Director of Patient Financial Services (PFS / CBO) Recruiters
Healthcare Headhunters recruits healthcare professionals for employers. No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
This is what we do all day: recruit healthcare professionals.
Hire a PFS director who can pinpoint why accounts stall and assign the next action to the right team.
No postings. No stacks of resumes. No chasing. You interview a short list.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
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What happens next
- We review your role, responsibilities and location.
- Ivan or a senior team member will reach out soon.
- You meet a focused shortlist when qualified candidates fit the agreed search.
- Fees.
- No upfront fee. Pay only if you hire, under the signed agreement.
- Exclusivity.
- Set out in the signed client agreement.
- Confidentiality.
- We agree the brief before outreach. This is not a promise of absolute anonymity.
- No hire.
- No hire means no fee on standard searches.
- PFS Director
- Business Office Director
- CBO Director
What does an open seat cost you every week?
An open role costs you more than the recruiting fee. Someone covers the work, waits for care, or stops a service. We ask what is falling behind and who is carrying it. Use your own figures to compare the cost of waiting with the cost of hiring.
The seat is costing you every week.
Overtime, diverted patients, a stretched team and a schedule held together by favors.
The posting brought the wrong people.
Applicants arrive, but the person who has done this exact work is employed and not looking.
You are the one chasing.
Screening calls, no-shows and follow-ups land on the desk of someone with a facility to run.
What does this hire really come down to?
Your Director of Patient Financial Services leads billing, follow-up, payment posting, patient statements, collections, and account escalation. You need someone who can tell a payer delay from a registration, charge, coding, or posting error before balances age further. A strong PFS Director does more than review collection reports.
They trace recurring denials through registration data, authorizations, charge capture, claim edits, remittance codes, and work queues. Ask what report they would pull first, who would correct the defect, and how they would check whether the problem returns.
The role also balances account follow-up with clear patient communication. This leader may coach financial counselors, review disputed balances, assess collection activity, and set escalation paths. Ask how they would explain a pending insurance claim without asking staff to promise an outcome they cannot control.
What do we check before you see anyone?
Billing, follow-up, and collections: Ask about an account denied more than once. Listen for remittance review, account correction, appeal or rebill judgment, documented follow-up, and a named next owner. “We worked the account” does not explain the decision. Payer mix: Share the broad commercial, government, managed-care, and self-pay makeup of your accounts.
- Ask how a prior payer mix changed authorization work, denial patterns, appeal timing, statement practices, and follow-up queues. One background may not match your work.
- Team scale: Clarify which functions report to this director and which sit elsewhere. Ask about billers, follow-up staff, collectors, financial counselors, registration teams, and claims specialists. The candidate should describe supervisor coaching, daily direction, and performance conversations.
- Root-cause reporting: Present a recurring denial category. Ask how the candidate would separate a payer edit from a registration, coding, charge, or workflow defect. Look for a review method, assigned owner, due date, and a measure checked after the change.
- Systems and handoffs: Discuss billing platforms, clearinghouses, edit rules, work queues, and reporting tools from the candidate’s past work. Ask what they changed personally and what needed finance, IT, coding, compliance, or registration approval. This shows judgment about decision rights.
- Patient-account decisions: Use a hypothetical disputed balance with insurance still pending. Ask what staff should document, when collection activity needs review, when payer clarification is needed, and how the patient receives an update. Look for clear boundaries, not a scripted response.
Where do we find them, and why would they move?
We recruit from business office and CBO managers. Candidates may come from hospital billing departments, centralized business offices, multisite provider organizations, physician practice groups, and other revenue-cycle operations. Their work often includes account inventory, payer follow-up, staff coaching, patient escalations, and finance reporting.
People change roles for specific reasons. Others may want clearer reporting lines after a system change. We ask why they are open to a move and compare that answer with their work history and your opening.
Which mistakes stall the search?
A common mistake is choosing a general operations leader who cannot explain how a denial moves from reason code to corrected claim, appeal, or write-off review. Another is assuming success with one payer mix prepares a director for your authorization, follow-up, self-pay, and patient-statement work.
Reviewing collection results alone while skipping queue ownership, supervisor coaching, turnover, reporting discipline, and account escalation.
How would we run the search for this opening?
We discuss your reporting structure, payer mix, aging concerns, systems, team scope, and decision rights. We ask about billing, follow-up, collections, denial analysis, reporting, systems changes, team scale, credentials, work history, and reasons for moving. You compare finalists using the same operating questions and complete your own credentialing and assessment.
