Intake Manager

About the role

The Intake Manager is responsible for managing a team of Intake Specialists and Supervisors handling incoming authorizations from Area Agencies on Aging, Managed Care Organizations, and Health Plans for home‑delivered meals. The manager also leads a Call Center dedicated to ILOS, 1115, and PD/CC clientele. This highly collaborative role requires a strong history of leading cross‑functional teams or projects and extensive experience creating efficiencies and iterating processes. Candidates must reside within 1–1.5 hours of Des Moines, IA and be able to work both remotely and in‑office.

Responsibilities

• Manage a team of approximately 100 front‑line employees and 5‑8 supervisors.
• Track and document employee performance both formally and informally.
• Complete employee performance reviews.
• Create and distribute reports as needed or as requested by senior leadership.
• Train, motivate, develop, and coach employees to drive case manager satisfaction, accuracy, efficiency, and performance.
• Determine training requirements for new hires and additional performance‑based training for existing Intake Specialists and Call Representatives, as needed.
• Answer questions from Intake Specialists/Call Representatives and handle customer escalations.
• Manage productivity based on department metrics to ensure workloads are handled efficiently and productively.
• Formulate and implement rapid change and process improvements.
• Work cross‑functionally to support customer care, sales, and revenue‑cycle initiatives.
• Lead weekly cross‑functional operation meetings.
• Lead monthly operational overview meetings to a cross‑functional leadership team.
• Create strong working relationships with referring health‑plan partners, case‑worker agencies, and other referral sources.

Required Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree.
• 5+ years of management experience in the health, human services, managed care, or insurance industry.
• Strong understanding of medical and ancillary benefit authorization processes, payor portals, and the claims denial process.
• Strong problem‑solving and analytical skills.
• Experience driving process‑improvement activities.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, demonstrated flexibility, and ability to adapt and implement change in a timely and effective manner.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, especially Outlook, Word, and Excel.
• Strong relationship‑building skills with payers and internal/external customers.
• Excellent attention to detail to avoid administrative errors.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Some post‑graduate work.
• Experience with Salesforce, Genesys, Secure File Transfers, and payer web portals.

Physical Requirements

• Repetitive motions involving the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.
• Sedentary work that primarily involves sitting and remaining in a stationary position for prolonged periods.
• Visual perception to perform job duties, including peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Benefits

• PTO, holiday pay, and holiday of choice.
• 401(k) match.
• Life insurance.
• Short‑term disability.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance.
• Maternity/paternity leave.
• Health Savings Account (HSA).
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) – health and dependent.