitude to learn new systems fast and improve how work gets done rather than relying on manual process
• Uncompromising integrity, with a commitment to HIPAA compliance and to preventing fraud, waste, and abuse in every account action
• Able to work full-time and onsite in Newbury Park, covering a standard 8-hour day plus lunch and present during core office hours of Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM PST
• Strong attention to detail, follow-through, and ownership

Preferred

• Bilingual in English and Spanish, given the families we serve
• Pediatric and/or home respiratory (oxygen, PAP, ventilator, nebulizer) intake or billing experience
• Experience building or tracking revenue cycle metrics and reporting to leadership
• Experience in a high-growth or ground-floor environment
• California Home Medical Device Retailer (HMDR) Exemptee certificate

Compliance and Integrity

Unicare operates in a highly regulated space, and integrity is non-negotiable. We expect every member of the revenue cycle team to operate with honesty and to hold themselves to the highest ethical standard in every referral, authorization, and patient interaction. In this role you will safeguard protected health information in full compliance with HIPAA, and you will actively help prevent fraud, waste, and abuse across all intake and qualification activity. You will ensure that all documentation, qualification, and coding work complies with CMS DMEPOS requirements, payer rules, and applicable state and federal regulations, supporting a clean, auditable revenue cycle from the very first touch.

What We Offer

You will join a collaborative, mission-driven environment where your work directly supports families caring for medically complex patients. We put patients and families first and pursue improved outcomes relentlessly, and we look for team members who bring that same standard to their work. As a foundational hire, you will have real ownership, direct access to senior leadership, and a clear path to grow with the company.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Retirement plan
• Competitive paid time off (PTO)
• Competitive compensation [range to be added]

Unicare Health is an equal opportunity employer. [Add standard EEO statement per company policy.]