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Our Customers, Under Our Wings
Our Employees, Under Foot
Though it may only be an opinion but when feelings are shared with others it is more often than not the same thoughts or feelings are interconnected. Life of an employee at a Fortune 100 company comes with many rewards. For one, there are the constant reminders you work for a Fortune 100 company. Emails and start up pages are always in abundance to convey to you the prominence of the company. Acknowledgements of awards and sponsorships litter web pages each day. Secondly, the owners have lost touch with the foundation on which the company was founded. “Family Values” has been the theme this year. However, if they worked in or were in touch with the Claims Department they would see it’s more like working in a sweatshop or concentration camp. Finally, the practices of the department are unjust and are in constant flux. The only stability you can count on is the uncertainty. The process is unfair to its employees and to the stockholders.
Just the other day an announcement was posted on the employee website. The Duck received an award for interior design or was it for flooring? Nonetheless, the company received its award. When faced with day-to-day challenges it is exceedingly nice to know the years we have gone without raises can be spent on a remodel. This award was basically a thank-you for spending a ton of money, on flooring. Just a couple of days later the news reported the flooring company responsible for the award was going to lay off one thousand employees. I can only state, “They apparently didn’t spend enough to sustain the flooring industry.” Flooring is just a tip of the iceberg and we all know the fate of Titanic. Recent reports have concluded the cost of living is estimated to have increased by 30%. Now take in to account, our pay has not increase in over the past couple of years. Without a pay increase we are actually making less and spending more to sustain our lives. Which brings me to another rant. This Fortune 100 Company is donning on the employee start up page they are a proud sponsor of the Martin Luther King Monument. Today it’s sporting they will be in the Macy’s Day Parade. What does all of this equal? It equals money spent on promotion and target audiences. There focus has been on Black and Hispanic communities for years. Of course, it gets them the most attention in the public. There is nothing wrong with the diversity, but not once have I found where they have sponsored a gay, lesbian or transgender function. Perhaps, it is just too controversial. How many of the customers are gay, lesbian or transgender? The Human Rights Campaign’s website rated the Duck with a 30. The 30 printed in italic to indicate they have not responded to attempts to gather information. The point being, they flaunt the amount of money used to promote the company. They flaunt the amount they donate to charity. The fact is we are told we are a part of a family but our rich and unconcerned corporate management are leaving us in the poor house for the tax write offs.
The claims department, in which I work, is more like a modern day concentration camp or a claims processing sweatshop. We are required to process sixty claims per day and we are scored on accuracy. Meeting neither production nor quality can and has led to employee termination. Each week a Processor is audited on a set number of claims. The weight of the score is based on accuracy and production with accuracy holding most weight. If you make a mistake it is nearly impossible to recover. A weekly report is emailed to you as reminder of how bad or good you have done. This weekly report is basically a way of saying you have a job or you are about to get canned. In addition to statistical reporting, more reports are created to identify behaviors. I am not a number. I am not a statistic. I do not need to modify my behavior. Behaviors are taught to children. As a reward for meeting production, little gold stars are placed on sheets pinned to the outside of the cubes that tells anyone walking by your business. These psychological theories are for the field of psychology. Which after working in the claims department, I have visited more than once. In fact, the psychologist said I was just one of a dozen she treats from the department that suffers from “undue stress”. Now, that is a wake up call if I have ever heard one. If one person with the authority were to sit in as an “Undercover Boss”, it would be an eye opening experience for them. Working though lunches to make production, praying in the rush to meet production you didn’t make a mistake. Understand that no two claims are the same. A claim can be one sheet of paper with everything on it or it can range to an infinite amount of pages. One page normally yields one credit of production. A one hundred page claim can yield the same result. However, it may take you an hour to go through everything. Heaven help if all the required information is not present to pay the claim. A claim pended for additional information does not count towards the daily total. Yet, time and effort goes into each claim and it does not do it itself. We are in production environment but it is not the same repetitive snap and screw found in a factory. Not to say they are all this way. The job is repetitive in some aspects but much different on other levels. In an average month we have received 45 manual updates to how a claim is to be processed. The next big idea to roll out is to make a phone call for every claim before it is pended. How stupid can you be? Many of us arrive at work at 6 in the morning. Many of the claims processed are not even in the same time zone and let us not forget they usually don’t open until after 8 their time. Claims management is coming up with ideas without using the basic knowledge or experience it takes to process a claim. Just because you are a manager or supervisor, if you have not ever set down and processed under the restraints, then you have “no idea”. Instead of streamlining a process, more and more ideas are pushed out that require more steps in processing. This requires more time spent on following step and takes attention away from doing it correctly. Making these decisions is like going to a fast food restaurant and asking the person behind the counter for medical advice or having your doctor say, “trust me, I know what I’m doing, I just finished my online medical degree in 90 days.” You would not expect a person with no experience to make a decision based merely on reading a manual. Many of the supervisor’s leads make decisions for their areas. They are very versed and pay according to knowledge. Supervisors are merely email pushers and solely rely on their leads to do their thinking for them. They would not survive without their leads.
