customer service representative

director

medical director

customer support representative

actuary

Elevance Health

This is a call center. You will be confined to your cubicle for 9 hours a day with two 15 minute and one 30 minute ASSIGNED breaks...you cannot combine them.  Nothing exciting to report about the work day.  All you're doing is making/receiving calls to/from doctors offices while determining the necessity of an ordered treatment (chemotherapy, MRI's, etc). Basically preauthorization screening. The people on the other end of the call are not health care professionals (and the majority of the people reviewing the cases ARE), so you have to speak in lay terms in order to obtain pertinent information.  Most of the callers will tell you they have "been on the phone all day", so by the time you get the call, they're less than happy so you spend your time trying to de-escalate their attitude.  You're also supposed to spend no more than 10 minutes on a call and there is a LOT of copying, pasting and editing of information from a pre-printed template that you MUST use during calls!  In the beginning, you could probably type faster than trying to highlight, copy, paste and edit but that's SERIOUSLY frowned upon.  Calls are recorded and will be reviewed for personal audits. In addition to trying to decipher the information over the phone you're asking for, you are typing said information into the computer while simultaneously attempting to follow the "guidelines" set forth.  There are also TWO computer screens at your desk with NUMEROUS windows of job related information that you have to leave open in order to proceed with calls. With respect to these "guidelines",  it is a plethora of medical information that is supposed to guide your decision making process (whether to preauthorize or send the case "up" for a physician to review) based on the clinical data provided from the caller. In short, you try to match the information dictated to you, to this company's medical guidelines.  To give you an idea of how much information these guidelines hold, remember the set of encyclopedias you may have had on your shelf? Well, the hard copy of these "guidelines" are about 3.5 books thick.  They give you these LARGE binders of guidelines that you are supposed to memorize while you're on a call. With repetition, you'll retain all of these edicts and that will increase how many calls you make/receive. You are supposed to receive in upwards of 55 calls a day at the very minimum but if you are new, you will not make your quota.  Everyone there does NOT need to be a mentor. Mentors are there to train you and help you make the transition from orientation to an independent nurse reviewer, but most (well the ones that were assigned to me) were overbearing and seemed to be annoyed if you didn't execute immediately! You rarely got to see other staff members (which was fine with me) unless you were on break, on lunch, saw them in the bathroom or was leaving for the evening. Insurance premiums were RIDICULOUSLY high per pay period. Management seemed a bit phony and I wouldn't ask for much from them.  Staff received an email at least once a week regarding the resignation of other employees. The environment is approximately 95% women.  There's a dress code...you can wear anything from jeans to a business suit everyday.  No flip flops or shorts.  Some of the employees should NOT have been let through the door!  Some showed up in spandex bottoms (of all colors) and short tops and open toed shoes in the summer.  Not a pleasant sight. They celebrate birthdays, will decorate your cubicle and have baby showers all the time but will ask new employees to contribute money and gifts to the recipient(s) THAT YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW OR HAVE YET TO MEET!  The break room is large with multiple microwaves, endless supplies of hot chocolate, tea, coffee and different kinds of soup.  Unfortunately, by the time you either go in there to warm your lunch or beverage, your break is over.  The pay per hour is WAY LOW! I was hired with both new and seasoned RNs and with over two decades of clinical nursing under my belt, I didn't clear $30.00/hr. Unless you want to work at a call center, this would be ideal for you as an RN. I learned nothing there except that I'd never work for another call center.

A typical day at work was logging in to your system, and then just taking phone calls and following-up with members you promised to call back and resolve issues.  I learned a lot about medical and prescription insurance and how it works. Training was supposed to have been eight weeks, but cut short to six weeks so that we were thrown into handling nonstop calls on January 1st, the busiest time of the year. We never got much hands-on training, and the majority of my training class left for another job or quit in the first week. The trainer herself was excellent.

