GAB Robins North America INC

I worked as a telephonic & field case manager for a regional case management company for about 5 years. They contracted with insurance carriers such as GAB Robins which insures employers and individuals for workers comp & disability. I've worked some files for GAB Robins for field case management. The offices I worked for were in NJ & NY.

Several big insurers have started hiring in-house telephonic case managers over the years and have them covering red-flag claims in several states. Depending on how they have the position structured and what territory you would be expected telephonically, you many need to apply for out-of-state licensure in the area you would be covering.

I currently work as a hospital case manager and have really come to despise insurance companies because of the restrictions and denials they place on "reasonable & necessary" medical care. It gets very complicated. I could never bring myself to work at one of those places, but that's just me. It's like working for the enemy while still trying to be the good guy. The clients you work with tend to be very wary of "the insurance company", so it takes a great deal of diplomacy to convince them that your role is actually to be proactive for THEM and not the insurance company.

Just saw your message today and I see you posted in October, so I don't know if this is helpful.

Oooops -- I was looking at your join date (Oct 2007) --

You are welcome, RNinfamily. Some insurance companies are better than others to work at, I suppose. I have worked as a field case manager for Workers Comp/No Fault cases with RN case managers at insurance companies who were really good to work with and very proactive on the patient's (in insurance world: claimant) behalf. Others not so much and with them getting anything at all for your patient is a major challenge, but that's what we're there for.

You might want to look around for case manager jobs for regional and national case management companies like Genex or Concentra to get some experience. They generally have field positions and working for a company like that, you end up with cases from different insurance companies and payors, so you can get a better sense of what's out there.

It is interesting work and there is high demand. If you like the work, pursuing the CCM credential is also worthwhile at some point.

Good luck to you!

In an effort to correct some misinformation out there, and I should know because I actually work there and have for 15 years... Full disclosure: I work for GAB Robins but not for MedInsights, so I have only a peripheral interest in MedInsights.

GAB Robins is NOT an insurance carrier, nor does it insure anyone. It is a third-party administrator (TPA), with activities in the commercial insurance arena. That means that it provides a service: it contracts with insurance carriers to administer their claims (with their oversight, of course; the carriers are the ones actually insuring claims) and with companies, both public and private, to administer their claims (also with oversight by the company). Basically, GAB Robins employs an "army" of insurance adjusters that carriers and companies can, in a way, rent to adjust their claims. Either the carriers don't employ their own adjusters, or they don't have as many as they need for the amount of claims they have to adjust; and private companies who are self-insured can't really afford to employ their own adjusters, so they use GAB Robins' services.

MedInsights is a subsidiary company of GAB Robins, and is involved with medical case management, among other things.

Although there has been some press about the private equity firm that owns GAB Robins having fallen on hard times financially, MedInsights continues to be a strong player in the medical case management arena and continues to do well financially. That said, you should know that MedInsights is a good candidate for divestiture because it's doing so well financially and, if you were to work there, you might find yourself working for another employer in the future, but you probably won't find yourself out of work - layoffs at MI are rare. It's a field that is growing.

Further to MamaKitty's comments: MedInsights competes with companies like Concentra, and also provides field positions with exposure to many insurance carriers and self-insured companies. Their business models are very similar.

Go ahead and apply. It's a good solid company with good leadership.

New information: GAB Robins, N.A. laid off about 40 employees from the Parsippany, NJ headquarters yesterday, March 26, 2009. Not sure about any of the field offices. I'm still employed, for now... This action is, no doubt, a direct result of Cunningham Lindsey's recent (about a month ago) acquisition of all of the Risk Management portion (RMS) of GAB Robins' business and EFI Global. GAB Robins just doesn't need to staff for RMS infrastructure anymore. The employees associated solely with the Loss Adjustment portion (ICS) of GAB Robins' business, as well as those associated with MedInsights, are probably still in good shape. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Brera divests itself of MedInsights in short order... Stay tuned.