Community Health Plan of Washington Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Community Health Plan of Washington full-time

Pros – flexible time off, transportation benefit, good people to work with.

Cons – company slow to respond to customer service need in ref. to computer issues.

Advice to Senior Management – address computer issues in a "real time" timeframe.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Community Health Plan of Washington

Pros – The company has good benefits, transportation assistance and decent pay but not desireble

Cons – There is high staff turn-over and it is an extremely disorganized company

Advice to Senior Management – Eliminate the dysfunction across the board and work on retention of performing staff who need a better incentive program.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Community Health Plan of Washington full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great benefits, good moral among customer service, ok pay(enough to allow you to live), Tuition benefit is very nice.

Cons – Managers are at a horrible disconnect with customer service, Customer service managers can be rude, current team lead is a bit of a joke, ridiculous rules while on the clock(For example in customer service, between down-time you are not allowed to read or you will get written up), Participating clinics are a a joke as well(i.e. seamar), claims system is good awful.

Advice to Senior Management – Allow your customer service representatives some leway when it comes to between calls. At least allow them to read a book. Have the customer service managers attend a HR mediation to know what they can do and can not do. Have provider relations put the clinics in place.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Community Health Plan of Washington as a contractor

Pros – The company hires a lot of temporary workers, so other temps are very friendly. Good location. Seems like there are good benefits for the full-timers.

Cons – Horrible management. Extremely disorganized company. As a temp I was constantly asked to do things that I had no way of doing (through lack of information) or was not trained to do. I was extremely worried I was giving members the wrong information and often had no way of verifying that information. One supervisor in particular has been extremely rude without ever introducing herself. Terrible morale- employees are flat out rude to each other.

Advice to Senior Management – Supervisor etiquette lessons? Trial by fire does not work in health insurance, members are counting on us to give them accurate information.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Community Health Plan of Washington full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Transportation subsidy is good and location near bus and train hubs make a commute manageable. Health benefits are good as is 401K match.

Cons – The business model of this organization is one that is set up to fail. The health plan is owned by 19 community health centers (CHC) that are also the Board of Directors. Set up in 1992, to this day there is nothing but infighting amongst the Board that trickles down to impact health plan morale and performance. For example, one CHC was recently encouraging their patients – Community Health Plan of WA members - to switch to the competition!

The majority of the executives running the health plan are marginally competent; I cannot use the word ‘leader’ to describe any one of them. The culture is one that supports mediocre performance.

The current CEO is very out of touch with what is going on in the rest of the company. Since he’s been there for over three years, there is simply no excuse for tolerating the incredible dysfunction within the health plan, much less amongst the plan’s Board of Directors.

There is no commitment to creating a culture where staff is engaged and enthusiastic. Customer Service struggles not because of the manager, but because there is no emphasis or support of excellent service to members within the culture of the organization.

The departments are built like silos. A territorial attitude by Directors and Managers is swept under the carpet. Other employees who benefit from the status quo target anyone who tries to change things.

The Marketing Department lost a key executive when the former Director finally gave up and moved on. The Community Development Manager is a passive/aggressive young woman who you can count on to do whatever it takes to climb the corporate ladder. Her aggressive style and abusive interaction with staff is tolerated because she knows how to play the corporate political game.

The new HR director has brought a breath of fresh air to the organization but she has obviously become ingrained and won’t support staff that bring issues with Directors and other ‘leaders’ to her attention.

All of the Directors and above lack the courage to challenge the overall dysfunction that permeates the organization.

The IT department is under funded and under-staffed. Hardware and software are antiquated. There appears to be no commitment to bringing the organization into the 21st century of technology.

The Quality department did an astounding job of achieving NCQA accreditation – kudos to the Director for her incredible achievement. The challenge now is to maintain that accreditation in this terribly dysfunctional organization.

All other departments struggle with under-paid and over-worked staff.

All in all, if you’re desperate for a job, this organization should be nothing more than a stepping-stone to something better.

Advice to Senior Management – Eliminate the dysfunction with the Board of Directors. Focus on creating a culture of operational excellence with an emphasis on providing a positive member and provider experience and you may have a shot at competing with the national carriers that won a contract during the recent state RFP. Empower managers to do their job and quit micromanaging. The way the organization is structured creates silos between functional areas. Examine the structure of other successful commercial health plans and mimic that. Pay for demonstrated success and experience at every level of the organization, especially managers and customer service. Learn that your employees are your most valuable asset and start treating them that way. Do the employee engagement survey twice a year; create a culture where listening deeply to your staff when they provide feedback is a priority, and then empower managers to make the necessary changes.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Community Health Plan of Washington

Pros – The incentive pay is a good bonus.

Cons – The claims system difficulites are embarassing.

Current Employee – been working at Community Health Plan of Washington

Pros – Good benefits: Low health insurance premiums for self & family, transportation subsidy, generous PTO policy (17 days to start + 40 hrs community service), matching 401K

Cons – Low morale, below average pay, virtually no telecommuting allowed, high staff turn-over, ineffective senior management (especially IT & HR), constantly shifting priorities, bad reputation in the industry

Advice to Senior Management – Pay staff what they are worth, get rid of "dead weight" around the office, continue to focus on the strategic plan (and quit changing it every year)

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Community Health Plan of Washington

Pros – Decent market fair salary - reasonable HR Dept and policies - committed colleagues who give a damn about their work

Cons – The tuition of $5000 now has strings attached fine if you dont mind making a committment to two years after study ends.
New CEO Lance Hunsinger - not really a downside more of an unknown quantity.
Customer Service is still a second stringer to the rest of the company - a great need there for change to compensation and recognition.

Advice to Senior Management – Do something quickly to improve the incentive and motivation of the customer service representatives. Work on retention of performing staff who need a better incentive program. The quarterly staff/management offsite no longer exists - This organisation needs to plan for offsite events to compensate for this.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Community Health Plan of Washington

Pros – It is a great starting point in the health area. The tuition reimbursement is great! They do offer great benefits such as time off for community service and it does not count against your vacation time. This can be used to help out in the community or help in your child's classroom. CHP does communicate very well what their ideas and or plans are for the company. They do this by closing the company once every quarter to hold an all staff meeting. They are also very involved in the community. We have events that we sponser, March of Dimes, Breast Cancer and Asthma awareness.

Cons – If you are looking for career advancement you will want to look elsewhere. The only time that you are recognized is in your evaluation you get annually. There is also a huge disconnect when it comes to Customer Service and all of the other departments. Customer Service does not get the many "perks" or "credit" given to the other departments. We are only recognized by the company for one week in October, Customer Service Week.

Advice to Senior Management – Create more opportunities for younger people to advance within the company. Start asking questions of the non exempt employees to see how they feel and any ideas they may have.