My hiring class was trained to use newer computer systems that my manager was not familiar with and while she was nice, she was clearly overwhelmed with the work load. We were quickly transferred to another manager who is pleasant, but quickly gets overwhelmed and frustrated with you if you needed assistance. Frequently managers and higher-ups would tell us to not give out information that could help members with little reason as to why, which makes it very easy to feel that the company ultimately does not care about helping members, just cares about money and numbers. I am not naive, I knew the job would be like this. I did not expect the management and some of my coworkers to be so immature as to constantly gossip about eachother, nor did I expect my managers to give me conflicting answers or tell me to simply give misleading or incomplete answers to members over the phone to resolve an issue sooner.

I saw very few coworkers get promoted, and usually coworkers were promised coaching or training to help them get promoted next time, but there was never time set aside to assist them in achieving those goals. Some employees had interviews for positions pushed off to later dates simply because management was not in the mood. All in all it led to a distrustful work culture where many associates were constantly trying to throw eachother under the bus, or would not take responsibility for their work. Management treats the company like a cult where you are ostracized if you have any criticisms or suggestions for improvement.

I am glad that many of my previous coworkers have either left or were promoted. When I run into old coworkers who had been promoted, they tell me the situation is still the same. A shame, because the company could help it's members much more thoroughly if the general work culture actually cared instead of pretending they do. In addition to this, I was given a permanent promotion only to be later told the day I started the position that they changed it to temporary. It was then told to me that the position could stay permanent provided I did well enough. I was constantly told my work was excellent, however when they put me back to my old position I left not long after.

A discussion with my previous manager had led to them and their manager expressing interest in me coming back which I opted to discuss with them, but then they never got back to me, which again felt dishonest. A short while ago, I was contacted by HR to see if I would consider coming back on a temporary basis for much less money than I make now. I was already underpaid previously for the amount of work that I dealt with when I was a permanent employee, so I gladly told them I had better prospects these days. At the very least, they were interested in documenting why I left and did not wish to return, so hopefully this will get through to someone there but I unfortunately doubt it. While I had worked there I suggested other work to several employees and have steered people I know personally towards other jobs that are not Anthem where they have been happy, and I will continue to recommend people not work for this company, at least not in an entry level position. Never had I been so happy to leave a job.

When I started I was filled with hope and promise. I had an amazing benefit package and was moving through the ranks. Even under a tyrant of a manager I was often given duties that were fun and allowed me to be creative. I also was able to assist in other areas that allowed me to learn and take on new duties expanding my knowledge and work diversity at Anthem. However, the money was soon not enough and I was stalled because I had reached my maximum in my title and department. I had to be promoted and move out of my department. 


Now I am left feeling empty, and frustrated. I am often unable to do anything challenging other than to get other departments to do their work so that I can complete my work. Often times these other departments will not answer emails, or IMS. It matters not how many managers are CC and many times it is the managers and leads the emails are directed to and they simply will not respond. There are time limits and guidelines that are expected to be met. This is frustrating when you care and want to meet those guidelines because your bonuses and your raises are dependent on those being met. Not to mention the fact of being a decent human being and wanting to do the right thing for another human being. 

Then there is the entire ethics that you start to notice as you work here. It is a business, and you have to remember that. However if you have a shred of empathy you have to learn how to table that most days and not get into the story of an issue. Many times callers, even other employees will offer the story of why a claim or issue needs to be rethought about or reworked. This makes things difficult because knowing the story often times of why we as a company were wrong to say something was not medically necessary or investigative is hard pill to swallow. Many times there is a lack of information that we got and that is why, but still you are left with a feeling in your gut that tells you that it may be more than that in some of the cases. So you feel awful even though you yourself are no doctor and have no ability to change any kind of decision, it still makes for a bad and frustrating day. 

My suggestion is if you go in, get your service year in however you get in and move up and out of a CSR type of position as fast as you can. Get into leadership roles if and when possible and when you feel like a position is toxic or the team is toxic then move out and on. There are often many different job postings in the company to post out, but most are the same kind of environment but you may get lucky and step into a fostering one. I have an excellent manager who cares and wants all her people to succeed. She goes above the manager role and more of a guru role in many ways, but she is limited due to still a huge corporation above her. 


When many people lost their jobs during the recession and I did keep my job and continued to get raises. I have been with the company for a long time and I do make a good salary. My unhappiness has more to do with ethics and stagnation at this point than money. The benefits are not as half as good as they were once, though. Our new CEO has started to remove working at home opportunities for some areas and calling employees back into the office. So that is a concern because for myself as a high performer, I cannot come back into the office. I cannot stand to be anywhere near that building. 

