CLIENT CARE CONTINUUM
NOW HIRING
Clinical Director – Veterans Residential Behavioral Health
Client Care Continuum / The Pink Berets Residential Behavioral Health & Crisis Stabilization Services
Position Summary Client Care Continuum / The Pink Berets is seeking an experienced Clinical Director to provide clinical and operational leadership for specialized residential behavioral health services serving Veterans. The ideal candidate will have significant experience working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), VA Community Care Network (VACCN), Veterans in behavioral health crisis, and residential substance use/dual-diagnosis treatment programs. This is a hands-on leadership position requiring the ability to oversee clinical quality, regulatory compliance, crisis stabilization, documentation, utilization review, VA care coordination, and the clinical components of claims and authorization management. The Clinical Director must be comfortable working within a highly regulated environment governed by ADMH requirements, CARF standards, organizational Policies and Procedures, VA authorization requirements, and payer documentation standards.
Primary Responsibilities VA & Veterans Care Coordination
- Provide clinical leadership for programs serving Veterans referred or authorized through the Department of Veterans Affairs and VA Community Care Network.
- Maintain a working knowledge of VA Community Care processes, including referrals, authorizations, extensions of care, emergency behavioral health treatment, and continuity-of-care requirements.
- Coordinate effectively with VA Medical Centers, Community Care personnel, Mental Health departments, social workers, case managers, and other VA representatives.
- Ensure clinical documentation adequately establishes and supports medical necessity, level of care, continued-stay requests, and discharge planning.
- Participate in communications with VA representatives regarding complex Veteran cases, authorizations, extensions, clinical records, and payment-related documentation.
- Understand the relationship between clinical documentation, VA authorization, claims submission, and reimbursement.
Crisis Stabilization
- Provide clinical oversight for Veterans presenting with suicidal ideation, acute psychiatric distress, substance use disorders, dual diagnosis, trauma, PTSD, Military Sexual Trauma (MST), and other behavioral health crises.
- Ensure appropriate suicide-risk assessment, safety planning, observation, clinical intervention, escalation, and transfer procedures.
- Provide leadership regarding emergency admissions and crisis stabilization episodes.
- Ensure appropriate completion and clinical interpretation of tools including the C-SSRS, PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL-5, substance-use/craving measures, and other clinically appropriate assessments.
- Review high-risk cases and ensure documentation clearly reflects risk, interventions, clinical response, and disposition.
- Ensure staff are trained and competent in crisis response, suicide prevention, elopement prevention, emergency procedures, and Veteran-specific behavioral health needs.
Clinical Program Leadership
- Direct clinical operations for residential behavioral health and dual-diagnosis treatment, including ASAM residential levels of care.
- Review admissions and ensure appropriate placement based upon clinical presentation and medical necessity.
- Oversee treatment planning, individual therapy, group services, treatment-team reviews, continued-stay assessments, discharge planning, and transition of care.
- Lead multidisciplinary treatment-team meetings.
- Ensure measurable treatment goals and objectives are established and routinely evaluated.
- Monitor clinical outcomes and identify Veterans who are deteriorating, failing to progress, or requiring modification or extension of treatment.
- Ensure services remain trauma-informed, Veteran-centered, evidence-based, and clinically appropriate.
ADMH, CARF & Policy/Procedure Compliance
- Maintain thorough working knowledge of Alabama Department of Mental Health (ADMH) standards applicable to certified residential behavioral health and substance-use treatment programs.
- Maintain familiarity with CARF Behavioral Health accreditation standards and participate actively in maintaining accreditation readiness.
- Develop, review, implement, and maintain clinical Policies and Procedures (P&Ps) consistent with ADMH, CARF, VA, payer, licensing, and organizational requirements.
- Conduct routine audits to verify compliance with established P&Ps.
- Prepare the clinical program for ADMH inspections, CARF surveys, VA reviews, payer audits, and other regulatory examinations.
- Develop corrective action plans when deficiencies or compliance risks are identified.
