As a settlement draws near between Zoom Management and the state of Oregon after its affiliate, Zoom Health Plan, failed to pay $3 million in exchange for a surplus note, employees are raising concerns about management problems, high turnover and low morale at ZOOM+Care, which runs 35 neighborhood health clinics in Oregon and Washington.
The Lund Report also apologizes for saying that Steve McCallion has handed in his resignation. The vice president and creative director has not left the company. .
Meanwhile, in the past two weeks, current employers have been sharing their concerns on Glassdoor, a national database where potential employees can find company reviews, CEO approval ratings and salary reports. According to its website, “no other site allows you to see which employers are hiring, what it's really like to work or interview there according to employees, and how much you could earn.”
It’s unusual for an employee who’s still working at a company to divulge such critical information about their employers on Glassdoor. At nearly the same time, ZOOM+Care started advertising for new employees -- a primary care physicians, dermatologist and physician assistant, among others.
Among the 109 reviews of ZOOM+Care, only 21 percent approve of CEO, Dr. Dave Sanders and 22 percent said they were willing to recommend the company to their friends.
On Aug. 28, a clinic associate who’s been working for ZOOM+Care for nearly a year, wrote that “communication is lacking from the top down, saying transparency is no longer a priority and high turnover is likely to “plague this once great company” where “the only thing that matters is making money”
That same day another employee called the company “a nightmare,” saying there was micromanagement of providers, with retail managers who had no medical experience running its clinics and a lack of transparenc6y that was causing job stress and anxiety.
“Predatory practices requiring up-coding, referrals to Zoom Providers only, having patients return to clinic for follow up when not medically indicated so that revenue increases,” that employee wrote.
The day prior, on Aug. 27, an employee wrote that leadership was making bad business decisions. “The owners are looking to sell the company before they go bankrupt. Managers always talk about getting to cash-flow break even, meaning that after 11 years ZOOM is still using investment money to keep the lights on. It also means the clinic staff is under intense pressure to see more patients in a day in a shorter amount of time, code higher, sell more meds and make people come back to clinic to pay another visit fee to go over things that could be handled over the phone or through email (simple lab results, for example).
“In the last 6 months, they have cut provider pay (specifically ND's by 25%, after hiring them on at a contracted rate), and they have let an untold number of employees go from headquarters (I've heard up to 50% of headquarter staff has been let go this year).”
Not everyone who made a comment had a negative view of ZOOM+Care. On Aug. 31, an employee who’s been with the company for more than a year insisted management encouraged innovation and new ideas.
“All employees are passionate about what ZOOM+Care is doing to make healthcare more accessible and affordable,” adding that the company “is challenging the status quo of healthcare and that is not always going to be easy. In order to be successful here, you must be able to accept and embrace change.”
Diane can be reached at [email protected].
