How to become medical underwriter ?
Job profile
Medical underwriting job has been the biggest beneficiary of the increase in health awareness amongst the people world wide. Underwriting is the method used by evaluators to evaluate the eligibility of customers to receive a particular financial instrument. A medical underwriter acts as a third party to assess the medical conditions of the customers to check if they are eligible to receive medical cover. A medical underwriter works for medical companies and evaluates potential customers to ensure that the company makes profit by providing medical cover to those customers. Individuals who file for health or life insurance need the approval of the medical underwriters. Medical underwriting is a complex process in which the underwriters examine the health history of the potential clients to see if they have any long term illness. Before being granted medical insurance, the applicant has to undergo several tests. These tests are examined by the medical agent to see if the company he is working for will not be at a loss by providing medical cover to that applicant. This is done because people who have a history of illness are more prone to falling sick again. Hence, application of such people may be rejected. Also, at times, old age people are not granted insurance because they fall ill far too often. All these decisions are taken by a medical underwriter.
Academic qualifications
As an effective medical underwriter, you are supposed to know a few medical subjects. You must have a profound knowledge of human body. Some of the recognized courses in this field are:
LOMA Associate Customer Service
LOMA courses and/or designations
Academy of Life Underwriting (ALU) Industry related courses and/or accreditations.
Skill sets
You must have superior analytical skills. Every now and then, you have to make important decisions that may affect the company so you must have good decision making skills. You also need to have good knowledge of human anatomy so that you can analyze the reports and medical history of the applicants. You can work on your own or work with an agency as a team. Superior verbal and written communication skills are expected. You cannot have cold beguile personality and let your emotions come in way of decision making process as you might come across a situation where you have to reject the plea of an applicant. Also you must be well versed with computers.
Employment outlook
There are various levels of jobs that you can avail of like dental insurance underwriter; corporate insurance underwriter; medical case manager; insurance sales representative; and insurance recruiter. Medical underwriting is an integral part for any insurance company. No insurance company can do away without a medical underwriter. The opportunities are huge globally.
Salary: depends on your work experience and expertise. In general, it is around $45,000 to $50,000 annually. But top level underwriters earn as high as $100,000 annually.
By kushal doshi
Author can be contacted at : kushaljdoshi@gmail.com
