Colorado Access Reviews

Pros

Inspiring mission; solid executive leadership; culture of compassion and excellence; treat employees, members, and healthcare providers well.

Cons

The majority of its business is dependent on a successful state HCPF RFP award.

Pros

Mission oriented work. High salaries and generous time off if your boss is aloof. Top talent in pockets.

Cons

I had quite the long-winded list of cons I wanted to write here, but like most at COA I've come to realize that airing these will do no good. To a potential incoming employee, take a peek at all of these reviews. Like me, I am guessing they will not sway you as you're a mission driven individual and love the idea of working for Medicaid and think you'll be the one who will make a difference. I can assure you, you will not be. I have seen so many people come in full of optimism only to be beaten down by the complete lack of real leadership at this organization. A lot of us had hope that things would change with a new CEO coming in. She seems to have bought into the story line that the exec team has sold her, the same exec team that has driven this organization into the ground for the last 5 years. Instead of real change, we got a minor shuffling of senior leadership and we still allow their poor behavior and performance.

Pros

...it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. Well, maybe Dickens was right, at least when it comes to Colorado Access. But before I get into that, I guess I can give credit where credit is due. Colorado Access has excellent work life balance. Most managers will be respectful of your time as long as you get the work done and do a good job. If you're lucky you'll also have a manager who supports your professional growth and development, hardworking peers, interesting projects, and opportunities to learn new skills. Throw in 5 floating holidays, a hybrid-work environment where employees can choose if they want to be in the office or fully remote, and a flexible day-to-day schedule; it almost makes up for the insane politics, crushing workload, and lack of direction from the executive team. And if you're lucky enough to work in IT, your compensation is probably decent, but that doesn't apply to anyone else in the company. But I'm getting ahead of myself. All jests aside, the people at Colorado Access are some of the best people you'll ever meet. The majority of folks are mission driven, compassionate, supportive, and genuinely care about serving our members and community. The people are what make it bearable to go to work every day and what kept me around for so long.

Cons

This place will chew you up and spit you out without a care in the world (or any contribution to non-profit student loan forgiveness which they don't mention doesn't apply to employees who work for a business arm of the company). The executive team (minus a few) largely turns a blind eye to talent, loyalty, and strong work ethic while simultaneously rewarding the incompetent and the absurd. And prioritize recruiting externally rather than promoting from within. In the three administrations I managed to survive, my experience with the most recent group of executives was the most disheartening. To bring us back to Dickens, the crowning of a new CEO in 2022 was what Charlie boy might call, "the spring of hope". Annie began her term with a renewed sense of energy, a refreshing dose of optimism and honesty, and dare I say even attempted to hold others accountable for previous wrongs and mishaps of previous leadership. But in the light of day, and in the months to follow, my colleagues and I feared that the optimism and hope that we all shared was to be short lived. The new executive team has proven to be out of touch, aloof, incompetent, and prideful to a fault. Now, I'm sure you're wondering, do I have examples or is this just the rant of a disgruntled employee? There's so many things that I could speak to, but I'll share the top three most egregious things I experienced in my eight years at this company. The executive team has shown time and again that they are incapable of developing a concrete organizational strategy, direction setting, or decision making. Instead decisions are made at the Director level by those who understand the work and care about being innovative and executing on actual work. Unfortunately, the in-fighting of the executive team and lack of communication between senior leaders makes it impossible to move anything forward. If you're looking for opportunities for growth and upwards mobility, this ain't it. Many of the teams are small, and the company does not support role-based promotions so unless your manager leaves you're stuck where you are. To add insult to injury, merit based raises are minimal (at most 5%) and only occur once a year and are completely dependent on input from your supervisor. To make things worse, there is no standard evaluation process which results in inconsistent scoring across the company and extreme variation in evaluations between teams. And, as I mentioned in the pros section, fairness of compensation is solely dependent on what team you're on - IT or not IT. Protection and support for employees was abhorrent. Many employees are too scared of retaliation to bring legitimate concerns and challenges forward. And if you do manage to work up the nerve to speak up, don't expect to be met with support, tangible solutions, or confidentiality. I could go on, but I digress for fear that this might turn into a novella that rivals A Tale of Two Cities. Plus recounting all these "opportunities" is probably not the best for my mental health, and I've been through enough with this place. To my colleagues who have managed to hang in there despite this all, I wish you the best of luck. You're better than me.

Pros

Some good people with good intentions. The overall mission is important. If you are in the right department work life balance is generous. Some real potential to make positive differences.

Cons

Colorado Access (COA) is a company that contracts with the state of CO to administer the Medicaid benefit in the Denver area. On the surface this isn't a con, however once you have been exposed to the knee jerk political decision making of Medicaid, and COA's frantic and strange attempts to make the state happy, you might find it troubling. I'm not sure COA has really needed to compete for this contract over the last many years, and it shows with absent leadership. There are a few leaders I enjoyed working with and I don't want put them all in the same box, but for the most part senior leadership is lacking a great deal. Seems like 2 or 3 talented directors do everything. Leadership at the executive level is remarkably detached and divided, more so than I have ever experienced. Bickering among themselves in general meetings is common. Calling subordinates names like 'stupid' happens unfortunately. The former CEO and some other execs are part time, perhaps that doesn't work very well. Maybe their childish behavior was some kind of internal competition for the retiring CEOs position, or maybe that's just who they are. I don't know, but the new CEO was an external candidate, thankfully. Hope she straightens things out.

Pros

Colorado access used to have some amazing people working in the front lines. The longer that I’ve been away from that place the fewer of those amazing people are left. Really all that you’re left with, is a place that does not hold any of its leadership accountable for any of their poor decisions, repercussions of those poor decisions and poor management.

Cons

This place is a hypocritical joke. What they tout as core values will only apply to Certain people. Their customer service agents are held to higher and stricter standards than the executive team. I lack the words to appropriately describe how horrific of a culture this place has cultivated. But hey, if you get hired, just know that when you leave they may offer you a non-disclosure agreement from those tax dollars that all of us pay to fund this poorly run and horrible organization. I declined that nondisclosure agreement. You won’t silence all of us.

Pros

Collaborative, Analytical work culture environment

Cons

Nothing I felt as a cons working for the organization

Pros

COA’s new CEO, Annie Lee brings a fresh approach to our role in the community and commitment to the members we serve. Annie invites everyone to bring who they are. I can be my authentic self at work.

Cons

Our work is complex and ever changing.

Pros

Everyone is really, truly awesome

Cons

You can't work outside the state

Pros

Colorado Access is out to do some good things. The recent CEO hire has me feeling optimistic about the future of the company. There are some really talented people here and I can't wait to see what they do.

Cons

The company seems a little top heavy and it seems that everyone is a "senior" something. Do we really need so many senior this or senior that?

Pros

Work/life balance, management, remote work

Cons

low pay, questionable HR policies