Map the work to the role
Those details guide the search and give us concrete questions for every candidate.
Screen the operating record
We also assess fit with the authority and account work in your role.
Support your final review
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
Where this search connects
Revenue Cycle, Reimbursement & HIM
SpecialtyHospitals & Health Systems
SettingPhysician Groups & Specialty Practices
SettingAmbulatory Surgery Centers & Surgical Hospitals
SettingHome Health & Hospice
SettingVP of Revenue Cycle
Related roleDirector of Revenue Cycle
Related roleDirector of Patient Access
Related roleDirector of Health Information Management (HIM)
Related roleNational median annual wage. SOC 11-9111, Medical and Health Services Managers.
BLS reports Medical and Health Services Managers as one occupation. It does not publish a separate estimate for Director of Patient Financial Services (PFS / CBO), its setting or its engagement terms.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, 2025-05, released 2026-05-15. View source. See the full guide.
Open roles
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Do we need someone from a hospital CBO?
Not always: a business office manager from a large physician practice group may bring close attention to claim detail and payer follow-up. Test whether that person has managed your account types, systems, and team scope. A manager may seek broader responsibility, authority to address repeat defects, or a different payer mix.
What should this director review each day?
The answer depends on your structure. The role often reviews aged accounts, denials, cash-posting exceptions, collection activity, patient escalations, and supervisor updates.
How do we test payer-mix experience?
Share the broad makeup of your payer mix and ask for comparable work from the candidate’s background. Ask what changed in work queues, authorization follow-up, appeals, or patient statements when payer rules differed.
How should we assess leadership beyond collection results?
Ask how the candidate handled a backlog, recurring registration error, or inconsistent supervisor coaching. Their answer should cover the data reviewed, who owned the correction, how staff received direction, and what they checked afterward.
Is there an upfront fee?
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. Written terms are agreed before the search begins, including the fee and replacement terms for a standard permanent contingency search.
What should you send us about this role?
Send us the role, where the person will work and what needs to change with this hire. We will ask about the work, not just the title. Share any license or schedule limits that could rule someone out before we begin the search.
If you need a PFS Director, Business Office Director, or CBO Director, tell us where accounts slow down and who owns the work now. We will look for leaders who can explain how they would diagnose that issue. We arrange locum tenens, travel and contract coverage on request. Credentialing, licensing and malpractice coverage are confirmed per engagement before anyone starts.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What happens next
- We review your role, responsibilities and location.
- Ivan or a senior team member will reach out soon.
- You meet a focused shortlist when qualified candidates fit the agreed search.
- Fees.
- No upfront fee. Pay only if you hire, under the signed agreement.
- Exclusivity.
- Set out in the signed client agreement.
- Confidentiality.
- We agree the brief before outreach. This is not a promise of absolute anonymity.
- No hire.
- No hire means no fee on standard searches.
Which other positions in this family should you consider?
What do you get at each step of the search?
Our process for every search: calibrate the seat with you, map the market, research the real people, reach out to each one personally, qualify them in live conversation, then hand you a short list with a written brief on each person and support through the offer.
Search Calibration
You get an agreed brief: the work, reporting line, credentials, schedule, and offer you can make.
Market Mapping
You get a search aimed at relevant backgrounds, including people working now who have not applied.
Professional Contact Intelligence
We check appropriate ways to reach the people identified for your search. You do not have to chase them yourself.
Persistent Personalized Outreach
We explain your actual job and follow up with people who may consider a conversation.
Live Candidate Qualification
You see people we have spoken with about the work, interest, and practical fit, not an unread resume pile.
Candidate Intelligence and Process Support
You get a written brief and support through interviews and offer discussions. You make the hiring decision.
How long will it take to see a short list?
That depends on the job, schedule, available people, and what your employer can offer. We discuss those constraints before outreach and update you as candidates respond. We do not promise a fixed shortlist date. We check the job brief before arranging interviews. Tell us which parts of the role you can change.
What if a candidate receives a counteroffer?
We ask why the person wants to move and discuss competing decisions before an offer. A counteroffer can still change their choice. Keep the duties and offer clear rather than assuming more money settles every concern. Tell us early if parts of your offer cannot change, so the candidate hears it from us first.
What are the replacement terms?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement. Ask us to walk through those terms before you sign, so you know how a replacement would work for your opening and who would start it.
What do we not do in a standard permanent search?
We do not bill standard contingency search by the hour or simply repost your job. Temporary coverage is a separate arrangement. Any retainer or different engagement must be agreed, not assumed. Tell us early if you need coverage while the permanent search runs.