So in my time there I have just felt like I went from full of promise and hope and bright future to bleakness and sadness. I have had other people in insurance industry offer me to come work at their business' because they are treated better, maybe I will figure it out and go to.

Most everything that was promised in the offer and welcome letters--like: assistance setting up the many pieces of equipment at home/phone system--never happened, had to figure it out myself. Training-offer letter stated I would have a training buddy, mentor-never happened--this person did not exist just like the phone/IT team that was supposed to be there to help--they had all been recently let go. The Computer training program was out of date and much of the interactive portions did not work. The training manager was useless and often not available, he was literally more interested in making jokes and silly quiz show questions than actually training or mentoring anyone. The managers were changeable and deceptive, stating that our phone stats would not be counted for the first three months and that all they would be used for is mentoring. Not true. When I asked to terminate my contract at the 6 month point as I did not feel this was a good fit, the manager said "either you quit today or I will fire you!". I asked on what basis she would fire someone who is asking to be released from a contract so that I would not incur further bonus money that would need to be paid back--she stated " you are slowest on the team". I said "what happened to not using stats for anything but mentoring in the first 3 months (I was in month 2 of live calls post 3 months of training) I was never offered mentoring during the 2 months of live calls. Also, considering the first two weeks I received zero calls-sat in front of the computer waiting for the auto dialer to call up clients and nothing ever came to me, then in the following weeks I was lucky to speak to one or two live people a day--seriously???? They want a 70 plus multiple answer questionnaire, full assessment and care plan done in a 20 minute call. Seriously?? and you can't really count on following up with your own patients because the auto dialer will call anyone at anytime even if you have a call scheduled. Other nurses would get your patient and have to figure out where you were in your plan of care and try to pick up from there--if that does not slow a person down nothing does. Bottom line, when I was told by my direct manager that the only thing that mattered was the bonus money which depended on how fast we worked (forget quality of work or the needs of the patient), that was it for me. Plus, being timed like a factory worker for a 10 minute break that if you clocked in or out too early or a couple minutes late you get written up--same for lunch or dinner. All in all, this is a factory assembly line of sorts. I say of sorts because most assembly lines still care about the quality of their product. Anthem only cares about money, not their members, and not the nurse case managers. Our patients could not even call their own case manager directly if they needed him or her, instead, they would get confused by the ridiculous phone queue and  have to hope that whatever warm body they ended up speaking with knew how to transfer their call to their case manager--the phone system alone was confusing to work with. Automation can be a good and useful tool if used well. But here, the focus was on automation, statistics and micromanagement for the sake of the size of bonuses, all at the expense of building a solid connection with high risk members to help move them toward wellness. Don't even get me started on the automated care plan.

The job duties themselves are enjoyable, but unfortunately, employees are often set up for failure due to conflicting instructions from various sources. While the company has made some strides in creating a resource database, new hires may still find themselves lost and unprepared, which can negatively impact their job performance. As much training as I had, there was something new every day (which I was okay with). There would be days I would find out something new, and then learned about things I should've been taught about but wasn't. 

I had a claims class (with someone who had time to teach) and I felt like I got the information I should've had much earlier. Things change so much in healthcare that items get outdated quickly. 

Additionally, Quality Assurance grading is based on illogical metrics, such as failing calls for following premade informational pop-up 'help bubbles' even if the information is accurate. Mistakes in calls or processes can result in write-ups or disputes, further adding to the stressful work environment. Also, it appeared that one negative survey has way more weight than all the good ones....and that isn't right. It's not fair or constructive to do that to people. Most of all it's illogical. Constructive criticism includes both negative and positive, I never had positive feedback from my manager. 

The most confusing part of all was being told that "quality" vs. "quantity" but in practice, while you are attempting "quality" you get a pop-up message with "What are you working on".  The claim calls are far from a quick calls. So many of these people are in distress, but your discretion at handling someone is distressed, the next day, after the fact, and you are asked why you were on the clock. The same people that can supposedly hear your calls suddenly need to ask you what you were doing at work late yesterday? 

