US insurance firms hiring Pinoy nurses – lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines - American health insurance companies are hiring hundreds of Filipino nurses, Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo said yesterday.

He said nurse-applicants should possess licenses to practice in the United States and if hired, would be working at the employers’ support offices here.

“There is new demand here for Filipino nurses with active US licenses. The demand is being created by US health insurers that have increasingly found it more cost-effective to offshore their clinical services here,” he said.

“The nurses won’t necessarily receive the $20 (P800) per hour starting pay for nurses in most US hospitals. However, due to their specialized responsibilities in providing clinical services here, they are getting higher emoluments compared to the average BPO (business process outsourcing) employee,” he added.

Romulo named at least three firms – Radiant Services, Exlservice Holdings and UnitedHealth Group – which are recruiting Filipino nurses for their back office operations here.

He said the remote services that these companies need range from pre-servicing of patients, in which a nurse at the health insurer helps evaluate the patient’s needs and ascertain treatment approaches, to discharge planning and support, such as nurse reviews of the patient’s possible post-discharge care requirements.

He advised nurses to consider taking and passing the NCLEX-RN so they could get US licenses and seek potential employment at the back offices here of US health insurers.

The NCLEX-RN refers to the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurse administered by the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing Inc. (USNCSBN). The Pearson Professional Center in Makati City has been administering the NCLEX-RN for the USNCSBN since 2007.

The country has an excess of about 300,000 licensed nurses, most of whom are jobless. Thousands more would be added to their ranks since some 50,000 nursing graduates took licensure exams last weekend.