Intake & Authorizations Manager at Alpaca Health

📌 About Alpaca Health

Alpaca Health enables clinicians to become entrepreneurs, starting in autism care. We help clinicians launch and scale their own clinics by providing AI-powered software, payer contracting, and full back-office infrastructure. Our goal is simple: shift power in healthcare away from large consolidated entities and back to clinicians.

We've raised over $14M from Core Innovation Capital, Adverb Ventures, and South Park Commons, and are growing 30% MoM while serving hundreds of families across the country.

🎯 Role: Intake & Authorizations Lead

We are hiring an Intake & Authorizations Lead to own the end-to-end intake function at Alpaca Health — from first family contact through confirmed start of care.

You will manage a team of 5-10 Care Navigators, drive operational excellence across the intake process, and serve as the internal expert on authorizations, documentation, and BCBA matching. This role is critical infrastructure: our commitment is that every family starts care in under 30 days, and you are responsible for making that happen.

🚧 What You'll Do

Lead and develop the Care Navigator team

• Manage a team of 5-10 Care Navigators, owning their performance, development, and day-to-day prioritization

• Build a high-accountability culture where follow-through is the standard, not the exception

• Run team huddles, case reviews, and escalation support

• Identify gaps in process or performance and address them quickly

Own the intake process

• Ensure every family moves from referral to start of care in under 30 days

• Maintain a clear picture of where every family stands and what's needed to move them forward

• Hold the team accountable to timelines and ensure no family falls through the cracks

• Serve as the escalation point for stuck or complex cases

Drive authorizations — especially TRICARE

• Own the authorization process for complex cases, with deep expertise in TRICARE (including ECHO enrollment and prior auth workflows)

• Support the team in chasing down documentation, resolving auth rejections, and navigating payer requirements

• Partner with billing and insurance ops to resolve issues quickly and cleanly

Manage stakeholder communication

• Ensure timely, clear communication across all parties: families, BCBAs, referring physicians, and internal teams

• Set and manage expectations with families around timelines, documentation requirements, and next steps

• Step in directly on high-stakes or escalated family situations

Lead BCBA matching

• Oversee the matching process, ensuring every family is paired with the right BCBA based on availability, geography, caseload, and clinical fit

• Step in manually for complex or high-touch matching situations — particularly when families have specific preferences or needs

• Work closely with the clinical and provider teams to maintain a clear picture of BCBA capacity

Partner with operations to improve the process

• Work with the operations team to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and opportunities across the intake workflow

• Own process improvements from identification through implementation

• Maintain accurate tracking and reporting across systems

🧠 Who You Are

• 5+ years of experience in ABA intake, care coordination, or clinic operations — you know this world deeply

• Direct experience with TRICARE authorizations, including ECHO enrollment and prior auth workflows

• Proven track record managing a team in a healthcare or clinical operations setting

• You are highly organized and relentless about follow-through — nothing falls through the cracks on your watch

• You communicate clearly and confidently with everyone from frustrated parents to clinical staff to referring physicians

• You are a problem-solver who doesn't wait for permission — you identify the issue and fix it

• You are comfortable with ambiguity and can make good judgment calls in real time

• You hold your team to a high bar while remaining approachable and supportive

🚀 Why Join

• Direct line to company leadership — you report to the Founding Growth Lead and have real influence on how intake scales

• Ownership of a critical function at an early-stage, fast-growing company

• The opportunity to materially impact how quickly families access care

• A role where operational excellence directly translates to patient outcomes