Healthcare Consulting Associate - Managed Care & Payment Strategy

Huron helps its clients drive growth, enhance performance and sustain leadership in the markets they serve. We help healthcare organizations build innovation capabilities and accelerate key growth initiatives, enabling organizations to own the future, instead of being disrupted by it. Together, we empower clients to create sustainable growth, optimize internal processes and deliver better consumer outcomes.

Health systems, hospitals and medical clinics are under immense pressure to improve clinical outcomes and reduce the cost of providing patient care. Investing in new partnerships, clinical services and technology is not enough to create meaningful and substantive change. To succeed long-term, healthcare organizations must empower leaders, clinicians, employees, affiliates and communities to build cultures that foster innovation to achieve the best outcomes for patients.

Joining the Huron team means you'll help our clients evolve and adapt to the rapidly changing healthcare environment and optimize existing business operations, improve clinical outcomes, create a more consumer-centric healthcare experience, and drive physician, patient and employee engagement across the enterprise.

Join our team as the expert you are now and create your future.

At Huron, An Associate leads with expertise and collaboration, partnering with Huron and client leaders to create sustainable solutions that drive meaningful results. As an Associate, with our Healthcare Managed Care & Payment Strategy team, you will lead one or more project work streams utilizing Huron approaches, methodologies helping clients solve their business challenges to advance their clinical and financial outcomes. You'll work on varied projects, gain valuable, hands-on consulting and change management experience, while positively impacting mission-driven healthcare organizations.


Your role will foster a supportive, inclusive environment, empowering team members and creating a workplace where diverse perspectives are valued. You will build critical leadership skills to grow your career and mentor junior Huron staff. This allows you to make an impact and provide you career opportunities both within and beyond your areas of expertise. If you're passionate about driving impactful solutions and believe in the power of collaboration, Huron offers a rewarding path forward.

As an Associate in Managed Care & Payment Strategy, you will work closely with consulting leaders, project teams, and client stakeholders to improve payer strategy, reimbursement performance, and contracting outcomes across healthcare organizations. Key activities include:

• Create managed care reimbursement analyses: Conduct detailed financial, reimbursement, and utilization analyses to evaluate payer performance, contract terms, reimbursement methodologies, and pricing strategies across commercial and government payers.
• Build and maintain complex financial models: Develop models incorporating multiple variables, assumptions, and scenarios to assess the impact of proposed contract changes, rate negotiations, reimbursement methodologies, and strategic initiatives.
• Support payer strategy and contract negotiation efforts: Assist with end-to-end managed care engagements, including pre-negotiation analytics, contract and proposal modeling, payer and reimbursement performance benchmarking, and project implementation planning.
• Translate data into clear insights and recommendations: Synthesize complex analyses into clear, defensible conclusions and client-ready materials, including exhibits, executive presentations, and written recommendations for clinical, financial, and executive leadership.
• Collaborate in a team -based consulting environment: Work as an integral member of project teams, partnering with consultants, managers, and client stakeholders to deliver high-quality, timely, and actionable solutions tailored to each client's unique market and organizational context. Manage components of a workstream progress and/or deliverable development, including partnering with team members to identify and mitigate risks as well as proactively manage and optimize project outcomes.
• Supervise and mentor junior team members: Provide guidance, coaching, and quality review for junior staff, supporting skill development, task execution, and performance feedback across engagements.
• Leverage healthcare data sources and technology tools: Extract, structure, and analyze data from healthcare information systems, claims and/or remittance files/reports, national datasets, and public sources (e.g., Price Transparency MRFs), using tools such as Microsoft Excel, Row Zero, relational databases, and business intelligence (BI) reporting and visualization tools to support analysis and presentation.
• Support implementation and sustainability of solutions: Contribute to implementation planning and performance tracking to ensure recommendations are operationally feasible and deliver measurable, lasting impact.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree required: Relevant four-year degree in business, finance, economics, healthcare administration, analytics, or a related field supporting financial and data-driven analysis.
• 3+ years of relevant experience: Prior experience in healthcare consulting, healthcare finance, managed care, revenue performance, or a comparable analytical, team-based professional services environment.
• Strong managed care and reimbursement analytics capability: Demonstrated ability to perform advanced reimbursement and financial analyses, including modeling payer contracts, reimbursement methodologies, and rate structures.
• Experience supporting managed care contracting and payer strategy: Exposure to payer negotiations, contract evaluation, managed care performance assessment, and/or implementation of reimbursement and pricing strategies.
• Advanced Excel and analytical skills: Proficiency in building complex financial models; experience with Excel, building and maintaining relational databases, SQL queries, Power BI, and/or similar tools strongly preferred.
• Healthcare financial acumen: Working knowledge of healthcare financial statements, reimbursement mechanics, and healthcare accounting principles.
• Data sourcing and validation experience: Ability to work with large, complex datasets from health systems, payer machine-readable file data, clearinghouses or public data sources, including validating, reconciling, and documenting assumptions and results.
• Strong communication and presentation skills: Ability to clearly explain complex analyses and recommendations to internal teams and client leadership through written deliverables and presentations.
• Leadership and collaboration mindset: Demonstrated ability to mentor junior team members, work collaboratively, manage multiple priorities, and contribute to a high-performing project team.
• Travel: The ability to travel based on client, enterprise, or project needs is an essential function of this role. While travel requirements may vary based on business need, the current average travel in the Healthcare practice is less than 50%, annually.
• US work authorization required

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The estimated base salary range for this job is $100,000 - $145,000. The range represents a good faith estimate of the range that Huron reasonably expects to pay for this job at the time of the job posting. The actual salary paid to an individual will vary based on multiple factors, including but not limited to specific skills or certifications, years of experience, market changes, and required travel. This job is also eligible to participate in Huron's annual incentive compensation program, which reflects Huron's pay for performance philosophy. Inclusive of annual incentive compensation opportunity, the total estimated compensation range for this job is $112,000 - $171,100. The job is also eligible to participate in Huron's benefit plans which include medical, dental and vision coverage and other wellness programs. The salary range information provided is in accordance with applicable state and local laws regarding salary transparency that are currently in effect and may be implemented in the future.


Position Level
Associate

Country
United States of America