clinical allergy specialist

allergy technician

medical assistant

licensed practical nurse

certified medical assistant

United Allergy Services

The company expects yoh to work off of a "script" that they change about once a month (there is no retraining or heads up). The whole job is about goals, scripts, and conformity. They're big about time off and "setting your own hours" but it's a far cry from fair wages and respect. As someone who has worked in medicine since high school I have been SHOCKED at the way things are done here. I have been an employee for almost two years and they have restarted my entrance training 6 times so that I have been ineligible for promotion, I have had 5 different clinic managers, 3 different account managers, and (as previously mentioned) 6 different entrance trainers. They pay about $16 an hour off the bat which is pretty good until you see your job responsibilities. You are the ONLY person at your clinic and see your bosses in person about 4 times a year. Outside of that you are expected to do everything yourself secretarial work, janitorial work, laboratory work, clinical work, and "sales". Now please let me be clear; this IS NOT like every other job where you are expected to help out and contribute- these are ALL 100% YOUR RESPONSIBILITY for an entire clinic. On top of that every one of the people I've seen move into power (except ONE) have been outside hires. During training for this job they actually told us, ( out loud, like real life ) that this is a great starter job and can get your foot in the door for better opportunities. I COULD NOT MAKE THAT UP. Average turn around rate is about 8 months so don't expect to be there for long. Bonus points, the majority of people don't "quit" but are forced to. For example, my clinic is about to be shut down by U.A.S. not because I didn't see enough patients, but because not enough could afford the treatment in my area. It has been a regularly stated thing that "this clinic should have never been opened". So what does the company do? Find me a new place to work or open a new clinic near by? No, that would require them to invest in employees. Do they fire me and give me access to severance or benefits extension? Of course not! That would cost money. What they do (and I've seen this with 11 different people) is they offer you a job in New Jersey. New Jersey requires C.A.S.s to be LPNs or FNPs. In other words either you go to school and become over-qualified for the position, OR you quit and abandon any benefit opportunities. 

Just to "cherry on top" this as it were, when I was being interviewed for this position I was ASSURED that my travel expenses would always be covered due to my hour+ one-way commute. As a matter of fact, thats the reason I took the job. Less than a week later they told me that would NEVER happen and that I was being dishonest about my interview. When I asked to review the interview recording they made they told me it had been deleted. 

In the 9 years I have been with the company, there has been so many changes with documents, as well as additional services.  One thing I will say that the patient care and allergy process flow has stayed the same.   I am sure some people find that our job is more administrative work, as I agree, however I will also state there is a lot of clinical as well.  We are with the patient from the start, from the moment the provider orders the test.  We collect the insurance and verify to make sure the patient does not have an OOP.  We schedule their allergy test, during their appointment we give them their forms to complete and review.  This is where we assess the patient, we assess their allergic symptoms as well as the frequency.  We perform the allergy test and than we are able to give them their results and help them correlate their symptoms.   We discuss and educate them on the treatment program that we have that could potentially give them a better quality of life.  Now you may think that ends the appointment, but that is just the beginning for that patient we than scheduled their next few appointments to teach them how to do their own injections from the comfort of their own house.  The program is more of a natural treatment plan.  The providers will follow up with them throughout their program.    The hardest part of the job are sometimes keeping some patients compliant as well as dealing with the insurance verification process.  The insurance can take an hour sometimes. Also some providers can be a little harder to converse with than others, but we are all here to help the patient.   The most enjoyable part is working with the patient and seeing how much their symptoms are improving. How before their cat they could barely be near and now they can snuggle on the couch.  Or their they could hardly stand being outside on the really nice days and now can play and enjoy it with their kids.   

This is a great entry level clinical position. You work by yourself, and only see your Clinical Supervisor every several weeks but they are very involved over email and phone. Training was unfortunately subpar, and the instructors were condescending and did not focus on some really important aspects of insurance verification and clinical processes. You just have to get through the training week, and be diligent in asking questions and make sure you are comfortable after your precepting week. I have had a lot of trouble getting the Providers at my clinic involved in the allergy clinic, so that is a potential con. However, I have a lot of autonomy and the success of the allergy lab is truly up to the CAS. This is not a sales job. We have to meet quotas for testing and treatment rate, but that is imperative to the success of the company. It is up to the CAS to make sure you are researching candidates thoroughly and making sure that it is appropriate to test them. The morale of this position is up to the CAS. My supervisors are fantastic, involved and very helpful and encouraging. I have flexibility in my schedule because I schedule patients myself, and my supervisors are understanding when I have to take time to tend to appts and other personal issues. While most of my duties are administrative, observing processes in a Primary Care Clinic has been an incredible learning opportunity. This job is what you make of it. You must be self-motivated and manage your time diligently. I am grateful for all I have learned clinically, administratively and about myself in this position. My pay is less than what I feel I deserve for all that I do, but raises are opportune and if you do well you can move up in the company.

