#overall i like this job

Ok y'all, so I’ve been working remote for a call center for a medicaid dental company for almost 2 months now. And it’s honestly better than retail, but there are still some definite pros and cons.

Pros:

• Working from home fucking rules.
• I was in training for over a month, 2 weeks in an actual training class, 3 weeks in a nesting period (basically you’re taking calls, getting comfortable with taking calls, but you’re still technically in training so there’s like this safety net) and I feel like I actually got properly trained before transitioning to operations.
• This company is awesome. They genuinely want you to succeed, and they even promote from within. Like seriously. 2 out of the 3 team leads when I was in nesting got promoted in the 3 total weeks I was in nesting, and even another coworker and I got offered higher positions a week into training.
• My coworkers and even my supervisors are great. In my training class I was with the best group of people I’ve ever worked with. We all got kind of split up when we all moved to operations and I genuinely miss them.
• I also feel like I’m genuinely helping people.
• It’s full time, and I get health, dental, and vision insurance.

Cons

• The people. OH MY GOD THE PEOPLE. It’s the same dumbass people I’ve had to deal with in retail, but now they’re not breathing down my neck, which is honestly better.
• “Can you help me find an eye doctor?” Ma'am we are a medicaid DENTAL insurance company. (I understand that they may have one card for their entire medicaid plan, but this happens too often)
• Trying to find a dentist that will take medicaid is absolutely infuriating sometimes. Especially in rural areas and…Florida??? For some reason???
• Like seriously I had someone from Florida was trying to find a dentist for their 3 year old who had tooth pain, and it was damn near impossible. And it wasn’t like they were in a small town or rural area, they were in like, Orlando.
• Another time I had someone from Idaho call trying to find a prosthodontist (dentist who specializes in dentures) and the only one I could find, was over 100 miles away from their zip code, wasn’t accepting new patients, and didn’t even accept medicaid for people over 18. And this was the only one I could find within a 250 mile radius, which is as far as my portal will let me search.
• When assigning a dentist to a member, I can’t just assign them to a dental group. No, I have to assign them to an individual facility, as well as an individual dentist. Makes sense, cause some facilities within the dental group might take our insurance. Some others may not, and I just can’t assign them to any dentist in that facility, cause what if that dentist is completely booked out for the next 6 months? Or what if they’re retiring tomorrow? Or what if it’s a specialist that’s only there once a month? But this is especially frustrating when the people calling don’t remember the name of the dentist. And most of them will ask if they can call and see, but then there’s the ones that are just like “Oh I didn’t make an appointment yet, can’t you just assign me any dentist?” Or the one lady who got snippy and said “ Well I gave YOU the number, can’t YOU call and check?” As if it’s my fucking responsibility to know which dentist you made the appointment with.
• There is one thing I hate more than anything else in this job, and it is filing disenrollment requests. I can understand why people want to dis-enroll. Maybe the dentist that they’re seeing no longer accepts our specific insurance and they really want to stay with that provider, or they’re having a problem trying to find any dentist that will take this insurance. That’s understandable. I don’t have a problem with that. I have a problem with the entire process in general. Because it’s not like some box I can check that says “Member would like to dis-enroll” No, I have to file a grievance, and then get approval from my supervisor before I can submit it, and then this person, who just wants to go to the dentist, has to wait for us to send in a letter (which there’s no time frame for how long that could take, so if the person has a dental emergency and can’t find any dentists that will take their insurance, they’re just fucked I guess) telling them whether or not the request was approved or denied, because yes, a disenrollment request can be denied, for WHATEVER REASON. And it takes FOREVER. If it’s just one person it’s not so bad, but yesterday I had to dis-enroll a mother and her SEVEN CHILDREN. I was on that call for OVER AN HOUR. Not to mention our messaging system was down so I had to get approval by emailing my supervisor, which takes longer and is harder because I can’t send confidential medical info through email. That’s a HIPAA violation.
• Our breaks and lunches are scheduled, and it’s fucking bonkers. Why on earth is my lunch break at 3:15, when I start at 9AM??? Why is my last break scheduled half an hour before I leave for the day? And why do I have to fill out an adherence tracker form whenever I’m late for my breaks? I was on a call??? My supervisors are able to see that???