Dialysis Access and Placement Coordinator

Dialysis Access and Placement Coordinator

Pay Range: $23.00 - $25.00/hour, depending on experience

Why work for us Balboa Nephrology is the largest kidney care practice in California and participates in a national Medicare program focused on value-based care. Through our joint venture with Evergreen Nephrology we are a growing organization with opportunities for professional and personal growth. We will help you grow in your leadership experiences while learning the new value-based care world. Comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental & vision on the 1st of the month 30 days after hire. Employer contribution of up to 7.5% of annual pay for your 401K. Generous paid time off plus 8 paid holidays, a birthday float day off and a mental health day! Company paid life insurance. Join a fast-growing field - employment of medical and health services managers is projected to grow 32 percent from 2020 to 2030, much faster than the average for all occupations. Voted 4 years in a row as a Top Workplace of San Diego 2020-2024

Our Values: Patient-centered I Accountability I Respect I Innovation I Data-Driven

Our Mission: to consistently deliver superior care Balboa Care to every patient with kidney disease.

Work Location: Remote in San Diego, California

Overview: The Dialysis Access and Placement Coordinator is part of Balboa Nephrology's Central Operations Department, a centralized team responsible for coordinating key operational workflows that support timely patient access to care across the organization. Central Operations manages high-volume new patient referrals, outgoing clinical referrals, insurance coordination, and dialysis transition planning in close collaboration with physicians, clinic teams, and external specialty partners.

Job Description: The Dialysis Access and Placement Coordinator is a member of the Dialysis Transition Team (DTT) and manages dialysis access referrals and dialysis placements for peritoneal dialysis (PD), hemodialysis (HD) and Home Hemodialysis (HHD) patients, hospitalized and office-based. This role owns each referral from intake to close: tracking the referral, gathering records, coordinating with hospital case managers, surgical partners, and dialysis provider organizations, confirming placement, and communicating the final plan to physicians, case managers, and care teams, and directly to office-based patients and families. The right candidate is comfortable learning new systems, adapts well to process changes, and helps test and refine new workflows as they roll out.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Referral Intake and Tracking (PD, HD & HHD)

Monitor and triage incoming referrals from PerfectServe, Epic Dialysis Access and Placement work queue, MS Teams, email, fax, and phone

Identify referral type (AKI, new start ESRD, unit or modality transfer), modality, urgency, and whether the patient is hospitalized or office-based

Create, track, and close referrals, documenting every step from start to finish in Camino and Epic; keep both systems accurate during the transition to Epic Peritoneal Dialysis (PD)

Coordinate all PD access referrals and other dialysis access placement referrals from initiation to completion, including scheduling and follow-up with vascular and surgical partners on procedure dates and operative reports

Prioritize urgent-start PD; for non-urgent office referrals, time placement to the scheduled access surgery

Coordinate insurance eligibility and prior authorizations for office-based PD access referrals, obtaining authorizations directly or in partnership with the Clinical Referrals team

Ensure each patient is assigned a unit for home therapy training; if not assigned, coordinate with the dialysis center

Track PD high-risk items: documentation needed, flush dates, and unit confirmations

Request physician order call-ins to the dialysis center when PD does not start in the hospital

Participate in Dialysis Placement meetings

Hemodialysis (HD/HHD)

Coordinate placements for hospitalized and office-based patients

Submit placement requests with complete records through the different dialysis admissions portals or faxes and notify admissions contacts per workflow

Confirm start date, schedule, shift, and chair with the dialysis provider before communicating the placement

Records, Documentation, and Communication

Pull required records from hospital portals and partners using the standardized records packet, and save to the DTT SharePoint site using naming conventions

Serve as the primary contact for hospital case managers using the standard question template and callback expectations; route hospitalized patient communication through the case manager

Communicate finalized placements to case managers and physicians via PerfectServe and the Epic in-basket

Update Rounder with enrollment, modality, provider, location, schedule, shift, and problem codes to support physician rounding and billing

Use Doximity to correspond with office-based patients; use encrypted email and Epic attachments in place of fax where possible

Partner with Revenue Cycle to resolve insurance and physician contracting changes

Workflow Improvement and System Transition

Flag workflow gaps and hospital-specific differences, and help keep the DTT Workflow Manual current

Cross-train and provide coverage across PD, HD & HHD so the team can cover absences and volume spikes

Adopt new systems and workflows, including Epic work queues, new order types, and pilot processes

Test and give feedback on new tools and pilots

Capture data accurately (referral dates, clinical holds, urgency) to support placement-time metrics

Escalate delays promptly: unresolved case manager communication, incorrect schedules, missing records, and urgent same-day discharges

Other duties required to adequately fulfill the duties of your position include Attend team meetings, phone conferences, and training as needed Know, understand, and follow company guidelines, policies and procedures Consistent, regular, punctual attendance as scheduled Other duties and tasks as assigned

Required Qualifications:

High School Diploma or equivalent

2+ years of healthcare experience in referral coordination, care coordination, patient access, or front office, including customer service

Proficiency in using EHR software applications and web-based portals

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience improving workflows or processes, such as identifying bottlenecks, testing new tools, or helping roll out system changes

Experience using Epic, including work queues and referrals

Experience verifying insurance eligibility and requesting/obtaining authorizations

Nephrology, dialysis, or hospital discharge planning experience

Familiarity with PD, HD, and HHD modalities and dialysis provider admissions portals

Medical Assistant certification

Bilingual in English/Spanish

Required Skills:

Excellent verbal and written communication

Ability to provide excellent customer service

Ability to interpret, adapt and apply guidelines and procedures

Ability to use good reasoning and judgement and react appropriately in emergency situations

Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with patients, medical staff and coworkers

Comfortable with change: learns new systems quickly and adapts as workflows evolve

Ability to manage multiple time-sensitive cases at once and prioritize urgent and same-day discharges

Strong attention to detail and consistent documentation across multiple systems

Takes initiative to identify problems and suggest practical improvements

Other considerations:

Background check required

Travel within San Diego for occasional team meetings and annual training will be required.

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Supervisory duties No

Language Skills While performing duties, the employee is regularly required to talk, hear, read, write, type and respond in English and understand clinical/medical vocabulary written and spoken. Vision Requirements Vision requirements include close vision, ability to adjust focus, and see color.

Physical Demands Physical requirements may vary slightly and should be reviewed with your manager. In general, this position requires the ability to lift up to 35 pounds unassisted; ability to stand for extended periods of time and to perform repetitive stooping, walking, stretching, reaching and some sitting; ability to use full range of body motions required to lift patients, wear a lead apron, and lift and move supplies. Must be able to safely ascend and descend stairs as a core part of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation, when no elevator or lift is present. Work Environment Job required tasks routinely involve a potential for mucous membrane or skin contact with blood,