customer service representative

claims specialist

analyst

retail sales associate

manager

Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield

I have enjoyed working for Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. I believe this is a great company to work, although there are things that can be improved upon. First, I would like to discuss the good things about the company. This company does help supporting the community, including fundraisers for different causes. A lot of supervisors and managers are great people and care about their employees. I have learned more about professionalism and customer satisfaction from this company, more than any other company I have worked for. This company cares about its customers and does put the customer as their number one priority, which really is great. This company also provides training to improve yourself as an employee, and allows you to "shadow" other departments that may  provide interest to the employee. I believe that Arkansas Blue Cross is trying to make medical insurance better for a lot of people, especially in the state of Arkansas. I truly believe this company has a great future. 
Unfortunately, there is some things that I believe can be improved upon. The interviewing process to get in to the company is very difficult. I believe this is done with a purpose in mind, to hire the best of the best, but often times this can lead to not hiring good employees. This doesn't stem to just outside the company. This also applies to internal employees. Positions do become available within the company, but moving up is difficult. An employee can prove to be one of the best employees internally in the company, but advancement is still not possible for many. This causes a lot of frustration for employees that want the opportunity and work hard to move up, but don't get the opportunity to do so. This next thing is a positive and a negative. A lot of people that work with Arkansas Blue Cross work for 20 to 30 years or more. Therefore, a lot of positions don't become available for a very long time. Its a positive, because a lot of employees love working for the company and want to stay there until they retire. The negative effect to this, is that it doesn't allow many great employees to advance, and stay within the same type of work for many years. Arkansas Blue Cross also has a customer service segment, which allows customers to call and get information about their health care insurance. This includes claims (medical bills) related questions, benefit insurance questions, appeal questions, etc. Due to the nature of the business, dealing with medical insurance is difficult. There are a lot of procedures and policies that need to be followed. Members and providers (doctors offices and hospitals) may not agree with those policies and procedures, especially in relation to a bill that was not covered by insurance. Again, this is the nature of the business, but it is very difficult to be on the "front lines" and answer phone calls in relation to medical insurance. There will be many moments where a customer will yell, scream, and curse at you and you must be able to stay completely professional at all times.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The flexibility, competitive above average pay wages for our state, healthcare benefits & incentives, & the environment.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Productivity sometimes - your "quota" stays the same (once you are finished w/ training), regardless of the project difficulty.  So, one project you could get double or almost triple your quota for the day, but the next project, you could struggle to just meet it... And sometimes it feels like some management may not understand this, as they have not had to worry about meeting production in several years.  But this has improved a little.  Some managers expect you to stay online & work until it is met (which is understandable) - even if it is over your 8 hrs.  (Salary Position = no overtime).  This is stressful sometimes, yet very understandable & definitely not a "gripe".

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Welcoming, inclusive, promotion of teamwork, & positive.  They offer incentives for your healthcare benefits to help lower premiums (and the premiums are already substantially lower than what I've previously had for worse coverage), which is awesome, as the benefits are already amazing compared to others for this day & age.  I'm not sure about other department managers, but in my department personally, they encourage you to advance in your career if that is what you want to do - they don't expect you to stay "stuck" if you are planning on "moving up".  This is amazing.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I log on at 730am, check my emails, then get started w/ any projects we have going on.  Our department is constantly evolving and growing right now, so we have a lot going on, & as I've asked my manager for the "one-off" random side projects, sometimes I'm called to switch over to something else to work on.  It's not always the same thing.  I love the variety - this helps w/ fighting burnout & also helps improve on skills you either didn't have previously really, or that you do have, but haven't used in a long time.  Stay up to date on any industry changes.  I usually am finished in my 8 hrs.  You are expected I believe to work between the hours of 6am & 6pm - depending on your department & manager.  They are very flexible w/ doctor appointments and understanding.

A typical day included assigning or denying case management to Blue Cross Blue Shield members in order to save cost to the company.  It also involved taking calls from members or providers mostly related to benefits or claims information.  It is not encouraged to speak to any of your coworkers unless you are on break or at lunch, there is no actual training program or qualified preceptors due to management doing away with the program to save money, and it is highly advised to hand tally the amount of assignments done throughtout the day.  Apparently, despite all records and documentation being electronic, management can still accuse employees of low or no production.

Supervisors are generally hard to find, despite the fact that their office is mere feet away.  Calling, texting, emailing, or simply chasing them down makes no difference.  If a supervisor walks past during the day it is best to catch them quickly and address all issues at once.  If the employees are unlucky, the supervisor walking the floor will have absolutely no idea how to answer any questions. Word about changes in policy, case manager changes, or anything else important to the day's assignments usually comes hours later than is useful.  Most times employees would need to search through many records to make corrections, without stopping productivity of course.  Supervisors walking around the work area would randomly make assumptions without asking for clarification.  For example, resting or squinting your eyes due to computer glare to them meant that an employee was sleeping, asking for clarification of an instruction meant resistance, and being over productive meant intentionally taking work away from others.   The coworkers are down to earth and have the typical distrust and frustration that come with having poor management.  

The hardest part of the job was trying to work around the poor communication from management, but otherwise the job was easy despite being somewhat boring.

