Health insurers process and analyze healthcare information for individual customers and companies. Becoming an underwriter requires a bachelor’s degree in health science and involves tasks such as analyzing risk factors, managing budgets, and coordinating post-sales support. Underwriters must be detail-oriented, organized, and possess strong communication and computer skills.
A health insurer examines and writes documents for patients in healthcare. Health insurers work with individual customers and larger companies to process the information. Jobs involve marketing, project management, implementing systems, organizing files and gathering information. Health underwriting involves a broad understanding of the field of healthcare as well as business tactics.
Becoming an underwriter involves receiving a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university. The student’s background will be different according to the school and the programs offered, but it will be in the health sector. Courses will cover a variety of health science topics such as individual health care, group benefits and managed care. Most of these programs have a strict timeline for course completion, as each course builds on a previous one. Once a student earns a bachelor’s degree, he or she is eligible to practice as a health underwriter, provided continuing education courses are taken and the underwriter is recertified every two years.
Underwriters usually work in hospitals, paramedical facilities or inspection companies. In a medical environment, the underwriter is responsible for reviewing all underwriting information and processing it, along with patient files and applications. Documents must be scrutinized for risk factors as the underwriter analyzes business risks and profits, manages loss and growth rates, and creates budgets for underwriting expenses. In a healthcare organization, the underwriter will also work with internal stakeholders to coordinate post-sales support and transactions that occur at the facility.
When underwriters work for inspection companies, the tasks often vary. Here, the insurer can act as a health insurer by focusing on the details of the client’s insurance policies. Health insurance underwriters are trained to advise on insurance topics such as the insurance market in the medical community and disability income for individuals or groups.
Those who wish to become health underwriters must have an interest in the medical community and be well versed in health knowledge and jargon. The underwriter must be organized and detail-oriented, as maintaining a solid system for paperwork is one of the main tasks in this career. Files are also often stored on computers, so the underwriter must have a strong computer skillset. Health insurers must interact well with people so that customers can feel comfortable with them. They must also be motivated, goal-oriented and possess good communication and problem-solving skills.
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