Then my OT punches out started having issues. 

Although the job itself is fulfilling, the execution is often messy due to inconsistencies in training, supervision, and leadership. The workload is comparable to a six-figure job, yet pay rates fall far short of that mark. When I was let go because of a mistake, it wasn't too hard because the money they paid was so bad for the LA area. Given the nonstop training, online, eight hours a day, cameras on for three months, and the kind of knowledge and skills, the pay from a company of this stature should match the markets they are in. They know better but I guess they would rather deal with high turnover. 

Work can be disorganized, especially when working with other departments that may not always accurately complete their tasks. Some days are better than others, but the stress of meeting goals while dealing with system crashes and tedious paperwork can wear on employees. When one is actually working on a 

Despite these challenges, there is a sense of satisfaction in the work itself. However, having a better manager and more effective systems would greatly improve the work experience. Ultimately, the success of employees is directly linked to the quality of available resources. 

I liked all of my coworkers even if we only met virtually. I did like the job. I felt like I was helping people who needed it. I enjoyed helping them solve their problem(s).  I would still be there if it was worth fighting for but they just don't pay enough for what they are asking for.  

Workplace Stress as a Norm
A typical day being "majority of the time stressful" suggests that the work environment was either inherently demanding, mismanaged, or lacked the necessary support structures. A high-stress job can be manageable if paired with strong guidance, clear expectations, and proper resources, but when those elements are absent, stress transitions from a productive challenge to an outright burden.
Lessons in Trust & Self-Reliance
The idea that "you cannot trust anyone and have to fend for yourself" is a tough but common reality in certain workplaces. While some organizations emphasize teamwork and reliability, others inadvertently foster distrust due to poor leadership, unmet promises, or unreliable colleagues. This kind of environment can make employees hyper-independent, which has its benefits but also makes collaboration difficult. A workplace should instill confidence in its employees, not push them into survival mode.
Management: Disorganized & Dismissive
"All over the place and did not feel heard" points to erratic leadership—whether due to lack of experience, poor communication, or disconnection from employees' needs. In workplaces where management fails to provide structure, employees often feel neglected, leading to disengagement. The inability to listen to staff not only reduces morale but also prevents valuable insight from shaping company improvements.
Coworkers as the Saving Grace
It’s telling that, despite all the workplace struggles, coworkers were the factor that made the experience worthwhile. Strong peer relationships can make even the worst job bearable. This reveals how culture—while often dictated by management—can also be built from the ground up by employees who support one another, creating their own positive micro-environment in an otherwise negative workplace.
The Hardest Challenges: Lack of Information & Unrealistic Expectations
Not having the correct information to do the job while being held to high standards is a perfect recipe for frustration. Employees who are expected to perform at a high level without receiving adequate resources experience unnecessary stress, potential failure, and, in worst cases, blame for mistakes they weren’t equipped to avoid. This issue often stems from poor training, communication breakdowns, or an organization over-prioritizing results while neglecting the necessary support.
Enjoyment Rooted in Community
Despite all of these difficulties, coworkers stood out as the most enjoyable aspect of the job. That says a lot about the power of human connection—how shared experiences, teamwork, and mutual respect can counterbalance even a stressful environment.
Final Thoughts
This workplace dynamic was clearly one of contrast—mismanagement and stress on one side, and supportive coworkers on the other. While the experience may have been tough, it likely provided valuable insights about leadership, teamwork, and the importance of clear communication in any professional setting. It also highlights the fundamental truth that the people we work alongside can make or break an experience, proving that a strong team can sometimes compensate for weak leadership.


The one thing that the new hires at Anthem can always agree on, is that they were lied to when they interviewed. New Candidates are provided a mental picture of Anthem that promises unlimited potential for career advancement, flexible hours, generous time off, and learning opportunities that can be taken advantage of at any time.

Truth is - you can't apply for a new position until you have been with the company for a solid year. No exceptions. When you are hired in to the call center, you are told that there is a 8:AM shift - but you will never see it until you have been there over six months. Your starting shift will be 11:30am to 8pm. No exceptions. The hours are NOT flexible. You have to ask for a day off weeks in advance, if you can find someone to show you how to request time off. More often than not, you have to open the system and try your best to request time off, only to find that you chose the wrong PTO option. They do have something called VTO - Voluntary Time Off. This may sound appealing, the truth is that VTO is 'offered' when call volume gets slow. At first they ask for volunteers. If none are found, Management will go around and just randomly choose people for VTO. You have to get up from your desk and leave work - and not get paid for that day. 

