A well-crafted resume and organized testimonials can help you get through the first round of a rigorous interview process. However, you may feel nervous, especially if you have no idea what to expect once you enter the interview room. No need to worry, even the experts with their vast experiences suffer from anxiety when preparing for an upcoming interview. While finding a dream job is more straightforward, many stumble and fall through during the interview stage.
Here are 25 top Anthem interview questions and answers to help you prepare for your upcoming interview. Exhibiting confidence and showing a deep understanding of the occupation with its expected duties while responding to questions will not only expose your experience level but will also determine whether you qualify for the next round.
1. What Do You Know About Anthem?
Anthem is one of the largest and most profitable healthcare insurance organizations under the supervision of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Healthcare insurance is essential as it helps protect families from losses during medical emergencies.
2. What Inspired Your Decision To Apply For This Position?
One of the reasons why people struggle with debt is when a family member gets sick and loved ones have inadequate funds to cater to the patient’s needs. I felt that venturing into this career would give me the skills to help people not fall victim to such unfortunate situations.
3. In Your View, How Do You See The Future Of The Healthcare Insurance Industry?
In recent years, the global healthcare insurance market has been experiencing a slight decline, partially due to the industry’s low adoption of digital solutions. Places with a private insurance system can quickly gain access to technological services in the medical industry. Healthcare insurance can be a risky business. While companies can obtain patient details such as gender, age, and lifestyle details, without quantifiable and measurable health parameters, the value of investment remains uncertain. With additional information, it is possible to utilize new technologies like personal health sensors to improve access to information and service delivery.
4. One Challenge In This Industry Is Deciding Whether A Medical Service Should Be Covered. How Have You, As A Professional, Put Aside Your Sentiments For The Good Of The Business?
I’ve learned that working in the health insurance industry sometimes forces you to make uncomfortable decisions, primarily if that decision affects one of your patients. While every company’s primary goal is profit-making, assisting customers should be the number one driving force. I always analyze a customer’s circumstances to ensure the option they are considering is not covered by another plan. I also try to determine the viability of a cover by comparing it with others offered within the marketplace.
5. Our Goal At Anthem Is To Hire The Most Competent Candidates. Share An Experience Where You Went Out Of Your Way When It Wasn’t Expected Of You?
My supervisor once requested me to review a spreadsheet of providers to ascertain their credentials. I noticed spelling mistakes on analyzing that sheet, and some fields had missing information. Instead of just ensuring they had the proper credentials, I overhauled the entire spreadsheet to provide all the names and missing information were added and adequately captured. I confirmed the report was accurate and data correctly indicated before resubmitting it to back to my boss.
6. At Anthem, We Acknowledge The Impact Of Consistently Receiving And Giving Feedback. Explain An Instance Where You Shared Your Honest Opinion With a Colleague.
I once witnessed an argument between a colleague and a distraught client. While there was justification for my colleague being upset, I felt that their method of handling the setback further exacerbated the situation. Altercations with customers had happened with two other clients on different occasions, which led me to conclude that my colleague may be partly fueling the problem. I didn’t want a confrontation, so I tried to ignore the matter but soon discovered I was doing a great disservice to my associate.
After the client left, I gathered courage and encouraged her to learn how to manage her anger and be calm irrespective of how justified she felt she needed to react. She couldn’t believe my audacity, which made her angrier and led to her saying hurtful and unprintable obscenities at me. Though hurt and embarrassed, I remained calm and returned to my desk.
I, however, noticed a change in her demeanor over the next few days. She later approached me to apologize and thanked me for helping her accept her mistakes. She also joined an anger management class. There was uneasiness in our relationship for a while. However, with time, I forgive and put the whole incident behind me. I was happy to have helped a colleague improve in a weak area.
7. What Approach Would You Utilize To Appease An Angry Client?
Filing an insurance claim is not a thrilling experience, a process that sometimes upsets or confuses clients. To counter this confusion, I always offer clients priceless information I believe can help ease the uncertainty of the registration process. I also provide a listening ear while empathizing with and validating their feelings. I’m aware of the impact of active listening, so I always make sure clients feel heard and understood.
