So I'm sitting with a job offer contingent upon passing the background checks and urine test. I know I have nothing to worry about, as far as I know.... but there is always the niggling worry that I missed something. But all the information I gave was given in good faith and as completely as I could do. But "VA debacle" echoes in my mind... with the caveat that the VA digs a helluva lot deeper than most usual jobs who call and verify dates of employment... or just rejected me due to a box mis-checked somewhere. I chose to not find out, it was just too much last year.
Overall I've been really happy at CUP, but when things went south, they did so with a vengeance... I've been accused (directly & indirectly) of procrastination, bad time management, too much chatting... basically being blamed for all that is wrong in this work situation... I'm not blameless, because no one ever is... but management has set this system up for failure.
Let's set the stage a bit: a small (mostly) managed Medicaid company trying to really become a player in a bigger market and is expanding lines of business rapidly including trying to become an early adopter for behavioral health integration... which will have to be done now or later. However, the push for this has led to the neglect of existing programs and personnel, most of which are state-audited. The program that I work, Health Homes, was pretty much seen as "flavor of the month" for most of the first year, but has since become the premier model for care management as far as the state is concerned.
The next piece is that the State of Washington has no single documentation system for the program, thus leaving it up to each Health Homes lead agency to come up with their own system as long as they can meet requirements. Enter in my company: we were under one company in 2013-14 and then switched to another in 2015. They knew this was happening and assured us that the switch in systems should be smooth and no data would be lost. Can you say "famous last words"? Sure, knew you could... Anyway, the rollout went worse than anyone could have imagined... We just got full access to everything we need a few weeks ago... Member services just got their access for making appointments in May... We didn't get all existing member lists completely loaded until early April... We still haven't gotten old charting imported... Mind you, my compatriot was asking questions in every meeting about many of the problems that have come to pass...
Add in the fact that we have lost 2 people working the program, one of whom was full time and the other who is sure that her preterm labor was from the stress. Also, include that my job entails all the utilization review, several call attempts monthly, hospital visits, follow up calls for transition, calls to doctors for members, concurrent review when hospitalized, intake of new members, crisis & general calls, and quarterly face to face visits... For nearly 70 members. I'm finding out that at most health insurance companies, these jobs are split out over a team...
So, this is what we have been scrambling to deal with since the beginning of the year. We have had periodic moments of "get this done now" and "Help this other group! They are swamped!" while being told not to worry about health homes... Until the last few weeks with the state audit coming up.
So now they are freaking out and denying time off, stating that it's due to people not being caught up... funny that the audit is coming up and management had the reporting requirements in hand on 25 May. But we paeans didn't get the directions & our directives until June 11th (Thursday) to be completed by June 15th (Monday). By placing the blame on non-management, they are trying to deny their own culpability.
I just see a lot of planning for the next big expansion and not a lot of routine maintenance type activities. There has pretty much been little or no support from management for the program I have been working. My fellow coworkers are amazing.... they are what makes working there worthwhile... and I love my clients and the work that I'm doing. I feel like I'm making a difference.
But, things have started going south, as previously mentioned, but I am determined to not go down the same road as I did with King Co. This hasn't even gotten close to that bad, but I have been paying close attention to my gut and the situation was irretrievably broken when our amazing admin let my compatriot and I know that she'd been told to only communicate with us via e-mail since her coming over to talk to us would "distract us" from our work. That level of BS was intolerable, considering I'd spent the greater part of the previous 2 months working through lunches and spending several hours, sometimes up to half the day, usually three days weekly, out of the office on member visits for follow up or new patient assessments. It just pissed me off. It's hard to get all your work done when you aren't in the office to get it done.
So, I had my interview for the new gig on Tuesday, I went out feeling like there was a good rapport, but it was short... and I kept thinking about what I should have said, asked, etc. It was a first round interview, I was just hoping it went well enough to get to the 2nd round. It was interesting, though, since they were all taking careful notes about exactly when I was going to be in Kentucky and when I might want to start. I thought it was a little unusual for a first round interview, but let it be what it was. The next morning, just 25 hours 45 minutes after I left the interview, I got a call and was offered the job at a substantial pay increase. I accepted it straight away and admitted I was a little stunned and she said that they usually don't move so quickly, but they also super impressed with me and didn't want me to get away. My start date is the Monday, 20 July after I get back from Kentucky.
Giving notice will be interesting. I don't want to give notice until I have the officially official word, which should be Tuesday or Wednesday this week. It will be a fitting revenge for my massively passive aggressive supervisor, who has been described by another coworker with Katy Perry's help.
I have also kept myself from Unravelling ala Deb Talan:
The other song in my head is:
Another good one is:
