business analyst

analyst

senior software engineer

program manager

management analyst

Hawaii Medical Service Association

This review pertains to working on a neighbor island for HMSA. HMSA as a company, is great! My previous position in Customer Relations was fantastic. However, the dept I worked in., Provider Services, was beyond dysfunctional! I went through a reog 3X in one year and reported to 4 different managers. I was not allowed to travel to islands within my own county, which I was responsible for, due to a  so called "travel restriction", yet other managers traveled all of the time. The expectations and goals are unattainable as HMSA management does not provide any support or tools/information necessary to assist the providers. You have to train and educate yourself because the only training you'll receive is via webinar, because they won't fly you to Oahu to take part in in-person training with your co-workers. I asked numerous times and made suggestions for our team to train on new systems and tools in-person, but management didn't value that suggestion. Management is cliquish and you are either part of the "in crowd" or on the "outskirts". There is zero transparency. Working on the neighbor islands, you are prohibited from flying to provider meetings on Oahu even though all of your providers are there. The compensation is fair, the benefits are fantastic and it is a work from home environment but you will be left lost and frustrated on a daily basis. The outer island remote positions are not set up for success. There is absolutely zero communication within this department. I really believed in HMSA as a company and expressed the lack of communication to my manager numerous times, but nothing was ever done. I continually requested feedback and constructive criticism but heard nothing until review time and then you are not allowed to dispute or discuss any of it. It is a highly unprofessional work environment. I eventually moved on for a work-life balance. There is ZERO work-life balance in provider services. I asked for an exit interview, was mailed a survey, communicated everything and heard nothing back.

I worked as a network management representative in the field department at HMSA, but unfortunately, the working conditions were far from ideal. The company was experiencing a mass exodus of experienced employees, and the management was in disarray. The outsourcing situation had become unbearable, with teams in India lacking English proficiency. Correspondence with them often went unanswered, causing frustration for both employees and providers who had to interact with them. It was evident that the language barrier was a significant challenge.

Moreover, the training provided was subpar, with many of the instructional videos being either inaudible or visually unclear. This lack of effective training further hindered employees' ability to perform their roles efficiently. The work culture itself was aggressive, and it seemed as though everyone was out to undermine one another. Even minor mistakes would be reported to our managers, as colleagues would copy them on emails to ensure our errors were noticed (spelling errors or something minor). The atmosphere at HMSA was highly political, meaning that if someone took a disliking to you, it became an ongoing struggle.

Additionally, the salary raises were almost comical, ranging from a mere 2% to 5%, hardly reflective of the effort and dedication put into the job. The high turnover rate was striking, resembling a revolving door as numerous employees left the company in search of better opportunities.

In summary, my experience at HMSA as a network management representative was marred by the departure of experienced staff, chaotic management, challenging outsourcing arrangements, inadequate training resources, an aggressive work culture, and meager salary raises. These issues created a hostile and unsatisfactory work environment, leading many employees to seek employment elsewhere.

Pros:
- Regular office hour schedule. Just be prepared to do a good amount of overtime.
- Good benefits like 401K, insurance, paid time off. Just don't expect to use too much of that paid time off because of fear of when you come back, all that backlog of work will just be there piling up for you.
- If you like doing individual work, this is a pro.

Cons:
- Very low and non-competitive pay compared to competitors. Will have to work very hard and go way beyond the call of duty to even be considered for a standard small annual raise. Good luck keeping up with inflation and the high cost of living in Hawaii.
- Lack of good leadership, partly because of lazy management to take initiative for process improvements.
- Little to no training and continuing development plan in place for employees. Management assumes and expects you to know any given task assigned, even though there is little to no training plan to back up this assumption. You will also be disciplined for not knowing, even though you weren't trained. There's a definite lack of empathy in management here.
- Not much emphasis on teamwork. You will feel demeaned if you ask questions.
- High employee turnover rate.
- Lots of silos within the company making it hard to communicate and collaborate with other departments.
- Unrealistic or unfair designation of work assigned by management.
- Lots of blaming and finger-pointing, and lack of taking responsibility and ownership of problems or mistakes, particularly by management.

The company changes CEOs too frequently!  They all have a different vision of the company and the newest rather travel and see Broadway musicals than be in the office.  The company outsourced positions to "help with cost of premuims" but won't help with the cost of living for current employees.  There are MANY current employees that make extremely less than new employees coming aboard.  This job had NO work life balance at all.  You are forced to figure out how to manage your household, take care of children and your own medical issues all with 5 excused absences a year!  We even have to pay our own medical at an outrageous cost!  Work from home showed increased production during Civid but then pulled the option in late 2021 and told us that it would no longer be allowed because it doesnt work.  The company says it's trying to make Hawaiis health better but doesn't care about the health of their employees.   Since this job, I've started mental health meds and seeing a professional weekly!  They have stopped any raises and incentives since the begining of Covid.  Currently saying they won't bring them back because not enough money.  But our department alone has had over 10 people leave this job since January 2022 and most jobs have been cut or outsourced.  They have become more about production, numbers and call volume versus actually helping members.  

