Introduction: Insurance Jobs for Physicians
The insurance industry is one of the largest, if not the largest destination for physicians transitioning to non-clinical work. So if you are looking for insurance jobs for physicians, there are a large amount of these out there. The purpose of this blog post is to summarize the three largest sources of insurance jobs for physicians: health insurance, life insurance, and disability insurance.
Insurance Jobs for Physicians in Health Insurance
Health insurance organizations (including Medicare and Medicaid) directly or indirectly retain many thousands of physicians. Sometimes the physician works directly for the insurer as an employed Medical Director. Sometimes insurance companies hire independent review organizations (IROs) to perform the required work – and these IROs hire employed and contract physicians. Physicians in these roles typically perform utilization review. Put simply, insurance jobs for physicians involving health insurance mostly involve reviewing charts, sometimes conducting a peer-to-peer call with the treating physician, and then either approving or denying a requested treatment. Insurance jobs for physicians in the health insurance field can be full-time, part-time or even contract work. Physicians working in the health insurance industry typically work from home.
Insurance Jobs for Physicians in Life Insurance
There are over 700 life insurance companies in the U.S. Each one of these companies needs life insurance medical directors to help with underwriting. Essentially, this means that the medical director will review a person who is applying for life insurance’s application, test results, and medical records and offer opinions/insights into the applicant’s risk of dying within the terms of the policy. One of the great things about insurance jobs for physicians in the life insurance industry is that most physicians doing this work these days work from home. Insurance jobs for physicians in life insurance are a perfect fit for remote work because most of the work is reviewing charts and other information that can be done quite efficiently remotely.
Insurance Jobs for Physicians in Disability Insurance
Disability insurers (including social security) employ a large number of physicians. Insurance jobs for physicians in disability insurance involve reviewing medical records and determining if there is objective evidence supporting the definition of disability in the insurance policy in question. Like the previous two insurance jobs for physicians discussed above, most physicians working in this field work from home. Similar to health insurance, both full-time, part-time, and contract work may also be available.
Insurance Jobs for Physicians: Conclusion
Insurance companies and their contractors employ a huge number of physicians. Most of the doctors who work in insurance jobs work remotely. If you are looking to transition into non-clinical medicine you may want to consider one of the above insurance jobs for physicians – especially if you prefer to work from home.
James J. Mangraviti, Jr. is the co-founder of SEAK, Inc.’s annual Non-Clinical Careers for Physicians Conference, held each year in Chicago. SEAK’s Non-Clinical Careers for Physicians Conference features a faculty of dozens of physicians who have experience in non-clinical and alternative careers. Many of our faculty are SEAK alumni. SEAK’s Non-Clinical Careers for Physicians conference also includes free 1-1 peer mentoring, the opportunity to interview with employers and recruiters, and a robust networking experience. Jim can be reached at 508-457-1111 or jim@seak.com.