Claims processed are based on a set of rules established by the policy and manual. The policy is clear and concise as to the benefits provided. The policy also establishes guidelines for the timely submission of a claim. However, a manual for processing claims for each type of policy is also provided. The manual outlines and provides details on how to handle certain situations that arise. It may answer a question or lead you to another area to help determine the appropriate action. Not adhering to the policy is to the claimant’s advantage. Claims submitted outside the policies stated timeframe is completely ignored. Stockholders don’t realize how many claims are paid that had fallen outside the policy stated limitation for filing. We are trained to uphold the promise. The promise to treat each claimant with the same respect we would treat our on family member(s). Stockholder and employee money is thrown out the door left and right by simply not adhering to the policy. We are trained to follow the rules. To pay a claimant based on the policy. But more often than not, the manual guidelines for the policy take precedence. Again, I need to reiterate my earlier comment. We are to pay based on the policy. If it is not paid correctly we are hit with an audit error. On the other hand we don’t pay according to the policy because they do not adhere to time frame for filing. This is a simple double standard and one that cost money. The insurance industry is essential in the economy. Rising healthcare cost requires us each year to pay more out of pocket to be protected from the unexpected. No merit raises also means the cost is coming out of pocket. Frustration abounds in paying certain claims and rips at the mere core of society. Individuals on Medicare pay little to nothing out of pocket. Carrying an accident policy gives them reason to go to the doctor for every little bump and bruise and without question it is paid as a legitimate claim. So, why not sit back and go to the doctor, chiropractor, or emergency room for every little thing? Paying little to nothing out of pocket and merely going to the doctor is job that yields income and perpetuates the rise in healthcare cost at the expense of every American taxpayer.
These are complex and taxing times for us all. Don’t express to us how sorry you are for not handing out raises each year because of the economy and then tell us you are donating money to causes when you are not taking care of business at home. Remember, the Family Values you promote. Get back in touch with the departments. Know whom you are hiring and if they have the experience of doing the job. There is nothing wrong with starting at the bottom and earning the trust of the people. Lastly, don’t set a double standard. You either follow the policy or not. It is our responsibilities to ensure the claimants are paid that deserve the benefits and not the other way around. Attention needs to be paid to those who abuse the policy. It is not up to the claims department to pick up all the missing pieces and fill in all the blanks. Questions emailed to specialist are out of hand. We are constantly being asked why, what, or how? If those who are our boss had the knowledge required they would already know the answer before they sent out the email and in many cases if they followed the same strict rules they would know where to look or simply read the email that was sent back explaining. Simply put, if you are going to hold me to such a strict and demanding standard then I am holding you to the same standard and counting the number of times you have let me down. It is only fair.
Working with AfLAC has been wonderful. The company has great advertising and name recognition. I would the describe the culture as caring. AFLAC truly cares about its agents and customers and their products help many people. They are number one in what they do. Keep in mind that I am not an employee of AFLAC but an independent sales agent representing AFLAC.
Agents work strictly on commission. Commission jobs are difficult and you must possess self-discipline and dedication to make it. The upside is that you have an unlimited earning potential. The training and support is top notch. My pay easily crosses $100,000. They are also always sales contests and incentives going on.
