Surgical Scheduler

Job Description

Job Description

Pay: $22.00 - $27.00 per hour

Job description:

The Surgical Scheduler coordinates the scheduling and preoperative preparation of surgical procedures for a physician practice, hospital operating room, and/or ambulatory surgery center. This position is responsible for securing required prior authorizations and medical clearances, verifying insurance information, coordinating preadmission testing and history-and-physical appointments, and ensuring that all scheduling documentation is complete before surgery.

The Surgical Scheduler serves as a central liaison among patients, surgeons, attending physicians, residents, NP/PAs, operating-room personnel, ambulatory surgery-center staff, anesthesia teams, vendors, and insurance carriers. Successful candidates must be highly organized, detail-oriented, professional, and able to manage a fast-paced workload while meeting deadlines.

Essential Responsibilities

• Coordinate and schedule surgical and invasive procedures with the main operating room, ambulatory surgery center, surgeons, physicians, residents, NP/PAs, anesthesia personnel, and vendor representatives.
• Obtain and document insurance pre-certifications, prior authorizations, referrals, and approvals required for planned surgical procedures.
• Verify patient demographics, insurance eligibility, coverage, benefits, authorization requirements, and payer-specific surgical scheduling guidelines.
• Review surgical booking information for completeness and accuracy, including procedure details, diagnosis, provider information, laterality, required equipment, implants, special supplies, and requested operating-room time.
• Schedule patient history-and-physical appointments, preadmission testing, medical clearance appointments, diagnostic studies, and other preoperative requirements.
• Coordinate required specialized OR equipment, implants, instrumentation, vendor support, and procedural supplies with operating-room and ambulatory surgery-center teams.
• Maintain and update surgical calendars, scheduling logs, case trackers, paper charts, electronic records, and surgical packets.
• Prepare complete surgical documentation packets, which may include booking sheets, preoperative orders, authorizations, consents, clearance documentation, testing results, insurance information, and related correspondence.
• Confirm that required authorizations, preoperative testing, medical clearance, and documentation are completed before the scheduled procedure date; promptly escalate outstanding requirements to the appropriate provider or supervisor.
• Communicate surgery dates, arrival instructions, preoperative requirements, testing deadlines, and other scheduling details to patients and families in a clear, professional, and compassionate manner.
• Answer telephone calls, triage or route messages appropriately, and provide general administrative and secretarial support as needed.
• Serve as a communication liaison between the physician practice, hospital OR, ambulatory surgery center, patients, clinical staff, payers, and surgical vendors.
• Cross-cover surgical scheduling and administrative functions for the ambulatory surgery center as needed.
• Maintain confidentiality of protected health information and comply with HIPAA, patient-rights standards, organizational policy, and applicable New York State and federal regulations.
• Support quality, patient-safety, compliance, and process-improvement initiatives within the department.
• Perform other related duties as assigned by management.

Required Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED required.
• Minimum of two years of full-time experience in a medical office, surgical practice, hospital, ambulatory surgery center, or comparable healthcare environment.
• Experience with surgical scheduling, insurance verification, prior authorization, pre-certification, referrals, medical clearances, preadmission testing, or related patient-access functions.
• Knowledge of medical terminology, surgical terminology, common procedure workflows, and preoperative documentation requirements.
• Familiarity with commercial insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, managed-care plans, payer portals, and authorization processes. Prior authorization may be required before surgery or other healthcare services when a health plan needs to confirm medical necessity and coverage.
• Strong proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Outlook, Word, Excel, and Teams, as well as EHR/practice-management and scheduling systems.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, professional telephone etiquette, and patient-service skills.
• Strong organizational, analytical, multitasking, and time-management abilities.
• Ability to work independently, manage a high volume of time-sensitive cases, meet deadlines, and perform effectively under pressure.
• High degree of accuracy, attention to detail, discretion, and professionalism when handling confidential patient, insurance, and surgical information.

Preferred Qualifications

• One or more years of surgical scheduling, OR booking, preadmission testing, authorization, or ambulatory surgery-center experience.
• Experience scheduling procedures in orthopedic, general surgery, GI, cardiology, vascular, neurosurgery, ENT, urology, ophthalmology, or another surgical specialty.
• Familiarity with CPT, ICD-10, HCPCS, medical necessity requirements, surgical consents, implant coordination, and physician preference cards.
• Experience with Epic, eClinicalWorks, Athenahealth, NextGen, Allscripts, Cerner, or a comparable EHR and surgical scheduling system.
• Bilingual language skills relevant to the patient population.

Work Location: In person