Business Development Specialist

About the role

Help More Children and Families Access the Care They Need. We are seeking an accomplished, relationship-driven Business Development Specialist to expand our healthcare referral network and generate sustainable patient referrals throughout an assigned territory. This is not a traditional community-marketing position. The primary focus is developing and nurturing professional referral relationships with pediatricians, healthcare providers, hospitals, health systems, multi-location practices, diagnostic professionals, and other organizations serving children and families. The ideal candidate has at least five years of healthcare business development experience—and a demonstrated history of turning trusted professional relationships into qualified patient referrals. Experience within pediatric, children’s health, behavioral health, developmental health, or a closely related field is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Build, manage, and grow a strategic network of professional referral sources throughout your territory.
• Develop relationships with pediatricians, hospitals, health systems, multi-location practices, diagnostic providers, therapists, schools, and other professionals serving children and families.
• Identify new referral opportunities and create territory-specific plans for developing them.
• Conduct purposeful in-person and virtual meetings with prospective and existing referral partners.
• Educate referral sources about our services, eligibility requirements, intake process, locations, and appropriate referral pathways.
• Maintain consistent follow-up with referral partners to strengthen relationships and encourage continued referral activity.
• Reengage inactive referral sources and identify opportunities to expand high-performing relationships across departments or locations.
• Build relationships with decision-makers, clinical leaders, referral coordinators, and other professionals who influence patient access.
• Generate qualified patient referrals that align with the organization’s services and capacity.
• Accurately document every referral, referral source, interaction, and follow-up activity in the organization’s designated systems.
• Monitor referred patients throughout the intake and authorization process.
• Partner closely with the internal Intake and Authorizations teams to identify barriers, support communication, and help prevent referred families from falling through the cracks.
• Keep referral partners appropriately informed while protecting patient privacy and following all HIPAA and organizational requirements.
• Analyze referral activity and conversion patterns to understand which relationships and outreach strategies produce meaningful results.
• Maintain an accurate and actionable pipeline of referral opportunities.
• Community engagement is an important—but secondary—part of this position. Coordinate or participate in