You are told that you can take advantage of the classes online and the tutorials as much as you want - the sky is the limit. This is a lie. My last manager reprimanded us for staying after work or coming in early to complete tutorials on our own time. We were told we had to do this on company time. When asked when we could schedule this, we were told they'd let us know. - They never found time. Ever. 
The most insulting aspects of this company is the fact that if you have to go to the bathroom and are gone longer than 3 minutes... you're questioned about what took you so long. Please remember that there are hundreds of people, yet only one restroom per floor. There were days when the restroom would be 'closed for cleaning' and we'd have to go to the next floor.

Don't be fooled by the free fitness center offer. The staff means well, and they have classes and programs that you can participate it - if  you're not in the call center. Your lunch is 30 minutes. If you are scheduled for lunch at 1:PM, you cannot clock out until 1:PM EXACTLY. 12:59 means you're out of adherence and will be talked to. If you're on a call and can't log out until 1:08, that's fine - but if you log in after 1:30, you'll be talked to for being out of adherence. Taking a 30 minute class during the work day is not an option.

If you want to help people, do yourself a favor, and find a new company. The only thing Anthem cares about is filling a chair at the call center so that Medicare doesn't get mad that the callers are waiting longer than desirable. You are a body to fill the chair, just like a dairy cow in a barn. That is it. 

Cafeteria would be great to utilize since you only have 30 minutes for lunch - but it takes 10 minutes to walk there and 10 mins back, so you have to eat while you work. If your hours are 11:30 to 8 pm, your lunch hour isn't until 3 or 4 - and the cafeteria closes at 1:30. So, sorry. There's a fridge but you better keep an eye on your lunch, because more often than not, it will disappear.

Well-known company that continues to grab more of the market share, but the growth and success does not make it a great place to work.  It's a good opportunity to gain skills and knowledge in the healthcare field, since that may change over time but will never go away.  That's about as far as it goes.  Everything else, from recruiting to management, is a jumbled mess.  

Talent acquisition is ridiculous.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the selection process.  You could even apply for the same types of positions and have one application rejected with a standard, no explanation given, rejection email and the other get you an interview.  The timeframes are all over the place too.  It could be months after an interview before you receive an offer.  A majority of the time, it's more about who you know than skills/qualifications.

Management is a coin toss between great and abysmal.  There are some really great ones, from extremely knowledgeable in the area of work to caring about the people that report to them, but there is also the total opposite.  Sadly, there are many that get put in these positions over more qualified individuals that have actually done the job.  The company is also extremely top heavy with executives, directors, and levels of management.

They talk a huge game about elevating and advancing total healthcare, but the application of that statement falls way short of the employees who contribute to the successes of the corporate giant.  Metrics for raises and advancements continue to rise while they push for more AI to be able to reduce the workforce.  Work-life balance has become a joke as they push a hybrid workforce policy that makes no sense.  Positions that used to have the privilege of being remote and flexible are now required to go in with set times, but even that depends on the manager because one team may go once a week, another required to do 3-4 days in, and another no office time at all.  Meanwhile, the entry level customer service jobs only train in office and then go remote.  There are few assigned desks, so each week you could be in a different desk and surrounded by any type of employee, not to mention you may even have to change your days due to there being no desks available or a meeting they want to have everyone in a conference room and on video for so it can give the appearance that the hybrid model is working well and loved by the majority (although it had an approval rating under 40%).

Rather than continue, let's just say it is very much a typical corporate giant.  They grow and acquire more businesses for their portfolio, but those at the top are the main ones to reap the benefits (CEO has been reported, by several sources, to make over 300x that of the main workforce of employees), and the knowledgeable employees are constantly replaced with cheaper, inexperienced recruits until they get AI to handle most of the work.  