I worked in two different departments. 

I learned that the higher up the position, the more they focus on the bottom line. (Not shocking but disappointing in health care)

Management in some departments is great, others really don't know what talented people they have or how to get desired results. Leadership changed and with that came a lot of "re-organizing". My department was fine, but it put others on edge, as they saw their entire department disappear around them. 

Workplace culture is varied. There was an onsite wellness program and effort, and it seemed to have a positive impact socially and physically for those who engaged. HR is definitely for the company and the organization needs to work on treating ALL employees with respect and allowing, if not facilitating a growth mindset. 

HMSA states in their handbook, etc. that they provide maternity necessities (like a maternity room), however in some areas you will face extensive challenges by management and co-workers, and facilities are not really made available. 

They are not always loyal to their employees in many regards, such as outsourcing jobs that can be done inhouse, and VPs putting their personal financial interests before logical interests of the company and their employees.
 
There ARE many employees there who work hard and truly care about each other and their customers.

All they care about is numbers. Like any business I suppose.  Every day you have to report how long you spent doing certain tasks, and you get graded if you are working within the average amount of time it takes to complete that assignment.  It is determined by how many claims, and how many accounts were "touched".  Like a ratio sort of thing.  Pretty much you are chained to your two screen desk 8 hours a day.  Repetitive no doubt.  Quiet office. You hear everyone. Great attendance rule.  Start of new year your attendance record and any warning like that are erased off your record and you start new.  Kinda nice if you are someone that might have these kinds of issues. They are understanding with family matters, but main thing just want the work done.  Like any business.  HMSA Keeaumoku parking has an 8 year wait,. Park at Ross for $6 a day, or at walmart across the street.  Or street parking for free behind HMSA if you get to work early, All those side streets up to Piiikoi have free parking.  Pretty safe.  A good walk to and from work. Free exercise.  Speaking of...HMSA has a gym inside that is free to employees, and classes too.  OK place to work. Some depts are clicky and you just have to ignore.

Do NOT apply for HMSA QUEST. Within the year of employment the dept I was in went through 3 managers! Lack of coordination, communication and respect for employees. Very uncomfortable and Hostile Enviroment. Want a good training, and solid foundation? NOT HERE!  NO training program, when mistakes were made they would harass you and treat you like a non compliant employee. Concerns about your position, and performance are ignored or not taken seriously. If that doesn’t make you run for the hills, this health insurer does not provide their employees with free healthcare (you can only choose their health plan) and no sick days are offered. Want an exciting career with room for growth, improvement and opportunity... NOT HERE! Many depts have lack of work resulting in a VERY BORING work day with lots of down time for snoozing. Don’t waste your time.

At HMSA I always looked forward to going to work because of the wonderful friendly environment that I worked in. Every morning i would clock in, check my email and finish up any work or do any work that I have been assigned to do. I would do that until it was time to go to the meetings that we had daily and in those meetings I would record everything that they have talked about and written down on the whiteboard. After the meeting that was roughly around 4 hours long I would go to lunch with my co-workers and after lunch I would go back onto the computer and start to put everything that was talked about in the meeting into documentation on the computer and i would upload it to the team Sharepoint after so everyone is on the same page for the next day. The hardest part of the job was trying to organize everything for everybody to understand. Rather then then that I enjoyed working there.

Working for HMSA was a great opportunity for me to learn how Medical Insurance works, as well as completing requests for Providers. Working with HMSA, I was in the Provider Services Department and gain a lot of knowledge and experience in Medical Insurance, how to process Address Changes, Addition Locations, NPI updates, as well as learned how to Credential new Providers wishing to sign up with HMSA to accept HMSA patients. I met some of the most amazing people at this company and would have stayed with HMSA for as long as possible, but due to my husband and I, currently, going through a divorce I couldnt stay with HMSA because I am having to relocate off the island of Hawaii because the cost of living is too expensive here and I can't afford to raise my son and myself here.

I would not recommend this employer because there is no comprehensive training program, you are assigned more projects than what any one person can do, you spend 4 or 5 hours a day in meetings that resolve nothing, there's no accountability, it's a management against associate environment, people have worked there for more than 20 year so there's little room for advancement, management goes out of their way to stack the deck so there's little or no way to get a merit increase, as a salaried employee you work over time every day plus weekends but your compensation does not cover the additional work put in. Its an okay place to work if it's your first job, but as a mid-career professional, you're better off going some place else.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Business analyst 4 salaries reported	$62,500 per year
Analyst 8 salaries reported	$56,750 per year
Senior software engineer 7 salaries reported	$89,143 per year
Program manager 4 salaries reported	$76,640 per year
Management analyst 4 salaries reported	$46,750 per year

Working at Hawaii Medical Service Association: Company Overview and Reviews

Hawaii Medical Service Association

Hawaii Medical Service Association Ratings

Popular jobs at Hawaii Medical Service Association

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected