Part-Time Behavioral Health Billing Specialist (SimplePractice, Lyra/Modern Health, Availity)

A California-based telehealth psychology practice is looking for an experienced medical billing specialist to own billing from session to payment. This is a focused specialist role, covering billing and the records work that supports it, with real autonomy, a clear path to higher pay, and a practice owner who values accuracy and initiative.
Why this role

• Focused work. Billing and records only, with no marketing, social media or general admin.
• Flexible and mostly asynchronous. You set your working hours. After training, check-ins happen only when needed.
• Clear pay growth. A starting rate of $4.50–$5.50 USD per hour based on experience, a raise back-paid to day one once you pass a 30-day trial, another at 6 months, and quarterly bonus opportunities.
• Rewards efficiency. You are paid for the work you complete, so accurate, efficient people do well here.

Your responsibilities
1. Pre-billing check: before each claim or invoice goes out, confirm in SimplePractice that Note Taker output is saved to the session note, the required documentation is complete and signed, and client billing details, insurance information and authorizations are current. This is a completeness check only. You will not read or edit clinical note content.
2. Benefits and session tracking: track each client's covered sessions, including EAP session limits in Lyra Health and similar platforms, authorizations and their expiration dates, and insurance changes. Flag clients before they run out, for example when 2 sessions remain, and note the next step needed.
3. Follow-up list: keep a running spreadsheet, updated at least weekly, of anything that needs action before a session can be billed or continue to be covered, including items for the clinician to check or sign, clients near their benefit limits, and actions clients need to take.
4. Client billing messages: send billing-related messages from the practice's admin email using approved templates (benefits running out, insurance updates, balances due, superbills, missing paperwork). Anything outside a template, or any reply about something other than billing, goes to the clinician the same day.
5. Billing: submit and manage billing in SimplePractice for insurance and self-pay clients.
6. EAP billing and reconciliation: bill EAP sessions (Lyra Health and similar platforms) through each platform's own provider portal and follow them through to payment. EAP eligibility, session counts and claims don't update in SimplePractice, so you'll regularly reconcile each portal against SimplePractice and correct any mismatch.
7. Claim follow-up: use Availity to check claim status, find out why claims were denied or are stuck, and resolve them.
8. Payments and account reconciliation: post payments, reconcile every client account so each payment matches its session, track client balances, and send superbills and statements.
9. Data entry and proactive support: keep billing and practice records accurate and current. When you spot a problem, such as recurring denials, paperwork that's often missing, records that are out of date, or a step that could be faster, fix it or flag it.
10. Weekly output report (Fridays): one report in the shared folder, using the standard template: work completed (sessions checked and billed, EAP portals reconciled, payments posted, claims followed up, messages sent), results (outstanding balances by age, denials and their status, open follow-up items), improvements made or suggested, hours by task, and next week’s plan. Totals and client initials or IDs only.
Practice volume

• Sessions billed per week: typically 15 to 44, depending on caseload and the time of year. That includes room for up to 20% growth.
• Scheduled sessions: an average of 25 per week.
• Holiday and time-off dips: volume drops in late July, late November, and late December through early January.
• Practice closures (no billable sessions): January 1, July 4, December 24, December 25 and December 26. Any session recorded on one of these dates needs to be checked and corrected.

Required experience
Core skills: medical billing, electronic health record (EHR) systems, and account reconciliation.
At least 1 year of full-time-equivalent experience in each of the following (about 40 hours a week; part-time counts proportionally, so 20 hours a week for 2 years equals 1 year):

• Medical billing in a mental health electronic health record (EHR), such as SimplePractice or a similar system
• Lyra Health or Modern Health provider billing, including reconciling the EAP portal against the EHR
• Availity, for claim status and research

You also bring:

• Clear spoken and written English, comfortable discussing billing issues by phone or video
• Proficiency in Google Workspace: Gmail, Google Drive, Sheets and Docs
• Experience preparing superbills and tracking EAP or authorization session limits
• Denial follow-up experience in US healthcare billing
• Fast, accurate data entry

Preferred

• SimplePractice experience
• Experience catching up a billing backlog
• HIPAA training certificate

How success is measured
We keep management light by agreeing on a few clear measures up front. Your weekly output report covers them:

• Billing speed: sessions billed within 2 business days.
• Accuracy: no billing errors caused by you.
• Follow-up: denied and unpaid claims followed up within 5 business days.
• Aging balances: balances older than 30 days trending down.
• Reporting: weekly output report complete and on time.

