Director of Admissions

Job Description:

Elevare Behavioral Health is seeking an experienced Director of Admissions to provide strategic and operational leadership for admissions services across its Illinois programs. This position oversees the full patient access process for Detox, Residential, PHP, IOP, and outpatient services, from the initial inquiry through screening, financial clearance, scheduling, and admission.

The Director of Admissions leads the Admissions team and is accountable for census growth, conversion performance, call center operations, referral responsiveness, clinical pre-screening, appropriate level-of-care coordination, documentation quality, and the patient and family experience. This role works closely with Clinical, Medical, Nursing, Business Development, Utilization Review, Finance, Operations, and executive leadership to remove barriers to treatment and support timely access to care.

The ideal candidate is a licensed clinical leader with strong behavioral health admissions experience, proven success leading high-volume intake operations, and the ability to use performance data to improve results. This is an on-site leadership position with assigned on-call and urgent escalation responsibilities. Evening, weekend, and holiday availability is required when facility volume, staffing, or operational needs require leadership support.

Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for the full admissions process across Detox, Residential, PHP, IOP, and outpatient programs
• Develop admissions strategies, staffing plans, workflows, and performance standards aligned with census goals, service capacity, and clinical appropriateness
• Lead, coach, schedule, and evaluate Admissions Coordinators and assigned admissions staff while supporting recruitment, onboarding, training, accountability, and retention
• Oversee inbound and outbound calls, web inquiries, assigned leads, professional referrals, screenings, assessments, transportation, paperwork, and admission handoffs
• Monitor response times, abandoned calls, lead aging, follow-up completion, scheduled assessments, no-shows, conversion rates, call quality, and documentation accuracy
• Ensure accurate pre-screening, clinical escalation, level-of-care coordination, insurance verification, authorization review, and financial clearance
• Partner with Clinical, Medical, Nursing, Business Development, Utilization Review, Finance, and Operations to resolve barriers affecting admission readiness and patient access
• Develop department dashboards, reports, policies, procedures, scripts, quality audits, budgets, staffing models, and performance improvement plans
• Participate in assigned leadership on-call coverage and respond to urgent admissions, staffing, clinical, or operational needs during evenings, weekends, and holidays when facility needs require
• Maintain compliance with HIPAA, 42 CFR Part 2, patient rights, accreditation standards, licensing requirements, facility policies, and professional boundaries

Requirements/Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in nursing or master’s degree in social work, counseling, psychology, or a related clinical field
• Active and unrestricted Illinois RN, LCSW, or LCPC license
• At least five years of progressive experience in behavioral health admissions, patient access, crisis assessment, healthcare intake, or related clinical operations
• At least three years of admissions leadership experience at the manager or director level
• Experience leading a high-volume admissions call center, centralized intake department, or phone-based lead management operation
• Demonstrated success improving admissions conversion, census contribution, referral responsiveness, and department performance
• Working knowledge of mental health and substance use treatment, including Detox, Residential, PHP, IOP, and outpatient levels of care
• Experience with clinical screening, medical necessity, crisis triage, ASAM criteria, insurance verification, authorizations, and financial clearance processes
• Proficiency with CRM, EHR, call-tracking platforms, Microsoft Office, and performance reporting tools
• Valid driver’s license, current CPR certification or ability to obtain it within 30 days, and availability for on-site, on-call, evening, weekend, holiday, and travel requirements
• EducationBachelors Degree
• ExperienceSenior Level (7+ years)

Benefits/Perks:

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision

Location:

Elgin, IL