Are you planning to get into an UM job to do Utilization or chart Reviews?
If yes, here are some steps that you can take to start planning for it right away. Please remember that all the steps mentioned below are not necessary. Do as many as possible until you get the job you are looking for.
First of all, choose who you want to work for? Do you want to work for a hospital and fight for patients to get the services they need and to fight for the hospital to get the services reimbursed accurately or do you want to work for an insurance company to minimize waste and unwanted treatments and hospital days that can be avoided? It is completely fine whatever you choose as both these options are needed to improve healthcare quality and efficiency. Here are some points in my own view to compare these 2 choices. Hospital vs Insurance Company It may sound like I am biased because I work for a hospital. Please speak to more than one person to get a different perspective.
The subject of utilization management is huge. So I thought that it is easier to learn from other physicians. So I started a Facebook group. Please, join the Facebook group for Physician Advisors, Chart Review, CDI, and Utilization Management.
To begin your journey, please start by making a nice social media profile and connect with other physician advisors across the USA. You never know who will be helpful to get you the job you are looking for. I must say that LinkedIn is the one which helped many to get an UM job. Get your LinkedIn profile updated and connect with other physician advisors as soon as possible. Make your profile look professional.
To reach out to any hiring organization, the first thing they need is an application. The online application wants your complete professional info. Since you need to apply for several companies, you will have to fill several applications with all your info. So, it will help you to have a CV ready so that you can simply copy and paste your professional history easily. Update your Curriculum Vitae/Resume. Add in your CV/resume, the language the UM companies are looking/asking for.
Almost all the companies look for experience especially the part time remote jobs definitely ask for experience. I noticed that if you are looking for full time utilization Management job, they may take you without experience as they can train you. The main reason is that most people do not start with Full Time UM job as they are not sure about leaving clinical world yet. So, try to get some or any kind of experience related to the UM world to understand and speak the UM language. If you are still working for a hospital, join the Hospital UM or Quality Improvement or Performance Improvement committees.
An UM job requires interactions with other physicians and nurses and top level administration frequently, it is very helpful to have some kind of leadership experience just so that you are comfortable talking and expressing your views boldly without getting anxious about it. Get any leadership experience in your hospital if possible. You may have to do peer to peer reviews which need patience, ability to express views calmly and firmly.
Become a member of American College of Physician Advisors. American College Of Physician Advisors courses– give CME that you can use to augment your CV when applying for UM jobs and to get certified as a physician advisor.
Try to attend UM Conferences where you an meet physician advisors from all over the country. You may get lucky meeting someone who could help you later to get the job you are looking for. You will gain a ton of knowledge which will make you confident.
Traditionally, ABQAURP was conducting annual CHCQM-PHYADV exam which if you acquire will make your application stronger. This exam needs some leadership experience that is we have to qualify based on their criteria. Become a member and take ABQAURP Certification to Become a certified Physician Advisor. Recently, ACPA started certification exam.
Search for UM jobs on Google or LinkedIn and start applying. Search on Indeed.com for 1. Physician Advisor Utilization, 2. Physician Advisor remote or 3. Utilization Review Physician. Search on LinkedIn.com for 1. Physician Advisor Utilization, 2. Physician Advisor Remote or 3. Physician Utilization Review
Look in ACPA [American College of Physician Advisors] jobs board page to look for jobs available.
If there is an opening in a specific company, find someone working there by searching on LinkedIn and request them to refer you. Physicians already working in a certain company often are a valuable resource to get you position in their company.
Like any other interview, we need to prepare for the Utilization Management job. Here are some tips to Prepare for Interview.
Most companies ask for the rate/hour that you are expecting. Of course, you don’t want to sell yourself low. I did a survey in the past about this and here are some numbers to help you get an idea as to how much you can ask for. Know what salary/pay per hour you want to ask if selected.