8. What Self-Marketing Strategies Do You Integrate When Promoting Company Products Or Services?
Thankfully, I am tech-savvy and very conversant with social media. I tend to reach a wider audience by networking with them on different social media platforms. Using varied social media platforms is an effective way to engage and connect. Another beneficial marketing option is email marketing which I find helpful in reaching out to prospects and nurturing those leads. To continue capturing the interests of a target, I tend to use multiple ways to attract and retain their attention.
9. How Do You Select Which Questions To Ask Clients?
I believe that understanding a client’s needs and preferences plays a crucial part in how I structure questions as it helps me learn more about a situation. I always ask them about their experience with previous and current insurance plans. Through open communication, I can assess their needs and discuss their goals. From our discussion, I can suggest practical ways our company can deliver an insurance policy that’s likely to meet their expectations.
10. As Soon As We Hire You, What Challenges Do You Anticipate In This Role?
One challenge I foresee in this sector is a lack of technological integration in workflows. To manage expansion, services in health insurance must adopt new working strategies. Innovation is lacking, which partly explains why the sector is lagging. The emergence of the internet and digital applications should push us to include technology in managing health insurance. This move allows clients better access to services leading to a healthier relationship with healthcare insurance providers.
11. How Do You Update Yourself On Current Healthcare Insurance Advancements?
When it comes to healthcare insurance, learning never stops. With the frequent technological advancements, there’s always something new to learn and improve, especially information on how a company delivers its services. It is my responsibility to update myself on innovations in this industry. I do this by subscribing to several healthcare newsletters or blogs that offer information relevant to my field. Soon, I plan to register for a few insurance-based healthcare courses to refresh my knowledge and remain relevant in service delivery.
12. What Motivation Did You Have That Led You To A Profession In Healthcare Insurance?
I’ve always been interested in learning more about different financial management systems. I learned early in life that planning financially for emergencies is the best way to attain financial freedom. Having a sick loved one is tricky. It gets even worse when you worry about how you will pay for their treatment. You can avoid such challenges through healthcare insurance that takes care of the bills while you nurse your loved one back to health.
13. The Health Insurance Industry Is Complex And Needs Organizational Skills And Attention To Detail. How Do You Guarantee Accuracy And Organization While At Work?
I am a highly detailed person who thrives on proper planning in my work. My preparation routine includes documentation, scheduling, and automating workflows. Furthermore, I also utilize Google calendar to set reminders and use project management applications for collaboration with colleagues and other stakeholders.
14. Are You Conversant With Customizing Reports?
In my last role, one of my responsibilities was managing the financial status and presentation of client accounts, determining their performance, auditing books, checking patient balances, etc. I have vast experience creating and customizing reports and presenting them in different formats. Furthermore, I can store critical documents in relevant files, ensuring I protect client data and only release information to appropriate teams.
15. How Do You Deal With Unpaid Or Rejected Claims?
First, I audit a claim to find out why there’s a rejection, or there is no payment. If the rejection arose from an error, I take time to refile it and provide any relevant missing information to back it up. But if the company has justification for denying the claim, I follow it up with the client, explain the situation, and solicit payment.
16. How Do You Prioritize Tasks While Handling Multiple Client Accounts As a Healthcare Insurance Specialist?
While managing several different cases at once can pose a challenge, learning to prioritize can improve reviews and attract more clients. I always highlight urgent tasks and deal with those first. While there may be other more prominent or complex assignments to worry about, I’m not particularly eager to ignore upcoming contracts in favor of larger ones. I take pride in my occupation and know that every accomplishment counts as it contributes to the company’s overall success. I try my best not to miss out on any opportunity as this will make the client suffer.
17. How Do You Intend To Meet Or Exceed Expectations Within The First Three Months On The Job?
Based on the job description, my understanding of this role is that the company wants me to meet specific sales targets while providing customer support to existing clients. I have established myself as an authority in this industry by my ability to meet and exceed sales expectations. In my previous role, I was consistently a top performer while maintaining a robust loyal customer relationship to encourage client dependability in dealing with our company.
18. What Are Some Benefits That Will Make You Encourage A Client To Take A Healthcare Insurance Policy?
While most healthcare insurance covers aren’t free, they cover a set of preventative services, including: –
- Emergency services
- Maternity services
- Hospitalization expenses
- Prescription drug charges
- Rehabilitative services
- Laboratory services
- Pediatric services
- Dental services
19. Share Your Biggest Career Blunder, How You Solved The Challenge, And What You Learned From It?
I got a job in sales at a local healthcare insurance company, where one of my responsibilities was to audit, streamline and store client data. My most tremendous setback was keeping up with the volume of work compared to what I managed in college. My inexperience didn’t help as the company was experiencing high traffic and needed a lot of multitasking skills which I didn’t have.
