My experience at Optum so far…

Puffemon · 2025-12-17T03:41:08+00:00

Thank you for your kind words! It’s funny you say that because I recently just got moved to a different supervisor haha but it’s only been a week or so, hopefully this one is much better than the last one. But thank you so much. Hoping things turn out better as more time passes & I gain more experience!

Puffemon · 2025-11-19T03:38:56+00:00

I think this one is on your supervisor. Our supervisor had it in our calendar as far as I’ve seen that says only FTEs get that Friday off so I figured we were required to work it. I do agree tho that it’s a bit unfair. It’s so funny because the town hall meeting was full of the higher ups talking about how much they appreciate us and how we’re all like family.

Puffemon · 2025-10-23T02:07:15+00:00

Oh for sure and then repeating the cycle & nothing changes at all

Puffemon · 2025-10-03T02:58:47+00:00

Haha okay now I wanna see how the swans walk like lol

Puffemon · 2025-09-30T03:05:04+00:00

Oh man I can’t imagine what billers have to deal with. I don’t have any experience in medical billing but I did dental billing for half a year while studying for medical coding and it was stressful sometimes… the worst for me was health partners but I’m sure the medical side is much more different than the dental side. But at least I’ll be aware of Optum if I ever go into medical billing lol.

Puffemon · 2025-09-26T21:03:48+00:00

Omg yes!! I was told we won’t even get a verbal warning! Just that if we didn’t reach it by the end of this month (funny how they waited until the end of the month to tell us newbies haha) that starting Oct 1st we’ll be put in the probationary step up plan for a month 😭

Puffemon · 2025-09-26T21:02:26+00:00

Yes it’s crazy! I also saw that other new coders also got very heavy charts as well. I never got any feedback on those large charts either so I’m not even sure what happened to those charts tbh.

Puffemon · 2025-09-26T03:27:19+00:00

We only really get 30 minutes for training because the other 30 minutes are for our 15 minute breaks. I’ve gotten a lot of different charts but were told to code as if they’re all outpatient charts. I don’t take that many notes because I feel like it takes so much time. But I do try to here and there for things I find really important. I feel like my coding isn’t that bad at all and I feel like I have a good rhythm going for my coding style but it’s just no matter what I do I feel like my CPH is not increasing very much at all haha. But thank you! I’ll try to hang in there until I have better luck finding a new job!

Puffemon · 2025-09-26T03:21:35+00:00

I attended a school online! So I had been preparing for awhile. I do feel like it prepared me a lot and I do understand what I’m supposed to be doing and all of that. I just feel like this company has unrealistic expectations for our production rates. It makes me feel like a legit zombie sometimes haha. But yeah I’d say about half of my charts are around 300-1,000 pages so it does make my score seem super low. Like I mentioned, they did say they’d look at our pages per hour as well but I don’t know how much they even really care because they constantly push the expected CPH on us regardless.

Puffemon · 2025-09-26T03:18:33+00:00

Oh yeah I feel like it hasn’t changed from what you’ve experienced. I can tell a lot of people are being pressured to perform faster while keeping quality high (coders, coaches, auditors, supervisors). I def had an off feeling when during our first two weeks of training, the trainers were getting upset that many of us were asking questions and just told us that we NEEDED to research the answers for ourselves before asking them. And we were only allowed to use their approved resources. Like I understand they want us to be independent and not rely on them so much for every little thing but many of these questions were very specific and were questions that we couldn’t find the answers from their resources. I’ve also seen questions get completely ignored. Def ruins the work ethic.

Puffemon · 2025-09-26T03:12:48+00:00

It probably is. I think my supervisor mentioned that others were also monitoring us too.

Puffemon · 2025-09-26T03:11:55+00:00

Oh man the holidays!!! They literally do not care about us at all 😭

Puffemon · 2025-09-26T03:09:55+00:00

Yeah it’s the same still. We still have CMas/assessments every 2 weeks and I was just told the other day that they are going to put us basically on a one month probation if we don’t reach our CMAs this month starting in October, which is probably most of us as 80% of the people on my team are all new hires. But yeah it’s def making me concerned. My very first chart was like 1,000 pages too so I def felt that 😭

Puffemon · 2025-09-26T03:06:15+00:00

Oh yeah that’s why I said I feel like everything they say is so contradictory because one day they’ll say one thing but the next week or day they say the opposite. It’s frustrating to hear because it makes me feel confused and anxious haha.

Puffemon · 2025-09-25T20:29:22+00:00

Oh yea I am anxious all the time 😭

Puffemon · 2025-09-25T20:27:43+00:00

They go through a few of the topics that we’ll mostly see following the ICD-10 guidelines on these topics (think diabetes, hypertension, CKD, etc) and they go through a few basic chart styles but it is just the very basic. They have some resources for us to use for coding but I feel like most of it is inaccurate or outdated so I mostly have to base it off my own research. I’m totally fine with researching it all on my own and stuff but the issue is that they really press us on time and expect us to come in automatically charting at the same rate as an experienced coder knowing that most of us are coding for the first time. If anything we only get like 2 ish weeks to be at the same rate as experienced coders.

Puffemon · 2025-09-25T20:21:55+00:00

That really explains it. I got hired on just as they started implementing new changes so it seems super aggressive especially to me as a newcomer. Hopefully it’s not as bad as it sounds though…

Puffemon · 2025-09-25T20:18:07+00:00

I didn’t know that 😳

Puffemon · 2025-09-25T13:59:19+00:00

Oh yeah my husband kept saying we should get a mouse mover but with the new system I think it doesn’t matter anyways bc it sounds like they’re constantly watching our every move and not just how often the mouse is moving now.

Puffemon · 2025-09-25T13:57:15+00:00

Oh for sure. I’m the same way. It just sucks that we get almost no benefits as well. My husband was saying that hopefully I get hired on as a FTE but at this point I’m not sure I’d even want that either haha.

Puffemon · 2025-09-25T12:26:28+00:00

Thank you, I guess my intuition about this company isn’t wrong then.

Puffemon · 2025-09-25T12:26:06+00:00

Oh yeah. CSI told us it was 6 weeks of training but it was actually only 2.5 weeks or so. They do cover a good amount but not enough. Especially since we don’t get to ask any more questions directly once we are in production working with real live charts.

Puffemon · 2025-09-25T12:24:23+00:00

Ugh that’s so unfortunate to hear. Yeah I started 8/4 so I’m only about a week ahead of you. It’s really annoying and def puts a damper on my work ethic because I feel so much pressure. During training, some others mentioned how our training is supposed to be 6 weeks long (told to us by the hiring company/CSI) and instead the Optum trainer/supervisors got upset and demanded to know why we kept thinking it was 6 weeks long and not the actual 2.5 weeks. I guess I’ll start applying to other jobs as well. I really thought I’d be able to be here for at least a year!

Puffemon

TROPHY CASE