I accepted this position thinking that I would be providing testing and treatment for people with allergies.  I quickly realized that the clinical allergy specialist position is essentially a sales job.  I’m putting emphasis on that because it’s not something that was mentioned during the interview or training process at all. However, it is the main focus of the job.  In this role I was placed in the office of a primary care provider who had agreed to partner with United Allergy Services .  It then became my job to sell allergy tests and treatments to the physician’s pre-established  patients.  I spent most of my day calling patients who had filled out a questionnaire about seasonal allergy symptoms and trying to convince them that they should sign up for testing and treatment based upon the responses that they provided.  These people were not being referred to me for testing by their provider and they were not seeking me out for advice about their condition .  They came to their medical provider’s office for a check up  or whatever and were given the allergy symptom questionnaire as a part of the paperwork that they filled out before seeing the  doctor.  I was cold calling them a day or two later and giving them a sales pitch .  There was a quota that had to be met both weekly and monthly and if I didn’t reach the goal that was set for me by management it was a problem.  This company expects their employees to push patients to sign up for testing and treatment by any means necessary.  If you’re a natural sales person; someone who is good at wheeling and dealing or slick talking then this is the perfect  job for you.  You’ll use those skills to convince patients to sign up for treatments that they may not necessarily need in order to milk their health insurance policy for payouts. I wasn’t comfortable with this because I’m a nurse not a sales person.   If  sales isn’t your thing then this isn’t the job for you.

This job seems great from the outside looking in but let me tell you..
They offer to train you at the HQ in Texas for a week as a new hire which is great; however, their training leaves you unprepared for the actual job. I did great during our training week but they stuck me in a newly implemented allergy lab in a physicians office. And not only that but they also made me, and are still making me after 7 months, cover another clinic in addition with no additional pay or reward. Yes I, someone who is completely new to working in the medical field after having in the restaurant industry prior, was put up in not one but two different allergy clinics by MYSELF after only a weeks worth of training. Granted, you can always reach out to anyone else from the company via email but their are always delays so that doesn't help with any time sensitive information. Your manager isn't on site and only visits about once a month so you pretty much have the freedom to do your job at your own pace, as long as you meet your quota. Yes, you have a quota. Not only do you have to test a certain amount of people per month but you have to get a certain amount to agree to start on immunotherapy but you can only test and treat patients that are referred to you by the head provider. Most of the time this is covered by their insurance but sometimes it's not and if the provider isn't sending patients your way your hands are kind of tied. 

All and all it's a pleasant company and all the employees are willing to help when they can but I just can't look past the lack of training and job expectations.

First, you shadow other CAS’ for about a week then are sent to Texas for a training program for a week as well (Everything is paid for, training is thorough, and at the end you have  2 exams to take. If you don’t pass, you can take it again when you return to your clinic and receive additional review). Afterwards, you are trained for another 1-2 weeks. 

Pros-  You get to lead the allergy clinic and truly help patients by giving them their allergy test and guiding them with their immunotherapy treatment should they choose to sign up (note: Depending on clinic volume/need, you may be the only CAS on-site). Checklists/handbook provided for how to perform the tasks (even with medical experience, you will need these as things may change and it will take time to get accustomed to the role). No weekends, paid holidays, other benefits and not your typical overloaded work environment (depending on how you schedule your appointments). 

Cons- There are allergy test and immunotherapy goals from the company’s end (and providers too). If provider no longer wants services, united allergy services are terminated. Should this happen and if there are not any available clinics nearby, you unfortunately will not have work (company will try to put you in a clinic nearby if there is a need or you can float if possible).
Also, it may seem like a lot first. (Me and the other trainees did feel like it was a lot of information in the beginning), but with training, assistance, and patience, you will get adjusted to the role. 

Overall, a solid and good company with great managers and staff.

