Currently a software engineer at UNH. Dreading going to work.

[u/throwaway-fishy99]

The individuals I work with are great but I have exactly 0 enthusiasm about doing my job. I've wanted to get laid off for the last 12 months thinking it could be just around the corner and I just keep getting by somehow.

Can you tell me why I shouldn't feel bad about losing my job here? It's the only company I've ever worked for since graduating college.

[u/xbumpinthatx]

I worked there. I was hired to work in their business department talking to brokers but at the last minute they made us swap to customer service. It was fucked up. Customers cried daily because uhc wouldn't approve things. A young teen went without an inhaler for over a month. A man with cancer kept being denied services he needed because uhc claimed they had no proof of his cancer despite me seeing his documentation all over his account. They cost a man thousands because they wouldn't let a rep call him back to help him with documentation he needed. They told us to tell people to hand write their appeals and make them sound as sad as possible to appeal to the human reading it. Now they've moved to using ai for appeals to remove that human element. They are evil.

[u/throwaway-fishy99 → u/xbumpinthatx]

Thanks for sharing your own experience. They are ramping up AI use like crazy and have not been subtle about their expectations for its uses. One proof-of-concept was congratulated by leadership after sharing one of its value drivers will be determining claim denials faster.

[u/LitigiousTurd → u/throwaway-fishy99]

Safely leak documents to ProPublica:

[u/throwaway-fishy99 → u/LitigiousTurd]

Thank you for sharing this ☺️ The business is really good about blurring the lines between what the tech people are building and knowing how it's actually used in its entirety, but I'll do my best to make my time here count. This company is fucked up.

[u/LitigiousTurd → u/throwaway-fishy99]

Yeah, this company is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice 🙃

https://www.yahoo.com/news/doj-investigating-unitedhealth-group-over-183838385.html

[u/Me123531 → u/throwaway-fishy99]

Yeah. I am on the AI side and there's a lot more they're doing. I work in Optum to be fair, and on the employee side (like internal apps and websites). I have nothing to do with any patients or anything.

[u/throwaway-fishy99 → u/Me123531]

Same - went through TDP and have worked internal software tooling the whole time. When I started I was super enthusiastic about the mission of "helping people live healthier lives" and got really invested in United Culture. Pretty soon I found myself in a department where leadership cared about results a lot more than mission statements, my toxic-ass manager moving up while my active TDP mentor, director of 10+ years and "United Culture Ambassador", gets canned.

Later on, to feel better about my work I told myself "we're lowering IT expenses so leadership can choose to pass the savings on to the consumer." It's pretty clear at this point that isn't going to happen so I'm out of reasons to defend it.

Also, don't know about you but the insurance I get through United sucks

[u/Me123531 → u/throwaway-fishy99]

I already know it sucks. They dont give me great innsurance for my level and I never expected some "amazing" culture when I went there. I mostly got what I expected, a normal, work focased office. also, DEI is a complete lie at this company. They make me do these training stuff but I work with 1 black person closely out of like 30-40 people (and he's my boss, but he's leaving in a year and I get his job). After that, there's gonna be none. But overall, I woudn't say my expereince (i cant speak to others) was bad, mostly just average.

[u/Big-Imagination9775]

If you work for them, you have blood on your hands

[u/gastro_psychic → u/Big-Imagination9775]

You have poop on yours.

[u/EatTooMuch_WompWomp]

Get another job?

[u/throwaway-fishy99 → u/EatTooMuch_WompWomp]

Been working on it this whole year and counting.

[u/wilderlowerwolves → u/throwaway-fishy99]

My BFF's son had an opportunity to do a summer paid internship at Koch Industries' headquarters in Wichita. He was not accepted, but other people told him to turn it down if he was because it could impair his ability to get other jobs if employers saw that on his CV! One wonders if the same is true for UHC.

25 years ago when I worked at a grocery store pharmacy, a major employer in that town got UHC insurance, and we quickly figured out that when someone presented a UHC card, we needed to tell them that it probably wouldn't pay, and most of the time, we were right. That employer quickly switched to another plan.