A Message from Our CEO: Creating a Culture of Growth
Dear Convey Team,
It is nice to connect once again! As we sit here, our industry continues to evolve – it is certainly ever-changing. In my short time here, it is a reminder of the resilience and adaptability that define our organization. In the face of challenges, we have risen to the occasion. You have demonstrated our commitment to innovation, collaboration, and excellence. I want to take a moment to reflect on this and to share some exciting updates with you all.
First and foremost, I am incredibly grateful to everyone for your unwavering dedication and hard work. Over the last 3 months, I have witnessed your passion and drive. I get inspired seeing our achievements when we come together as a team. As we look to the future, it is clear that change is happening in healthcare. We have an opportunity to get ahead of that change and position Convey for growth and transformation. Whether it's adopting new technologies, expanding into new markets, improving product competitiveness or reimagining our processes, we need to remain agile and adaptable in today's dynamic environment.
With that in mind, I am excited to share the early stages of our strategic approach that will position us for continued success in the months and years ahead. Our goal is to “Unite Convey Around the Consumer Health Experience, Product Competitiveness, and Solving New and Existing Client Needs”. Through this approach, we are committed to driving innovation and creating value for our customers and stakeholders. In working with senior leadership, we have identified the following pillars to guide our strategic direction:
Earn more business and expand into new populations
Improve product competitiveness by advancing key partnerships
Differentiate through our obsessed consumer focus and engagement
Deliver digital solutions and experiences that simplify consumer interactions
Be an employer of choice
Within these pillars we will have specific actions and initiatives that will drive our business execution. In order to achieves this, I want to emphasize two behaviors that very important to me - communication and collaboration. Now more than ever, it is essential that we come together as a team, sharing ideas, insights, and feedback to drive positive change and achieve our shared goals.
More to come on the next steps and strategic initiatives in the very near future. With your talent and passion, I am confident that we can achieve our goals.
Thank you for your continued dedication and support.
My Best,
Dan
Product Updates
Miramar:Member The Miramar Advanced Plan Administration (APA) product and development teams are thrilled to share some exciting updates regarding our Miramar product. We've been hard at work implementing new features to streamline our processes, and delighted to announce the launch ofBeneficiary Eligibility Query (BEQ) andOnline Enrollment Center (OEC) automation. We have developed an interface that enables direct BEQ request and OEC download automation through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Amazon Web Services (AWS) Application Programming Interface (API).
This means no more waiting around for batch processing–items can now be processed immediately, providing us greater efficiency while reducing the processing delays. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to enhance Miramar processes.
Miramar Point Solutions Our point solutions team is a small but mighty team, maintaining and enhancing our Miramar:Agent, Miramar:Reveal, and OMT products and supporting 55 clients. We rolled out a product to support plans to manage enrollment and renewal related commissions in a CMS compliant manner and onboarded two clients beginning of the year.
One practice that energizes our point solutions team is a weekly gathering for all team members to come together and celebrate both successes and failures. Yes, failures too! This space allows them to acknowledge even the smallest victories, such as a new developer's first pull request, and openly discuss failures, turning them into valuable learning experiences. This time is also used to address ongoing challenges, inviting input from others for potential solutions. Encourage your teams to have a similar space too if they don’t have already!
Pareto Intelligence Our Pareto team has been busy with client implementations, new features, and learning and development enhancements with better documentation and training sessions.
We have implemented a new MA client on our risk adjustment product, the Pareto Hub, and converted our last MA legacy risk adjustment client to the Hub! Great work by the implementation team: Zuki Jemal, Matt Keller, Harrison Barnes, Akhila Chittanur, Taylor Wright, Will Messer, and Wilson Horne for successful rollout.
Additionally, we enhanced our standard dashboards by enabling accruals dashboards and enabled for most of our clients. We also incorporated a custom reporting functionality to address future client specific needs. Thanks to our data analytics and engineering teams: Josh Kehler, Umesh Rajan, Deepika Dua, Meredith O’Brien, Olga Cissa, Anastasiya Kartuzova, and Abby Tsui for enabling these features and advisory and IT teams for their feedback and support.
