Cashing In On Obamacare

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Healthcare offers a wide variety of careers.  As healthcare changes with new treatments and technology, new careers are created to keep up with demand.  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, makes its debut with the Healthcare Marketplaces, and will result in the largest, most far reaching changes in healthcare yet.

A long time in the making, the final word on Obamacare is yet to come.  The program changes almost daily.  It is one of the most complicated new policies that will affect just about every American in some way.  Healthcare providers, insurance companies and scores of private consultants are busy trying to educate the general public on the ACA’s provisions and how to navigate the marketplace.  In fact, Obamacare has generated a whole new career path—explaining what it is and how to use it.

Now that it’s in place, those government professionals who were instrumental in crafting the policy are embarking on new careers as Obamacare consulltants.  Experts in this area, they were the ones that helped write the policy and its complex regulations.  Who better to explain it than the authors?

There’s a huge market for this expert advice.  Large companies, which according to Obamacare, are anyone with over 50 employees, have to comply with the new law.  Just determining whether or not your company has to “pay or play” can be worth a consultant’s hefty fee.  These consultants are cashing in on their expertise and also the connections they made while working with legislators, lobbyists and members of both sides of the congressional aisle.

Transferring skills and expertise from one career to another can open up an new career opportunities.  If you’re in a healthcare career with heavy patient interaction and want a change, there are administrative positions, or you could work with healthcare providers such as insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies.  You could work for one of the large retail pharmacies, such as CVS and Walgreens, managing their in-store outlets and expanded healthcare services, like CVS’s MinuteClinic.

Like to talk to people and offer information and advice?  There are thousands of organizations who need qualified, knowledgeable experts to speak at conferences and meetings, offer webinars and continuing education classes, or write articles or blogs for their websites. 

To be successful will take a different set of skills.  You may have been at the top of your class in medical school, but you need to be an excellent communicator and writer to make it on the speaking circuit.  The environment at the local big-box pharmacy will be different from private practice, with a different set of working hours, rules and regulations and less personal control. 

Shifting from one side of the healthcare spectrum to another will take a mind shift as well.  No one really knows the impact that Obamacare will have on healthcare in the years to come.  Flexibility and the willingness to learn new ways of delivering healthcare will be essential if you want to be successful as a healthcare giver, pharmacists, speaker, educator or consultant. 

Photo Source: Freedigitalphotos.net 

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