Premera Blue Cross reviews

3.0

38% would recommend to a friend

(1,005 total reviews)
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Jeff Roe

42% approve of CEO

31% positive business outlook

Premera Blue Cross has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 1,005 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Premera Blue Cross employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Insurance industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
2.0
Jun 20, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many people that are fun to work with. Parking got better after the layoffs. Nice walkable campus as long as you stay on campus (there have been muggings and lots of used needles on the walking trails).

Cons

Lots of weird, stodgy policies. Can't have a fan on your desk (or anything else that you plug in) without risking a talking to by the facilities team. There's a dress code (at least you can wear jeans now). And a cup of coffee costs $1. Ineffectual managers who can talk a good game but add no value or stomp on people get promoted quickly. In IT, if you're not a former Safeco manager, you're not going anywhere. Lots of good talent lost to layoffs and frustration. If you want career growth, forget about it. You can make lateral moves but you'll get passed over for new jobs that will stretch you and let you grow. Way too many weird manual processes and hacks because the project owner or business didn't want to spend the time to do the project right. And to top it off, pay is pretty low for IT associates. Moving to a real tech company can yield better benefits and lots more base pay. But I suppose the pension is kind of neat.

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Premera Blue Cross Response
8y
Thank you for your feedback and for the years of service you spent with Premera. It is challenging to hear you did not feel as though you had the appropriate level of support and growth opportunities. We recognize that participating in meaningful work is important and having the right management support is essential. We strive to incorporate Premera's purpose, making healthcare work better for our customers, in all that we do - and will continue to push this forward. Premera does have a business casual dress guideline. This guideline asks employees to "use common sense and good judgment in selecting their attire." We appreciate that each persons role and level of comfort is unique and what is appropriate may change from day to day based on the events of that day.
4.0
Apr 19, 2017

Glad to be part of the change!!!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It’s a good place to be if you want to be part of an organization going through a lot of needed change and you want to help with that change. We have a lot of new leaders and new employees bringing good ideas and challenging the status quo. We have new values that we are trying to live, more clarity on communications and a new focus on how we can improve customers’ lives by making healthcare work better. Pay is competitive and benefits are really good, including a 401K and we still have a pension. We even have more employee forums where we are able to share our thoughts.

Cons

Like most companies, we still have our issues too. Yes, we have leadership and employee issues in pockets of the company that are slower to adapt to the change making it difficult for some of us that want change. It is a burden on some of us as we need to pick up the extra work, but we are seeing more being done about it to address these concerns. We don’t always know if we are heard as communication is not always the best, but we know they are trying.

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Premera Blue Cross Response
9y
We are happy to share that additional employee training (including leadership training) is ongoing. While we work hard each day to make healthcare work better, financial health is important as well. Thank you for sharing that you find value in both health and retirement benefits. We appreciate your thoughtful review.
1.0
Dec 9, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

This was a great job to learn about the issues and politics about the ACA, and health care. It gave me a more informed view when voting, and I was able to help people in my life understand their health insurance more and help those know which questions to ask.

Cons

If you don't quite fit into the corporate scene people are not very to you. There are many young people who haven't had a lot of exposure to a variety of people, and who want very much to get ahead in the company. Some people had an unexpressed jealousy of my education and went out of their way to make me look bad instead of helping me learn things like the computer system and the different policies. When I come spoke up about the specific of how contemptuous backup support was when I asked questions, I faced a lot of gas-lighting. When I asked direct questions or explained how problematic training was, trainers used to report me to management to say that I was being difficult. Really, I was standing up for my right to learn during training. It took months, emotional turmoil, and persistence on my part to help management realized how biased they were and get them to listen to both sides before making judgments. Though ultimately management did listen to me and even agreed with me, there was still a lot of covering up of past mistakes while ostracizing people with valid criticism. This dynamic was made worse by the constant worry of losing one's job and the inadequate pay offered to employees. People were obsessed with approval, so they could establish job security and move up to making more money, instead of doing the right thing. There was a huge fear of making mistakes and therefore were more interested in "looking smart" than in learning from mistakes. This happens when job expectations are unrealistic. As a side note, the job in customer service is very unhealthy. Sitting for 8 hours a day with cake and pizza rolling around created many huge people around the company. I gained 30 pounds in less than a year, all of which simply started melting away the moment I left the company and returned to my original career.

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Premera Blue Cross Response
9y
It sounds like your time with Premera did not get off to the best start. We appreciate you providing that feedback in real time to ensure everyone involved could improve. Technology is a primary focus for Premera. It's important that our employees and our customer have quality tools that make our daily business simple and easy. We hope to see exciting developments in this area in the near future. Thank you for your response. We wish you the best in the future.
Viewing 94 - 96 of 1,005 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,074 Premera Blue Cross reviews submitted anonymously by Premera Blue Cross employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Premera Blue Cross is right for you.