Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Billing Supervisor

🎯 Role Definition

The Billing Supervisor leads a team of billing specialists and clerks to ensure timely, accurate preparation and submission of invoices, efficient claims processing, and resolution of billing exceptions and denials. This role owns key revenue cycle KPIs—such as days sales outstanding (DSO), net collection rate, and denial rates—drives process improvements, enforces compliance with billing policies and payer contracts, and partners with clinical, coding, and finance teams to accelerate collections and minimize write-offs.

Key SEO terms: billing supervisor, revenue cycle management, accounts receivable supervision, medical billing supervisor, billing operations lead, claim denials, DSO reduction.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Billing Specialist / Lead Billing Clerk
Accounts Receivable Analyst or Specialist
Medical Biller / Coding Specialist (with supervisory aptitude)

Advancement To:

Billing Manager / Revenue Cycle Manager
Director of Patient Financial Services / Director of Revenue Cycle
Finance Manager (Accounts Receivable focus)

Lateral Moves:

Collections Supervisor
Accounts Receivable Supervisor
Compliance or Audit Supervisor (Revenue Cycle)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Supervise and mentor a team of billing specialists and clerks, including hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, coaching, scheduling, and career development to maintain a high-performing billing operation.
Oversee daily billing operations to ensure all invoices, statements, and electronic claims are accurately prepared and submitted within contractual and regulatory deadlines.
Monitor and own billing-specific KPIs—such as days sales outstanding (DSO), net collection rate, denial rate, clean claim rate, and aging buckets—and implement targeted action plans to continuously improve metrics.
Manage complex claim follow-up and appeals: review denials, research root causes, coordinate with coding and clinical teams, submit corrected claims or appeals, and track resolution outcomes to minimize revenue leakage.
Conduct regular audits of billing transactions to ensure accuracy, compliance with payer contract terms, government regulations (e.g., Medicare/Medicaid), and internal billing policies; identify trends and remediate issues.
Develop and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs) for billing workflows, ensuring consistency across the team and documentation for training and compliance purposes.
Coordinate with revenue integrity, coding, and clinical departments to resolve coding-to-billing discrepancies, clarify clinical documentation needs, and facilitate timely claim submission.
Lead month-end and quarter-end billing close activities, including reconciliation of billed revenue to general ledger, review of adjustments and write-offs, and preparation of variance explanations for finance leadership.
Implement process improvements and automation opportunities (EHR/billing system configurations, claim scrubbing rules, batch submission optimizations) to increase throughput and reduce manual work.
Manage payer relationships for billing inquiries and escalations, negotiate resolution timelines for outstanding claims, and maintain communication channels to expedite payments.
Prepare and present regular billing performance reports to finance and executive leadership, providing actionable insights, trend analysis, and recommended remediation strategies.
Ensure accurate posting and allocation of payments, credits, and adjustments by overseeing lockbox processing, ERA posting, and manual cash applications as needed to maintain AR accuracy.
Establish and enforce billing controls, segregation of duties, and audit trails to minimize error, fraud, and compliance risk across billing functions.
Lead root cause analysis for recurring billing errors or high denial categories; design corrective actions, training, or system fixes and measure impact after implementation.
Manage special projects such as implementation of new billing systems, EHR upgrades, payer contract transitions, or outsourcing initiatives—driving timelines, testing, staff training, and go-live support.
Oversee patient billing communications and statement processes to improve patient satisfaction and self-service payments; review patient balance workflows for clarity and compliance.
Serve as the escalation point for complex customer or patient billing disputes, coordinating investigations, applying judgment on adjustments, and supporting service recovery efforts.
Maintain knowledge of current billing regulations, payer policies, and industry best practices; conduct team training on regulatory changes (e.g., coding edits, modifier rules, telehealth billing).
Collaborate with collections and legal teams on overdue accounts, ensuring appropriate handoffs to third-party collections or small-claims processes while monitoring recoveries and write-offs.
Facilitate cross-functional meetings with clinical, coding, IT, and finance stakeholders to align on process changes, system configurations, claim rejections, and project milestones.
Develop and deliver targeted training programs for billing staff on systems, payer requirements, customer service, and denial management to increase team capability and reduce errors.
Track and manage billing system access, user roles, and security permissions to protect PHI and maintain compliance with HIPAA and organizational policies.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc billing analytics requests and deeper root-cause analysis of revenue impacts for finance and executive stakeholders.
Contribute to the organization’s revenue cycle strategy and roadmap by identifying high-value initiatives and participating in cross-functional planning sessions.
Collaborate with IT and EHR vendors to translate billing requirements into system specifications, participate in testing, and validate claim submission logic.
Participate in project planning, agile ceremonies, and change-control activities related to billing system enhancements and integrations.
Assist with vendor management for outsourced billing or RCM partners, including performance monitoring, SLA adherence, and continuous improvement reviews.
Serve as a subject matter expert during internal and external audits, providing documentation, explanations, and remediation plans for audit findings.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) — end-to-end knowledge of billing, claims submission, follow-up, and collections processes.
Accounts Receivable (AR) management — experience reducing DSO and optimizing aging buckets through targeted workflows.
Denial Management & Appeals — proven ability to analyze denials, file appeals, and recover denials by category.
Billing Systems & EHRs — hands-on experience with Epic, Cerner, Meditech, Athenahealth, NetSuite, Oracle Billing, or comparable platforms.
Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) / Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) processing and lockbox reconciliation.
Payer Contract Interpretation — ability to read and apply payer fee schedules, bundled payment terms, and contract edits to billing processes.
Billing Compliance & Regulatory Knowledge — familiarity with Medicare/Medicaid rules, HIPAA, coding modifiers, and documentation requirements.
Data Analysis & Reporting — proficiency with Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP), SQL, Power BI, or Tableau for creating performance dashboards and ad-hoc analyses.
Claim Scrubbing & Clearinghouse Configurations — experience configuring and managing claim scrubbing rules to maximize clean claim rates.
Cash Application & General Ledger Reconciliation — knowledge of cash posting, unapplied payments, and month-end reconciliations.
Project Management — ability to lead system implementations, process redesigns, and cross-functional initiatives with structured timelines.

Soft Skills

Leadership and people management — coaching, developing, and motivating billing teams to meet performance goals.
Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset with attention to detail.
Excellent communication skills — capable of translating complex billing issues to non-technical stakeholders.
Customer service orientation — patient- and payer-facing professionalism with strong negotiation skills.
Change management — ability to lead teams through process or system changes while minimizing disruption.
Time management and prioritization skills to manage competing deadlines and escalations.
Collaboration and stakeholder management across clinical, coding, IT, and finance groups.
Ethical judgment and integrity in handling sensitive financial and patient information.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Associate degree in Accounting, Business Administration, Health Information Management, or related field.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Health Administration, Business, or related discipline.
Certifications such as Certified Revenue Cycle Representative (CRCR), Certified Professional Biller (CPB), or healthcare administration credentials are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Accounting / Finance
Health Information Management / Medical Billing
Business Administration
Healthcare Administration

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

3–7 years of progressive billing and accounts receivable experience, including at least 1–2 years in a lead or supervisory capacity.

Preferred:

5+ years of billing experience with demonstrated success managing a team, improving billing KPIs, and implementing billing system enhancements. Experience in healthcare revenue cycle, payor contract management, and denial recovery strongly preferred.