I was hired at Anthem Insurance for the Amerigroup division in Overland Park, KS. The job was your typical customer service position helping out Medicaid members with their problems. From the moment I interviewed for this job, I like many others were either lied too or had the truth hidden from us. 

I interviewed for the job in April of 2018. During the interview the two managers advised me the department would grow. So much so that it was hinted they would hire more people in the fall of that year after my training class was done and integrated fully into the job. That was the first lie. 

What they didn't tell me is that at the moment of the interview, Amerigroup was in the process of bidding with three other companies for the Health Care Organizer status for Kan Care. The medicaid program for the state of Kansas. Later talking to other employe's who were there for over a year, no one knew of this until the hammer came down. More on that later. 

Another lie during the interview was there were a lot of chances for advancement. But later when hired, during the training class we were told 85 percent of the non customer service jobs were clinical. Meaning unless you had experience in the clinical field or were a nurse, you had no shot at getting one of those jobs. You were stuck in customer service. 

In mid-July word came that Kan Care choose not to accept Amerigroups HCO bid and by the end of the year we would all be without a job. The news came out of nowhere because no one knew. Other representatives, some who have been there for years didn't know here was a chance our jobs would go away. They were never told of the bidding and later the protest process. And that is one of the main complaints with Anthem/Amerigroup. The lack of transparency. 

Since the Kan Care announcement and Amerigroups lawsuit of the state of Kansas came down customer service has been completely in the dark. We have had multiple town hall meeting about the lawsuit and the future of our jobs that no one from our department can go to. Well no one other then managers. Because we have to be on the phones were not allowed to go even though everyone else in other departments can. The only word we get is an occasional email from the head of the division. 

Since the announcement, slowly but surely more and more people have left. In the start of October out of nowhere my direct supervisor and team lead left without telling anyone. 

This has been a very frustrating journey with Amerigroup. Since the department will be gone by December I wanted to warn others that what we went though might not be an isolated incident. And could be how Anthem/Amerigroup normally does business. Please beware before you accept the job.

A typical day at work is getting on the phones and getting out into “On Que” with back to back calls the first half of the shift or the whole shift if you have the 8-4:30pm shift. No time to look at emails or updates about new ways we’re handling issues. Constant issues with system and long wait times for a tech. Most of the time the techs don’t even want to take the call and we’re stuck with the angry caller. Hypocritical information for example was told we couldn’t cold/blind transfer and to report anyone and now we’re told if we have to wait longer than 2 minutes to blind/cold transfer. They are telling us information last minute with OT making it mandatory and that we need 8 hours bare min M-F and then another 8 hours sometime over the weekend so that’s an extra 16 hours working the week. They’re giving us a bonus but only $200 AND that’s ONLY IF YOU WORK the 8 hours on The Weeknd IN ONE SHIFT and you’re not off Que for 30% of your shift but won’t tell us what counts as Off Que. 

You’re getting callers upset that their meds aren’t in the system yet or even available for refills and having to tell Patients to call back within 24-48 hours.  You have SMEs (subject matter experts) who sometimes never helped and several questions get ignored so people are posting them again in the chat. So not enough support for the people on the phones. Management is getting upset that people are asking for help instead of using their notes when we’re getting back to back calls and don’t have time to put them on hold otherwise we get a message asking why the call is taking so long. 

They’re automatically putting you on Que or off even if you’re doing something. My manager did it to me once while I had a call go over when I was suppose to clock out and it ended the call and I was unable to call back as it froze my phone. 

In total it’s chaotic. A lot of people are frustrated. Managers micromanage and are not helpful when we ask questions. No huddles or meetings to inform everyone what’s happening just emails and expected mandatory OT. It’s a 24/7 department and a 7 week rotating weekend shift but that’s out the window right now as everyone is required to work a weekend. 

Don’t come here unless you’re willing to not have a life and just work. It’s their 3rd time relaunching this pharmacy and they still don’t have all their stuff together to run smoothly. 

Also they ask for people to do things for free and then don’t even reward. Myself and several of my training class helped create content and help with training and only 1 of my class who was the most knowledgeable got promoted to SME while another class had gotten more promotions while MY CLASS was retraining them because of the misinformation they got from training. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Customer service representative 1 salary reported	$12.92 per hour
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