What you d ---------- on your own

• Handle independently: correcting data errors, resending statements and superbills, following up on claims and denials, sending template billing messages, reconciling EAP portals, and updating the follow-up list.
• Same day to the practice owner: only personal or clinical messages.
• Note in your weekly report: requests for refunds, write-offs or fee changes, client complaints (after a calm, templated reply), and anything outside a template. Nothing involving money back to a client happens without written approval.
• Own the playbook: you will build and keep up short written procedures for each recurring task, so the work stays consistent and easy to hand off.

How we work

• Hours: about 6–12 hours a week, varying with caseload, and toward the higher end at first during training and while we clear the backlog.
• Rhythm: work at least 3 days a week and bill sessions within 2 business days of when they happen.
• Training (first 6 months): work up to 3 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10 am and 3 pm Pacific Time (overnight on Wednesdays and Fridays in the Philippines), so questions can be answered in real time. This is part of your regular hours, not extra time.
• After training: a short check-in only when needed. Everything else runs through the shared folder and your weekly report.
• Productive hours: you're paid for time spent working. When the queue is clear, let us know, and there's no need to fill time. Your weekly output report shows the work behind your hours.
• Quality: correcting your own errors is part of the job and is not billed separately.

Security and confidentiality

• Sign a HIPAA business associate agreement and a confidentiality agreement before getting access.
• Use your own logins with two-factor sign-in, and work only inside the practice’s systems, with no downloading of client files.
• Keep client-related records, including the follow-up list, only in practice-approved systems, using client initials or ID numbers.
• Use the admin email only for billing communication, using the approved templates.
• Work on your own secure, password-protected computer and a private internet connection, never public or shared Wi-Fi.

Pay and growth

• Starting rate: $4.50–$5.50 USD per hour, based on experience, during the 30-day trial.
• +$0.50 per hour, back-paid to your first day, once you pass the 30-day trial by billing every session within 2 business days, avoiding billing errors, and sending a complete weekly output report.
• +$0.50 per hour more at 6 months, when training ends, once the backlog is cleared, denied and unpaid claims are followed up within 5 business days, you work independently, and you have put at least one process improvement in place.
• Quarterly bonuses: each quarter is a fresh opportunity to earn a bonus based on that quarter's performance. At full performance, bonuses are worth up to about $1 per hour on top of your rate, which also helps keep income steady through holiday and closure periods. Details will be discussed when you're hired.
• Looking ahead: after 6 months, the role may move to a fixed monthly rate for the defined scope of work. Rates are reviewed yearly.
• Payment: paid every two weeks.

To apply
Put "SimplePractice Billing Specialist" in the subject line and answer the following:
1. Name the mental health EHR(s) you have billed in. For each EHR, plus Lyra Health or Modern Health and Availity, list how many years you used it, your average hours per week, and what you did in it.
2. A claim comes back denied. What's the first thing you check, and why?
3. Before you bill a session, what do you check to confirm it's ready to bill?
4. How do you keep data entry both fast and accurate?
5. For the first 6 months, can you reliably work up to 3 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10 am and 3 pm Pacific Time? What hours would that be in your time zone?
6. Describe a time you found and fixed a problem in a billing or records process before anyone asked you to.
7. You've finished all assigned tasks with 2 hours left in your week. What do you do?
8. What hourly rate are you seeking?
Please answer all eight questions. Shortlisted applicants will complete a short paid practice task using sample data.