I worked long hours, listening to horrible people cuss at me and tell me how terrible of a person I was.
Mercy preaches about how family orientated they are, how much they invest in their employees... Don't believe any of that. Need a day off to take your kids to the doctor on short notice? Better hope its an emergency. If they don't approve immediately you'll be asked to reschedule your kid's appointment. Sure, for the most part, that's acceptable, but as someone who invests everything I am into my children, it's not worth it. Happen to be a working mother? Have a young child, perhaps one that's breastfeeding? Sure, you're able to do that. Absolutely. As long as your child only eats within one of the allotted time frames of your breaks, if they don't you have to clock out and won't be paid. Granted, this is the norm for most companies, but do most companies say that they highly encourage breastfeeding and will do everything they can to support you - but then tell you that your 8-week old infant has to adhere to a very specific feeding schedule or else you won't be paid? Not to mention your scheduled breaks will never be at the same time. One day you'll have a 30-minute lunch at 12:30 pm, the next day its at 1:15 pm. Not a huge deal until you're...ya know... literally trying to supply food for your child. And on pregnancy, if you haven't been with the company for a year before you get pregnant/give birth... you'll 8 weeks off work. Youll grow a literal human being, and they'll tell you how wonderful it is and how amazing and "anything we can do!" and then you get 8 weeks to adjust to that new child and the way your life is changing before your thrust back into an unforgiving job.
Want to work overtime to gain some extra money? Well, the only time you can is if they specifically offer it. If you happen to stay late on a call, too bad. I worked 8 minutes over my shift, they asked that I come into work 15 minutes late the next day to even it out so they wouldn't have to pay them overtime. And it wasn't even something I had control over! You're not allowed to clock out or stop taking calls until the end of your shift, so if you get off work at 5:30 pm, but get stuck on a call at 5:25 pm and it goes over the end time of your shift... guess who has gets reprimanded? You.
Oh, and similarly on that subject... My position was scheduling patients for diagnostic imaging (MRI,ct,mammo, ultrasounds, etc). During the call you are supposed to obtain all insurance information, schedule the appointment, clarify requiremtents (fasting, etc), complete all registration (phone numbers, email, providers, etc), create an estimate for said testing, tell the patient the estimate, collect payment on new, current, and past balances, note the account of what was discussed and payments taken/not/why, finish the call, reiterate the appointment information... all within under 5 minutes. And if the call ends and you have something left to do (like finishing a note/payment etc), you have less than a minute to do so. If you go over that time the managers get a notification and you'll get a message "you've been off the call for however long". If you don't get back onto the next call ASAP they'll basically kick you into the next one. Doesn't matter if you're done or not.
Collecting payments... Sure, go ahead and tell a 90-year-old woman with cancer that she owes $8,000 for her upcoming appointment and has $200,000 in medical debt to the hospital. Ask her how to shed like to take care of that today, if she wants to make a payment on that. I'll be honest, I pretended as I didn't even see it. No way was I asking someone that. $500? Sure, I'll ask if you'd like to pay that, or set up a payment plan. more than $2,000? Not likely. I know what the real world is like, I know how hard it is just to pay the electric bill. I'm not telling a single mother with a sick child that she owes $2,000 for an MRI, and has $30,000 in past due balances. You can kiss my behind.
On top of that, they don't only want you to ask for these ridiculous payments, they expect you to. they expect each scheduler to collect $10,000 a month from patients (no commission or reward either so what the point? Oh yeah... makes it easier on the hospital). There's really no discipline if you don't other than them making you feel horrible for "not supporting the ministry and those we serve". They don't care. They are really truly don't. Yes, I understand medicine is expensive. I get that, and eventually, the patients will know. But for the love of everything, don't put that on us. You have people in billing for a reason.
Do all of that, for 60+ calls a day, for bad hours, and terrible patients... It's miserable.
Work from home? Sure! Not any different than working in the office. Yeah you'll be in your own house and you can wear whatever you want, but other than that it's no different. Say you have young kids at home, or school-age children out for the summer (or in my case, unable to find childcare or have other home issues) and need to take a break to tend to them? Highly frowned upon. Your life doesn't matter, your kids don't matter, your needs don't matter.
This is a very high-paced position, very detail orientated, you're expected to give your all 100% of the time but if you make a mistake or need a moment, or have any needs of your own? You're a failure.
There arent many opportunities to move up in the company either, so unless you want to be stuck in a dead-end job taking endless calls from unforgiving clients for the rest of your life...It's not worth it.
It's a miserable company, has poor management, and is not worth the pay. You, your family, and your mental sanity are worth more than this job. Trust me.
