I'm considering a job that will have me working in the healthcare industry working on an information system for insurance companies. Just out of curiosity, what is working in the healthcare industry like for a programmer? Any particular quirks? Are there any upsides or downsides you don't have in other programming fields?
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I've worked in the healthcare industry in the past, and the biggest difference I can think is HIPAA regulations (if you're working here in the USA). It's something you'll deal with every day.
Scott Anderson
2009-05-21 12:39:38
You have to sign the HIPAA agreement if you ever have any potential health information accessed by your system, even if you never get a name to go with the data.
monksy
2009-10-12 02:35:50
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I have worked in the pharmacy industry, which is slightly related. The biggest quirk I know of is HIPPA requirements. You have to be hyper aware of data security (Not that you wouldn't be anywhere else).
dsrekab
2009-05-21 12:40:21
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I work as a peon at one of the largest health insurance companies you will need to know ICD9 coding, deductible, HIPPA, oop(out of pocket not object or programming). the red tape is madenning. On a good note, lots of oppertunities for projects and if you do a good job end users will worship the ground you walk on. We have an app that even though we are not supposed to use, members of my department swear by it
Anthony
2009-05-21 14:26:03
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I have worked in the health care industry for the past 4 years more on the clinical side than insurance.
Like any industry some projects can be really interesting and others not so much. It has been a bit of an eye opener for me seeing how hospitals operate.
I have worked on a number of insurance applications and have to admit I despise that side of my work! Insurance schemes can get extremely complex and tedious and just does not interest me at all. It can be a tricky problem to get right but the individual operations are pretty simple and of little interest.
Good points:
Your development can improve peoples lives (maybe more clinical side) Healthcare can be an interesting domain and is useful to know more about Probably fairly safe employment area as will always be important
Bad points
Your development can adversely affect peoples lives - it is a responsibility and a bug could have serious implications (although this is true of many software)
For obvious reasons there can be a fair amount of regulation and beaurcracy which can be tedious.
Perhaps not so relevant for you as you specify insurance but I am in the UK so sometimes work with free healthcare providers. This can be a bit mixed as some are short on resources
alexmac
2009-05-21 14:39:16
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It's booming. One of the few areas of our economy that is. Our company does a lot of work for the health care industry. They're helping keep us in business.
PaulG
2009-05-21 16:20:56