case manager

customer service representative

care coordinator

medical assistant

program manager

Caloptima

During my time with the company, I've seen many people come and go, including those who've been with the company for a really long time, 10+ years. There are many structural issues in the department and their "open door policy" is a ruse. 
First of all, because it's a public agency, the salary is not competitive, especially for first level reps, so it attracts a certain demographic. The interview and screening process could be better also. It's a struggle to oversee many of these reps because they can be non responsive, have poor communication, don't have basic computer skills, don't make use of idle time, don't read emails providing feedbacks, don't retain info, lack critical thinking skills and common sense, could be rude to other staff and members, and lack team spirit. They make repetitive mistakes and don't seem to care about the members. The board of directors denied a for proposal higher, so good reps of every pay grade tend to leave. Sad! We're left with the unlikeables and unknowledgeables. 
The job is not easy but it's also not rocket science. It can be done if you're resourceful, diligent, and use good use of time. 
Second, the criteria for choosing their middle management is questionable. Some get promoted because of favoritism, regardless of how unapproachable or incompetent they might be, and others are hired on because their resumes look good. Some external hires don't catch on well, so they rely heavily on the leads, typically more seasoned, to do most of the work. Providing this feedback to upper management seems useless because it's difficult to track and trend when there's nothing holding them accountable. When I provided feedback about a sup with the managers, it was counted against me on my annual review because I didn't work out my issues with the sup! You only vent to a trusted work buddy. Don't let you guard down ever! 
Those annual reviews... Even if you've done above and beyond your immediate job responsibilities, you won't get the highest rating of "Outstanding". But if you slip up a couple of times,  it's counted very heavily against you on the review, though the extra tasks you perform take much more effort and more beneficial than the deficiencies. Some of it is subjective. Most of my bosses that have me really great scores and but 1 not so much though I've done so much for her. They even hold a meeting to continue to deduct points from the review, which directly affects your pay increase. I've had a lower review score because of this. 
There's no such thing as a safe space. They say you can talk to any of them, but the info you share will just be used against you later in one way or another. They'll be nice to your face, but they'll stab you in the back if given the opportunity. You have to watch what you say because someone's always listening. Reprimanding is not consistent across the board bc the incident could involve 2 people but only one will get in trouble. The opinion of whoever's highest on food chain matters the most, regardless of whether it's the best course of action. 
Other reps from departments such as enrollment, PR, and rx could be extremely rude and have horrible internal customer service skills. One rep from rx dept, in particular, was very condescending and argumentative for no reason. 
There is some room for growth if you play the office politics right. I've gained very valuable knowledge and made some good friends. If you fit into this culture and can play office politics, then you'll do great here. It could also be a stepping stone for those new to the industry. It's also really hard to get fired. This job is not a good fit for many reps but management insists we continue to use resources to up train them. 

I have been at CalOptima 2 years.   I have seen my entire management team leave, Our new management is truly out of their scope and clueless. There is no sense of understanding of what leadership is in charge of.  Many questions from all levels showing startling lack of knowledge and purpose of current program within our department.  Instead of being supportive, encouraging, and positive.  The  culture within our department  is negative, punitive. When something is found that that is felt that is negative, self praise from the leadership is heard.  Directives from superior are outlandish  and indicate no real understanding of what the internal program is.  Our  departments morale has taken a sharp decline in the few months our new managers have been in.Literally everything that my position was trusted with has been torn apart and the culture is a sense of disbelief, non trust and desparaging comments. Nothing is good and everything has to be redone of course with no real understanding of the internal department working.  I have never seen anything like this and frankly hopefully never will. Micro managed to the point of distrust is felt.  Despite having encourage transfers to other positions within CalOptima, they never hire from within.  New people are brought.  I have seen people try to apply for internal jobs only to constantly be turned down despite being already hired, cleared and familiar with the electronic records system and a clear HR file.   There is something wrong here!  Many people wait until they are vested with their 5 years and bale out shortly after. 

Benefits are great. PTO is great.  CalOptima has some very strange internal politics.  It is impossible to move up, promote or transfer to another department for many internal employees .  It makes NO sense and in fact leads the feeling of if you are not personally liked despite an excellent work history and no HR issues you have no hope to do any of the mentioned. 

If you work in the customer service department, just know it will be a call center environment.
The customer service department is broken down in multiple subdivisions. I worked as a Member Liaison Specialist and it was very misleading what they present to you during your interview. Once you start, you’re provided training for a month, but they train you for customer service and not member liaison things until your month training. The training for Member Liaison is not in depth, and NOTHING like the customer service training. It consists of 3-4 days of reviewing presentations, then you’re placed on the phones. You’re also told that it can be a 8-5 position but that’s a LIE. Once you’ve started, you’re then notified that the call center doesn’t close until 5:30 PM but you can’t clock out until 5:35 PM. If the phone rings at 5:34 PM, you’ll stay until you’re done wrapping up. POOR work/life balance. There are also meetings held after business hours. Leadership within the Member Liaison department, specifically the supervisors are of no help. You ask for clarification and leave you in the unknown. If you’re on the phone for over 30 minutes you have supervisors asking “do you need help because I see you’ve been on the phone for 30 minutes.” But when you really need help they’re no where to be found. The only ones who really help are the leads. You can’t move to a different department unless your supervisor says it’s okay, so if you’re not leaderships friends, forget about moving up. Lastly, you’re given a nice cubicle but you’re told by leadership “don’t get up from your cubicle to ask for help, just use teams.” My best advice, stay away from the Member Liaison department.

