Health insurance specialists are responsible for processing medical insurance claims. They apply appropriate medical coding for each case, arrange and archive documentation, and examine claims to determine whether they are eligible for insurance coverage. Keeping records of medical charges and locating coding errors is also their duty.
Working in this position, you will essentially fill the role of a technician specializing in handling medical documents. You will work with computers and electronic records maintaining the database of the documents and updating them with adjustments whenever necessary. Communicating with insurance carriers and educating patients about their medical benefits will be a part of your job as well.
You will need to be familiar with medical terminology, insurance coding, and medical billing practices. Excellent verbal and written communication is a must, and solid experience with data entry and basic office skills is also expected. A degree in a health-related field from a college or technical school, or a certificate program for health insurance specialists will provide the necessary knowledge to fill this role successfully. Salaries average around $24.31 per hour, adding up to annual wages of around $50,000.
How to Become a Health Insurance Specialist
What is a Health Insurance Specialist
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Health Insurance Specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.32 an hour? That's $54,736 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 48,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Health Insurance Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many Health Insurance Specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Initiative, Self-confidence and Communication skills.
How To Become a Health Insurance Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a Health Insurance Specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 50.9% of Health Insurance Specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 14.2% of Health Insurance Specialists have master's degrees. Even though most Health Insurance Specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Health Insurance Specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a Health Insurance Specialist, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Associate Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Health Insurance Specialist resumes include Master's Degree degrees or High School Diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Health Insurance Specialist. In fact, many Health Insurance Specialist jobs require experience in a role such as Customer Service Representative. Meanwhile, many Health Insurance Specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as Administrative Assistant or Cashier.
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Health Insurance Specialist Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of Office Manager you might progress to a role such as Operations Manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title Program Manager.
Health Insurance Specialist Jobs You Might Like
What is the right job for my career path?
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Average Salary for a Health Insurance Specialist
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Choose From 10+ Customizable Health Insurance Specialist Resume templates
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Health Insurance Specialist Demographics
Health Insurance Specialist Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among Health Insurance Specialists, 71.9% of them are women, while 28.1% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among Health Insurance Specialists is White, which makes up 69.2% of all Health Insurance Specialists.
- The most common foreign language among Health Insurance Specialists is Spanish at 46.5%.
Find the best Health Insurance Specialist job for you
Health Insurance Specialist Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Health Insurance Specialist Jobs - $89K and Up
- Entry Level Health Insurance Specialist Jobs
- Part Time Health Insurance Specialist Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Health Insurance Specialist Jobs
Top Colleges for Health Insurance Specialists
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
3. Howard University
Washington, DC • Private
4. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA • Private
5. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
6. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
7. Baylor University
Waco, TX • Private
8. University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, LA • Private
9. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Private
10. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
Find the best Health Insurance Specialist job for you
Health Insurance Specialist Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Health Insurance Specialist Jobs - $89K and Up
- Entry Level Health Insurance Specialist Jobs
- Part Time Health Insurance Specialist Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Health Insurance Specialist Jobs
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Top Skills For a Health Insurance Specialist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 15.6% of Health Insurance Specialists listed Insurance Companies on their resume, but soft skills such as Initiative and Self-confidence are important as well.
1. District of Columbia
$106,803
Avg. Salary
2. Wisconsin
$79,710
Avg. Salary
3. Ohio
$78,997
Avg. Salary
How Do Health Insurance Specialist Rate Their Jobs?
Health Insurance Specialist Videos
