Zenefits, the $4.5 billion startup whose CEO resigned this week, created a secret software tool to let California sales reps fake the completion of an online training course that health insurance brokers must take before getting a license, according to an email sent to staff on Thursday.
The program, known as a macro, made it appear that aspiring health insurance brokers were completing a mandatory online course, while in fact allowing them to spend less than the legally required 52 hours on the training, said David Sacks, who took over as Zenefits CEO this week, in the staff email.
After they faked the training course, sales reps were directed to sign a certification, under penalty of perjury, that they had spent the required 52 hours doing the work, a lawyer for Sacks told BuzzFeed News.
Source: Zenefits Software Helped Brokers Cheat On Licensing Process – BuzzFeed News
Why does someone need a license to sell health insurance?Report
Because CaliforniaReport
I’m not sure I have an objection on this one. Insurance contracts are complicated and important and some degree of training seems like a good thing?Report
The training in question is less like “here’s how to do your job” and more like a Scientology clearing session.
A typical question from these tests:
“A client wishes to sign up for Covered California. Do you:
A) immediately open the form and start filling it in
B) conduct an initial survey to identify their eligibility
C) conduct an initial survey to identify their eligibility and counsel them about the appropriate level of coverage”
If you answer “C”, that is a wrong answer, because “counsel about coverage” is Step 2 and you haven’t officially got past Step 1 until the “initial survey to identify eligibility” is completed.
The training for these classes involves “Memorize this guide that is a big list of every question that you will see on the test and what the right answers are”.Report
People pretty routinely blow these sorts of trainings/tests off in my experience in a variety of industries. It seems silly to shame one particular company and individual when really the shame should be in our collective stupidity.Report
My gosh, I’ve never done an online course by
1. Going to a new section
2. Reading a book for the 20 minutes it waits before opening up the section quiz
3. Doing the quiz by searching the section material for the answers.
Certainly not last month for the mandatory yearly employee handbook refresher.Report
One principal investigator I worked with was forced by a pharmaceutical company to sit through a five-hour online training for a classification system that he himself had devised thirty years before.Report
Did he pass?Report
I assume so, but there was some guy having a stroke that kept distracting him.Report