I was hired as a customer service representative and training is not long enough and they throw you on the floor with no supervision other than a group chat.  They watch every single thing you do and question you for everything.  You are required to get to your desk 10-15 min early to log into programs and on the phone but they don't pay you for that time.  You actually have a shorter lunch and break because you have to be ready to log back in with codes on the phone system so you're at your desk 2 min earlier to make sure you log back on to do that.  They will not let you off the phone till your shift ends at the exact time so your stuck shutting down programs emailing back or send a chat back if needed past your end shift time and you don't get paid for it.  If you happen to get a call right when your shift ends you have to stay till it's done and sometimes it's long.    Management is never on the same page and different teams hear different things on how we are supposed to handle the calls.  They make it look like they have so much fun and it's about the employees but it's not in reality unless you follow the heard.  If you voice your opinion about something you get looked down on and are told that's just the way it is.  I wouldn't recommend working here if you want your personal time respected.  

The job title and description did not match up with the job that I actually got. The job description implied that I would be interacting with CalOptima members and helping them access the care they needed. The actual job was reviewing two different kinds of questionnaires. Almost no client interaction, and no chance to help or change anything. 
Our physical location in the building kept changing, so I could never get comfortable in one setting. I had a desk that baked in the afternoon sun, one that had lights so bright that I and everyone around me had ongoing headaches, one that was lit like a prison cell, and one where I was in the middle of 6 people with respiratory allergies, complete with sneezing and coughing all day. 
The workplace was very territorial and narrowly focused. Everyone knew a great deal about a very small part of the process, and were unable to think critically about any other part of the process. 
Upper management had a script for everything, so any questions were answered with a line or two, and again no critical thinking was employed. 
The pay and benefits were great, but all day in flourescent lights doing busywork was not a rewarding place for me. 

This company has a good vision and the work itself isn’t too difficult. Sure, some days you may deal with difficult members or members going through difficult situations. However, my issue with this company is the lack of transparency with work-life balance. A lot of the time you’re subject to mandatory overtime. On some occasions that’s for spontaneous trainings that can’t take place during your actual scheduled shift for some reason. Oh and if you take the last shift of the day, you have to wait until the phone queue is completely clear. This company doesn’t tell you about the mandatory overtime when they hire you or during your training…probably so that other don’t quit on the spot. Sure overtime sounds good and all, but when there’s life outside of work and you end up sacrificing some of that life to cater to this company.. you end up getting burned out really quickly. 

Was hired through an agency for CalOptima which I thought would be a great temp job , well I was wrong. It’s 3-4 weeks of what THEY think is enough training and I say “they” because they think reading through a member handbook and a binder full of directions on what to do once your on the floor is enough. They’ll give you a teacher and several others helping with the class which provide contradicting information. They preach that everyone is so helpful and will provide assistance, another lie. The second week I was there a co-worker in my class made a mistake and was fired the next Day. Once we started taking calls during training the teacher seemed annoyed with people reaching out for assistance. Not to mention that once you’re on the floor taking calls it’s the same thing. Managers don’t know the correct information and their leads are terribly rude.

Sadly CalOptima's focus on serving our  members has changed. It is directly related to the fact that the majority of upper management(medical directors and managers to newly hired clueless untrained case managers) come from the private sector. They refuse to understand that CalOptima is Medi-Cal so the majority of who we serve require empathy and compassion which is lost on the self serving climate that currently pervades this environment.  My advice is this: if you are a compassionate healthcare provider who is knowledgeable and actually care about your patient, stay away because you will be shocked and frustrated with the overall clueless snide unprofessional comments made by the medical directors, supervisors and staff during your meetings.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part was serving the community in the most equitable manner allowed to. I had to strive to be myself in an environment not nurturing that.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Managers- Specifically Managers who pulled you in and continuously questioned your ability. When never being faced with such questions before. Additionally, tell you all about their personal life but then as a team member make you feel incompetent.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
They say they are about the patients they serve. They are not. They are about the strings being pulled at the top and by board members.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Team was great, management is a hot mess.

Management is very uneducated and only cover themselves. They will have you do multiple reports and take full credit for all the work. They will alway throw last minute projects to you with the expectations of completed it by Close of business on top of all your other work. Supervisors hired are transfers from other departments with no experience and having the expectations of their employees to educate them on their new roles. Some directors have no college education or degree to hold the positions and will not assist with providing you with the information needed to do your job. Self learned and taught is a must and training your management as you learn.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Case manager 15 salaries reported	$53.67 per hour
Customer service representative 2 salaries reported	$57,958 per year
Care coordinator 6 salaries reported	$64,680 per year
Medical assistant 5 salaries reported	$62,665 per year
Program manager 1 salary reported	$47.33 per hour

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