The most enjoyable part of the job was walking around downtown during breaks.

Work hours 8.00am to 4.30 pm., have team meetings with the team leaders , teaching and educating new and current case managers, on cases, case management programs. Assisting with cost savings, negotiation between providers and insurance company in the best interest of the clients. Communication with providers, clients on client care. collaboration of client care, medical reviews, audits, doing reports on acuity levels. It was a new division and extension of Arkansas with 50 new employees, the management team was new with the exception of the supervisor. Many of the coworkers have the relevant case management experiences and skills. The hardest part was a new division with no one available to teach and train from Arkansas on a consistent, and regular basis. The Dallas branch felt alienated and alone. The most enjoyable part was the clients, providers and to know that I was making a positive impact on clients lives. I have learn to work more about case management, to triage and work more as a team.the process of case management

ABCBS was known for being THE place to work at. People retired out, it wasn’t uncommon to hear how long worhers have been with the company. It was a company that valued its employees, and I think the employee tenure reflected that. Somewhere around 2020 the culture shifted and despite the lack of transparency, workers feel it. Leadership consists of the good ol boys so when you prioritize yes-men over competence you’re bound to sink…and man how we’ve been sinking. Throwing spaghetti at the wall. We’re now following the leader when it comes to RTO, which I believe is a quiet layoff to keep us from looking bad. HSA payments now broken up, full incentives not given, multiple layoffs, “collaboration day” eased into a strict 3-day in office day, employee morale is low, wages for positions have been reduced…the writing is on the wall. It is said we want to get back to company “culture” but I barely recognize this company and when you have a bunch of yes men in upper management there’s nothing you can do but watch the Titanic sink. It was good while it lasted!

A typical day starts by dressing business casual. Each employee is given a badge for building access and unique log in information with which to access an assigned PC. Workflow is relayed by supervisor yet discretion is allowed (in other words--no micro-management). The tasks are many and varied and assigned based on mastery of pre-requisite tasks. Training comes from leadership but may also come as a result of trial and error with other subject matter experts. All are willing to help but answers can prove complicated and may seem inconsistent. Some guidelines are difficult to memorize as worded and therefore can be a challenge to convey when enforcing. Management takes an interest in employees but it can become a (not so) covert intrusion of privacy. The benefits are great. It's easy to build family-like relationships. There are picnics, and kick-offs, and potlucks. There are opportunities for advancement and help preparing for such opportunities.

A very good company to work for as far as the pay and benefits most definitely but vvhite people have more privilege within certain departments. They are allowed to come up with their own job titles that are not even actual positions within the company. I've seen ABCBS allow this knowing that they wouldn't allow a minority race employee to have this type of leeway. These people usually make up these titles within certain departments so that they can be apart of administration solely to oppress African American employees and find any way to make it harder for them in an attempt to get them out of the door. I've seen it done specifically within the ASE/PSE dept for example with titles such as benefit liasion and business coordinator. These two titles are not ABCBS positions. Instead, they were made up by the employees who hold the postions. Vvhite privilege definitely has a stronghold within the company. Beware.

When I joined the company, I was already experienced in providing excellent service. I learned Medical Terminology and Medical Coding by taking advantage of courses paid for by the company to expand my knowledge base  and I work more specifically with provider office and medical facilities more with claims and medical benefits based on ICD-9 and CPT coding. I love my co workers and I have developed so many close business working relationships/ I enjoy that I'm able to work from home but I'm a person that has so much knowledge that I need more responsibility in my current state. A typical day is waiting for the phone to ring. It can be very boring and I feel as if I'm not doing all I need to be doing for me in my professional; development which is where I'm seeking to find what is a better fit for me where I can still provide great service and do more than just wait for the phone to ring each day.

A typical day in my position involves working from home. A few times per month I work in the office and the environment is usually laid back and business casual day.
There is a certain pressure to complete a certain amount of inventory.  
This could be the difference between working from home or working in the office 5 days per week or keeping your job for that matter.
High performers get great bonuses and job security.
You dont have a lot of leverage for error.

The most enjoyable part of the job is working at home and on the days you come in there is a laid back atmosphere and occasionally celebrations. On Fridays we hear company updates and motivation talks over the intercom. 

Some of the supervisors are clueless. Its about who likes you as far as moving up in the company. You don't really have to be the most skillful or people person.

I started as an entry level customer service employee with excellent training. I transferred to claims so I could understand the procedures of claims processing.

As a claims processor, I worked from reports until the company started using a system that assigned claims to each processor. I was trained to work a claim from start to finish including ordering and reviewing medical records when necessary. 

I received excellent quarterly and annual reviews so I was able to telecommute once the company updated systems to make that possible. 

I was a team lead for two years and interacted with management on a daily basis. During that time I was able to assist my co-workers and my supervisor daily also.

I enjoyed my years at Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield but I wanted to move to Florida

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Customer service representative 8 salaries reported	$21.81 per hour
Claims specialist 6 salaries reported	$20.58 per hour
Analyst 3 salaries reported	$70,667 per year
Retail sales associate 4 salaries reported	$25.00 per hour
Manager 4 salaries reported	$100,500 per year

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