Senior Utilization Review Specialist - Part Time

Description

Position Summary

The Part Time Senior Utilization Review Specialist is an experienced registered nurse responsible for concurrent and retrospective review of hospital services to support appropriate utilization, accurate patient status, timely payer authorization, and medical necessity compliance. This senior individual-contributor role serves as a clinical resource for complex cases and partners with physicians, care management, patient access, coding, and revenue cycle teams to reduce avoidable denials and support appropriate reimbursement.

Key Responsibilities

Perform concurrent and retrospective utilization review for assigned inpatient, observation, and outpatient cases using approved criteria, payer policies, and clinical judgment.

Apply InterQual, MCG, or client-approved criteria to support medical necessity, level of care, continued stay, and patient-status determinations.

Obtain, submit, and track payer notifications and authorizations; communicate clinically relevant information to payer medical-management teams within required time frames.

Identify potential medical-necessity, authorization, status, and documentation risks early and escalate appropriately to prevent avoidable denials.

Collaborate with physicians, case management, CDI, coding, patient access, and revenue cycle partners to clarify documentation and support appropriate care progression.

Coordinate clinical information and deadlines for peer-to-peer review or denial escalation when needed; maintain complete, accurate documentation in the designated systems.

Serves as a member of the Utilization Review Committee-prepares reports to include utilization trends, denial patterns, extended stays, and workflow barriers; communicate actionable findings to leadership.

Performs escalations to UR Committee members to ensure that compliance with regulations for patient status changes by providers are occurring per policy. Documents escalations and presents outcomes to UR committee.

Serve as a senior clinical resource, providing guidance and support on complex review questions while adhering to established policies and escalation pathways.

Participate in quality audits, education, process improvement, and other initiatives that strengthen utilization management performance.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

Current, unrestricted RN license.

Five or more years of acute-care hospital experience, including at least three years in utilization review, utilization management, case management, or a closely related function.

Demonstrated experience applying medical-necessity and level-of-care criteria, including concurrent review and continued-stay review.

Working knowledge of inpatient versus observation status, payer authorization requirements, Medicare and managed-care utilization principles, and denial-prevention practices.

Strong clinical judgment, prioritization, documentation, communication, and collaborative problem-solving skills.

Ability to independently manage a high-volume, deadline-driven caseload while exercising sound judgment regarding escalation.

Preferred Qualifications

Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN).

Certification in case management or utilization management, such as CCM or ACM.

Experience with InterQual, MCG, Cerner, or comparable utilization-management and electronic health-record systems.

Experience supporting hospital denials management, peer-to-peer coordination, or care-progression initiatives.

Role Boundaries and Work Expectations

This is a senior individual-contributor role and does not include direct people management unless separately assigned.

The specialist follows St. John's Health clinical policies, payer requirements, and established Sage Clinical RCM workflows.

The role requires discretion with protected health information and strict compliance with HIPAA, client security standards, and applicable regulations.

Availability during agreed hospital business hours and participation in required meetings, education, and workflow updates are expected.