- Ensure clinical staff understand that organizational P&Ps are operational requirements and are consistently followed in actual practice.
Clinical Documentation & Claims Management The Clinical Director will have an active role in ensuring that clinical documentation supports authorization and payment for services rendered.
Responsibilities include:
- Review records to ensure documentation supports the billed level of care and medical necessity.
- Ensure admissions, assessments, treatment plans, progress notes, treatment-team documentation, continued-stay reviews, discharge summaries, and supporting clinical records are completed accurately and within required timeframes.
- Work closely with billing and claims personnel to resolve documentation-related claim issues.
- Assist with VA authorization and extension requests by preparing or reviewing appropriate clinical justification.
- Review denied or delayed claims when the issue involves medical necessity, clinical documentation, authorization, level of care, or supporting records.
- Assist in compiling clinical documentation for claims reconsiderations, appeals, audits, and payer inquiries.
- Maintain awareness of outstanding authorizations and extensions that could affect continuity of care or payment.
- Work collaboratively with administrative and billing leadership to prevent avoidable claim denials caused by incomplete or inconsistent clinical documentation.
The Clinical Director is not expected to function solely as a biller; however, the successful candidate must understand that clinical documentation, authorization management, and claims reimbursement are directly interconnected. Quality Assurance & Performance Management
- Conduct routine chart audits and clinical quality reviews.
- Monitor documentation timeliness and completeness.
- Track program performance, treatment outcomes, incidents, risk events, discharges, and regulatory indicators.
- Identify patterns requiring clinical or operational corrective action.
- Provide clinical supervision, coaching, and accountability to therapists, counselors, case managers, peer support personnel, and other clinical staff as appropriate.
- Participate in staff recruitment, onboarding, competency assessment, and performance evaluation.
- Develop and deliver clinical and regulatory training.
Required Qualifications
- Current Alabama license, or eligibility for Alabama licensure, in an appropriate behavioral health discipline.
- Master's degree or higher in Social Work, Counseling, Psychology, Behavioral Health, or a closely related discipline.
- Demonstrated leadership experience within a behavioral health, substance-use, dual-diagnosis, residential, or crisis-treatment setting.
- Experience supervising clinical staff and multidisciplinary treatment teams.
- Strong clinical documentation and utilization-review skills.
- Experience developing, implementing, or auditing behavioral health Policies and Procedures.
- Demonstrated understanding of regulatory and accreditation compliance.
Strongly Preferred Qualifications Preference will be given to candidates with direct experience in several of the following areas:
- Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) behavioral healthcare
- VA Community Care / VACCN
- VA referrals, authorizations, and extensions of care
- Veteran suicide prevention and crisis stabilization
- COMPACT Act or emergency Veteran behavioral healthcare
- Military Sexual Trauma (MST)
- PTSD and trauma-focused treatment
- Substance Use Disorder and dual-diagnosis residential treatment
- ASAM Levels 3.1, 3.3, and/or 3.5
- Alabama Department of Mental Health (ADMH) certification
- CARF accreditation
- Behavioral health Policies and Procedures
- Utilization management and continued-stay reviews
- VA, insurance, or third-party claims management
- Clinical documentation supporting claims appeals or payment disputes
- Regulatory audits and accreditation surveys
Candidate Profile We are particularly interested in candidates who understand that directing a Veterans residential behavioral health program requires more than traditional clinical supervision.
The successful Clinical Director will be capable of moving confidently between:
Veteran care → crisis stabilization → clinical documentation → regulatory compliance → VA coordination → authorization → claims support → quality assurance. The individual must be organized, accountable, comfortable working with complex cases, and capable of representing the organization professionally when communicating with VA officials, regulatory agencies, accrediting bodies, and other healthcare partners.
Mission
Our objective is to provide Veterans with rapid access to safe, effective, trauma-informed behavioral healthcare while ensuring that every episode of treatment is clinically justified, properly documented, compliant with applicable standards, and supported through the appropriate VA and payer processes.