As with everything in life, it just depends on what you are looking for in your career/job. Hope this helps. 

As a Clinical Allergy Technician/Specialist, you'll be working with providers at your clinic to provide allergy tests and immunotherapy treatments for their patients.

Your experience can really vary depending on what clinic you are placed at. Some are good, but at the one I was at, they physicians did not know or care about allergy services, as United Allergy Services never gave them any sort of orientation. It was up to me to tell them everything I did, keeping in mind that these providers are extremely busy so as a tech you really have to be assertive to just keep going up to them to talk about patients and treatments. 

United Allergy Services really wants you to focus on your goals of how many patients are treated per month. On the outside this seems okay, of course, it's a business, but when you start working there you find the goals are often unattainable and they expect you to push people to sign up for expensive treatments they don't necessarily want or need just so that you can reach your goal. This seemed pretty unethical to me. 

I stuck it out because I loved the patient care aspect and working with some of the providers. However, I was laid off because I didn't meet my goals consistently. I always received great feedback from the patients and providers I worked with about my performance. But when it comes down to it all the management at UAS cares about is their bottom line. They'll let an employee who's strong at patient care go if they aren't strong in sales.

This is a good place to work if you love the medical field but are not a nurse or physician's assistant. The training is provided by the company and a medical background is not necessary, but it helps. It is a bit of a sales job at the end of the day because you are working with providers to provide/sell a service but it truly does help the patients. The company does well to compensate those who perform well with gift cards and Fitbit trackers you can purchase from points gained from performing certain services. Also, there is a 3rd party website you have access to for discounts for a plethora of other things.

My negative experiences were with management and job security. Because you work as satellites of the company and management is regional, you may only actually see your manager every couple weeks. Yes, there is contact and support in between, but if you are in a situation that needs upper management, it can be difficult to come by. Also, changes from the top down are very slow to make their way down the chain of command unless it is directly from the CEO. The job is full-time, but the company still contracts with providers on a month-to-month basis so the provider can give a 30-day notice and you no longer have that post. If there is space to relocate you and you can, perfect. If not there goes your job.

Pros:  You get a lot of experience and they are willing to employ you right out of college. You get to manage your own patient care and office. Management dose not micro manage you  to a point. They offer several performance based insentives. Hours and benefits are good. Healthcare is free for the employee.  Mos people have doctors hours. The tretment you offer works and is effective. 

Cons: Your performance is tied to the doctor you are assigned to. The number one goal is tests and if you are not getting enough they let you know. If your clinic is in a welthy area with multiple providers you will be successful but smaller clinics are penilised for having less patient flow even if you do not control this aspect. 

If you are lucky you will be placed in a large clinic in a wealthy area with a provider who is involved and is dedicated to patient care.  If your provider is not involved you can expect to be cold calling a lot of people trying to get them to test for allergies. If you are in a small town you can expect to exhaust the qualified patients quickly and then you will be continuously asked why you are not meeting quotas, and this may or not be your fault. But if you are lucky and are in a multiple provider clinic who see over 80 people a day you can expect bonuses and possibly moving up quickly. Just remember you are only as good as your last months testing numbers and most of your chain of command do not know who you are unless you are the very top or very bottom.

Work itself is mundane,  The one week training in San Antonio is useless, no useful information is taught.  Unless you are thrown into a supportive clinic, you have no support.  The company preaches patient care, but there is no care involved. Managers will tell you anything for you to get tests and conversions, so insurance companies can be billed.  The accuracy of the test is extremely unreliable.  Many false positive results have been produced (pt with no allergies but tested positive for reactions).  The one year regimen of shots is billed at the beginning essentially scamming insurance policies.  More than half of the field employees have no science background, and they just spill out the information from corporate without any analytical abilities.  Anyone who questions corporate's practice is scrutinized immediately.  Marketing material sent out from corporate cites questionable studies.Regardless of the number of allergy tests you sell or convert, the pay remains the same.  The bonus is based off a point system.  

The development program is a T shaped diagram which looks exactly like a pyramid scheme flipped upside down.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Clinical allergy specialist 268 salaries reported	$22.03 per hour
Allergy technician 12 salaries reported	$21.00 per hour
Medical assistant 46 salaries reported	$21.47 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 12 salaries reported	$31.08 per hour
Certified medical assistant 9 salaries reported	$25.50 per hour

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