One day I felt overwhelmed, and I accidentally deleted essential client files due to fatigue. I had assumed the records were already on the cloud, so I removed them on my desktop to create more space for incoming files. It was shocking when I couldn’t retrieve the files during a crucial stakeholder meeting that needed to audit and take action on dormant client accounts using that data.
That mistake on my part almost led to the closure of very profitable accounts. The mixup would have resulted in massive losses for the company. Matters would have worsened had it not been for the costly IT expert the company outsourced to recover the files. I was so embarrassed because that mistake brought so much attention to me. Immediately after, I enrolled in additional online courses to improve my skills in this area. I must say that ever since that day, I have never had a similar challenge again.
20. Do You Have Any Coding Or Billing Experience?
I have satisfactory experience providing billing and coding services where I have monitored the number of patient visits in a busy healthcare facility. In a previous role, I gained extensive experience with patient registration, securing claim reimbursement and delivering payments to providers. There has to be a collaboration between insurance companies, billers, patients, healthcare staff and coders to work effectively in this industry. Billers and coders must work together to facilitate healthcare revenue cycles.
21. In Your View, Do You Think That Medical Billing Is Similar To Coding? If Not, What’s The Difference?
Though similar, medical billing and coding differ in many ways. Medical coders first interpret the care provided to patients and present it into codes in a manner that a computer system can comprehend. Some common types of these medical codes include the International Classification of Diseases, Current Procedural Terminology (CPT), and Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes. Anyone who can effectively assign the correct diagnosis and procedure codes must have a comprehensive understanding of medical terminology and adhere to strict coding guidelines.
On the other hand, medical billers use instructions provided by coders to file insurance claims and submit payments to accounts. For payments, the medical information must be accurate and transparent. Billers collaborate with insurance firms to work out rejections, finalize details and send out statements.
22. In What Medical Billing Specialties Are You Most Conversant?
Medical billing specialties mainly depend on the type of care patients receive from a provider. There are many dimensions of billing, including internal medicine, dermatology, neurology, gynecology, anesthesiology, and others. In a previous assignment, I had to research and educate myself because I had no prior billing experience. I am well versed in this subject and can comprehensively offer medical billing services to hospitals and other stakeholders.
23. Do You Have Any Experience Handling Medical Record Software?
I have eight years of experience as a medical biller, working with eClinicalWorks, CareCloud and Charts EHR. These software applications help me to verify patient insurance information and determine their eligibility. They also facilitate me to monitor claims, process them and ensure filing with insurance companies.
Proper and accurate processes help patients to receive actual bills. I also have skills to utilize the revenue cycle management software that allows me to file claims and send invoices to patients. I need to review analytics to track and determine the total amount billed and how many claims insurance companies have settled. I can also compile a list of pending insurance claims and audit their progress.
24. Share An Experience Where You Had To Resolve A Challenge With A Claim In The Clearing House?
An error in a claim means that the payer has found inconsistencies with the information provided. From experience, I have learned to review remittances and compare the data with our electronic health records to ensure all details, including name, date of birth, and financial information, are accurate. I confirm these amounts attribute to coinsurance, copay and deductible aggregates. I have also learned to verify physical notes and review procedures or diagnosis codes.
When I notice irregularities that lead to a claim rejection, I ensure to countercheck and rectify the information in the system before resubmitting it to the clearinghouse. Counterchecking records ensures that our in-house information accurately matches the payer’s papers, giving them the confidence to settle the claim.
25. Which Coding Or Medical Billing Qualifications Do You Have?
There are many billing and coding certifications in this industry that facilitate me to focus and excel in my area of specialization. I am a Certified Inpatient Coder (CIC) after receiving my certification more than five years ago. I also have the Certified Professional Coder (CPC) certificate and hope to acquire a few more in the near future.
Conclusion
When interviewing for a health insurance position, you must prove that you have the necessary skills and technical background to fit the job description. Employers looking to fill vacancies in health insurance want an applicant who understands their products and services comprehensively. Having relevant experience and applicable academic qualifications is an added advantage as it gives applicants a competitive edge against other job seekers.