To become a medical insurance specialist, one needs post-secondary education, work experience, computer skills, and interpersonal skills. The job involves patient interaction and computer processing, including understanding billing procedures and medical terminology. Job growth is predicted to be strong, and technical computer skills must be maintained.
There are four things it takes to become a medical insurance specialist: post-secondary education, work experience, computer skills, and interpersonal skills. A medical insurance specialist works with computers and people on a daily basis and may find job opportunities in hospitals, clinics, health agencies or doctors’ offices. The main tasks of a medical information specialist can be divided into two areas: patient interaction and computer processing. In this role, the specialist helps patients understand medical bills and determine how much the insurance company will pay and the outstanding amount. This part of the job requires a lot of communication and interaction with patients and their families.
Computer processing is required to submit payment requests to insurance companies. It is necessary to understand billing procedures, procedure coding and medical terminology. This aspect of the job requires precision, consistency, and computer skills. Technical computer skills must be maintained over time as technologies change.
The first step to becoming a medical insurance specialist is to complete a post-secondary education program. These programs are typically eight months in length and available at a wide variety of community and career colleges. Applicants for this program must have a minimum of 40 words per minute typing speed and be eligible for college admission.
The work experience required to become a medical insurance specialist is a combination of customer service and computer processing. These skills can be gained in a wide variety of part-time or full-time positions. Receptionist, data entry clerk and customer service positions provide relevant experience.
Approximately half of the tasks performed as a medical insurance specialist are related to computer processing. The classes required to become a medical insurance specialist include at least two computer processing courses. Typing speed and accuracy are very important in this role. Invest the time necessary to keep your computer skills at the highest possible level.
Interpersonal skills that include empathy, communication, conflict management and problem solving are required to become a medical insurance specialist. People who have the most job satisfaction in this role are detail-oriented, enjoy working independently, and are good communicators. Predicted job growth for this field is very strong for the next five to seven years. This builds on the growing shift towards computerized data keeping in doctors’ offices and insurance companies. Courses required for this program may transfer to other education programs required for related careers, such as health information technologist.
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