Pros

Pay can be good if you're a very driven person. More so if you have an undergraduate degree. If you can keep up your performance goals you'll usually get a decent raise each year.

Even if you don't plan on staying in the health insurance field you can still learn a LOT about how claims are submitted and processed and how different plans and benefits work - useful to know when choosing or using your insurance.

Some employees are given great opportunities to travel and learn more skills.

Most of your coworkers remember what it was like to climb the steep learning curve and will help you. Networking with your peers pays well.

Cons

Expect change constantly. UHG is too big for the right hand to know what the left is doing and yet continues to grow and acquire new companies. Integration of other companies into the fold has left UHG a patchwork of mis-matched systems and expectations.

Expect under-training and continual negative feedback. Management expects employees to know vast amounts of information and use up to 15 programs on a call with a customer. Of course that call better be short and accurate and pleasant and everything else. It can be draining when you're expected to field anywhere from 60 - 120+ calls in a day. On top of that, customer service reps are expected to keep abreast of updated programs, policies, procedures, medical technology and medical terminology "between calls." Oft times, there is no between call time.

Expect less than stellar vacation time, frequent schedule changes and possibly mandatory overtime. Time off is bidded on based on seniority, performance in various areas and sometimes just on being a "pet" of your manager. An employee may be exceeding their metrics and goals but will probably not get the time off they ask for - even if you ask for it months in advance. Bidding is done several times a year and is basically a circus. Employees are basically punished for not exceeding performance goals (even if you're meeting all goals and show up on time, etc. and have no write-ups or warnings you can and probably will be bumped to a worse schedule if you are not exceeding in most if not all areas. Favoritism is rampant. If you're exceeding all your metrics then you're making your manager look good - you're also contributing to their bonus. If you're maybe not hitting in all performance areas then you'll bring down your manager's bonus and that tends to make them not like you. Or maybe they just like you for whatever reason (going to the same church seems to be a big asset). In that case you'll probably get preferential treatment (access to promotions and perks). I've been on both sides of this - this is not at all professional and possibly unethical. Overtime is often mandatory. There will be some weeks where you work more than 50 hours a week sometimes for months at a time. Can't work overtime? Can't keep you, sorry.

Advice to Senior Management

Be us for a day! See what it's like to have to keep up hundreds of memos and procedures - sometimes conflicting ones. We're sometimes treated like machines. Streamline instead of expecting us to just keep learning more programs and plans and procedures. Sometimes more is not better. Sometimes it's just more to get messed up, lost, misinterpreted and misconstrued.

Stop adding companies before you've absorbed the last one you bought or merged with.

Stop cutting corners. Provide good plans with honest benefits. How awful is it to work for such a large company that provides worst benefits than most of the clients? No wonder UHG gets such a bad rap.

Offer real perks. Hallow perks like paying for education only if 30 different criteria are met doesn't cut it. Most employees don't qualify simply because how they've been pigeon-holed into a certain job or category. It's no way to foster improvement and advancement.