Pros
The pros are few and far between but here they are: 1) Highly intelligent people work here 2) Decent hours are the norm, and there is a good work/life balance with time off to play 3) Decent pay tends to be at lower-end of the market (although not for the level of experience within industry but across industries, e.g. a technology expert will be brought into an insurance role at a lower, but decent rate) 4) Benefits are good, but not great (other large regionals certainly offer more competitive benefits, as per prior my experience) 5) Lots of meetings – yeah, this is not really a good thing and more of a time suck, but management seems to think it’s a really good thing 6) There are some really nice people that work here, this is a shock, after all, it is insurance!
Cons
Where does one start? Well, for starters, Cambia / Regence… 1) Cheaps out by hiring people without prior experience into the roles. While highly competent people are brought in, and although knowledgeable in other fields, in many cases, they know less than nothing with respect to the roles they fill and lack specific industry expertise to make a meaningful impact that moves the needle quickly. This is a big problem with respect to departmental management, which is quite literally frequently learning on the job. Really people? “Get the right talent on the bus!” 2) Fosters an incredibly political environment, but this is expected of a large organization. However, this is also the case for the dynamic within many small groups. Add on top of that Cambia’s incapacity to take the good and shed the bad. Good ideas are what? Adopted? Shared? Considered? Well, yeah, considered and cut off, fast. 3) Places a big cultural emphasis on teamwork and leadership so clearly there have been major problems in these areas before. Fine, every organization goes through growing pains (even the big ones as they seek to remain large) so Cambia is dealing with its internal issues. Respectable, you think, right? However, before you “put the cart before the horse”, think about this, true leadership is more a regular practice, rather than a preaching. Our employees are not stupid, we see through the smoke and mirrors. 4) Regularly tolerates highly unprofessional communication among the ranks and senior/middle management are eager to not only swiftly dismiss but categorically deny the existence of this cancer, most glaringly, at the expense of negatively impacting teams. This, in my opinion, is the biggest problem, as it directly impacts employees’ pride in their work. And right there, Cambia can be accredited for breeding mediocrity. Although management says all the right things, they have demonstrated time and again there true support of an environment that encourages the wrong behaviors and actions. Case in point, there is a pervasive endemic, a lack of professionalism, real respect, and workplace courtesy afforded colleagues. 5) Seems to think that a revolving door policy is good for business. Several key senior executives have recently departed, some after, relatively short executive-length stints. Middle and lower management tends to be in flux as well. Junior personnel flies in and out quickly. 6) Makes big promises and really under-delivers. With respect to promises made to internal and external constituents, Cambia says one thing and does another. This is a major contributor of the mass exits and perhaps the main reason as to why we have lost our edge as the leading insurer in the OR market and are hurting in our other territories. As a non-for-profit, we say we care about the experience and cost of healthcare for our members. However, we really care about our bottom line and legacy more than anything else. At the end of the day, we're just another insurance company with the BCBS brand. And we all know how insurers make our buck.