Skills transfer in the wild: medical billing and order processing
Recently, while hiring for an operations role at a manufacturing company, I noticed something odd: I was getting a lot of medical billing applicants. Why would someone trained in medical billing and claims apply to a job managing customer orders at a manufacturing company?
On reflection (and with some digging), I have some thoughts.
Why I think we’re seeing a lot of medical billing applicants
A wave of payer consolidation, AI automation and Medicaid cuts has been displacing experienced mid-career professionals from healthcare administration. Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, and CVS have collectively cut thousands of administrative and claims processing roles over the past two years. The people being let go are mid-career professionals with years of experience with accuracy under pressure, and they’re looking for their next job.
Why I they’re applying to this particular role
Here’s the language from the job posting we wrote for the role:
“You will be responsible for ensuring all customer order paperwork is accurate, up to date, and complete before being passed to the next team member. As orders are often complex and multi-step, your work will be reviewed and built upon by others, and you will do the same for theirs.”
And consider the following quotes from some medical billing resumes:
“Handle 30+ daily inquiries from members and providers related to claims”
“Research and resolve complex claims issues”
“Served as an intermediary and responded to incoming calls and emails from members, medical providers and employers regarding insurance eligibility, benefits, claim status, billing procedures and payments”.
Medical billing experts are handling complex, multi-step paperwork orders in high volume everyday. They’re cross referencing records across multiple systems and catching errors before they move forward.
Different industry, same skills.
And another reason… our competency-based job description
A traditional version of the job we posted mentioned RFQs, freight receipts, and SKUs, industry jargon that’s meant to attract people in the field but can sometimes discourage candidates with relevant skills.
We rewrote it to focus on underlying skills instead: accuracy, document review, proactive follow-up, cross-team handoffs. The result was a wider, stronger pool.
That's skills-based hiring working the way it's supposed to: screening-in based on what the work actually requires, not what the industry is used to calling it.
What to do with this
The next time you’re hiring for an operations, order processing, or administrative role, don’t filter out the medical billing applicants! Ask them how they caught errors before they moved forward, or what they did when something was missing. You may be surprised by who you find.
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