Learning and development is top of mind for Pareto teams and we have bi-weekly training sessions with interactive demos with data examples and practices to provide “hands on” learning experience. Thanks to Ethan Spalding and the data science team for documenting and explaining how the Pareto Hub for MA works in detail.
Our SBA team successfully completed development of the rewards and incentives product and onboarded our first client that provides services to over 500,000 members in different market segments. This product enables the efficient administration of rewards and incentive programs and improves effectiveness by supporting health plans’ member engagement. Congratulations to the SBA technology team, business development team, and client services team on the successful launch of the program.
New Product Committee
Launched in March 2024, the committee is made up of a multi-disciplinary team of employees. In the absence of a formal product development department, this committee will be charged with helping the company bring new product ideas to the table and once new product investments are agreed to, they will partner with our project management office to execute new products.
Welcome New Hires!
Siobhan Ihenacho will be a product analyst on our product team and Eileen Zhang will be joining the operations engineering team as an operations analyst. Siobhan and Eileen, welcome aboard!
Operations
The 2024 AEP and welcome season was the most successful season we’ve had in a long time. Our teams rallied together to improve our implementation processes across the organization. While the annual implementations of our SBA and APA clients is complex, we executed vast improvements across the organization. In addition to our improved implementation processes, we executed operationally by meeting all call center metrics for all lines of business and we met our key metrics for grievance and non-call operations. As a result of such a successful peak season, our client satisfaction is high and we are confident that we will continue to elevate.
There are many to thank for the improvements we made.
Operational Support
Operational Support is composed of three departments clustered together to provide support call and non-call operations. Workforce management, operational training, and quality assurance.
Closer interactions with our Philippines call center vendor partners facilitating combined meetings with them to collaborate and communicate better.
As most team members are working remotely, different meet-up schedules are done in Manila, and zoom team building activities in the US to maintain camaraderie among all team members.
Prepared in planning and real time management, all clients met productivity SLA targets for Q1 of 2024.
Intense planning process for all the WFM Planners and Junior Planners in Q1 as most trends are usually different than historical years. Aggressive recommendations on schedule changes, training planning, and headcount reduction activities to optimize performance and cost.
Continue to provide requirement and headcount projections for new programs and new clients as part of pricing exercise.
WFM took over vendor invoice estimates for accounting.
For APA, with Cigna’s 5-Star culture projects, operational training has helped deliver eight different uptraining curriculums to all of Cigna call center advocates in Q1.
Cigna PDP Call Center QA roadshow is happening in April! The QA team has been coordinating with the client in preparation of the new balanced scorecard in line with Cigna’s 5-Star culture project.
For SBA, we delivered three sets of uptraining curriculums in Q1 including refresher training for purposeful benefit utilization and process enhancement on hold order.
Transfer three of our trainers who excel in content development to professional services as instructional designers to become subject matter experts in their programs in developing and improving training materials and job aids.
Deliver Leadership Training: Effective coaching and root cause analysis for Manila supervisors to help them develop their advocate-interactions. Thank you to our trainer Ayen Tolentino for facilitating this for more than 10 onsite supervisors.
Preparations have been initiated to revise training curriculums for new hire classes. We expect to complete revisions and review before we start hiring for Q3/Q4.
Soon to come! Continued development of our trainers by establishing a trainer scorecard to help assess their performance.
Project Management Office (PMO) & Professional Services
Introducing our Project Management & Professional Services Teams
The Project Management team is the engine driving our projects forward, ensuring they remain on track and aligned with our strategic goals. Their work involves planning, coordinating, and overseeing projects to ensure they meet deadlines and budgets.
Meanwhile, the Professional Services team stands as the essential backbone of our daily operations, providing critical support across different functions including change management, documentation management and testing efforts. Their dedication is key to our smooth operation, enabling the rest of the company to focus on providing top-tier service to our clients.
In response to evolving business needs, our Project Management team is preparing for a relaunch. This PMO relaunch focuses on several key areas: standardizing project management practices, implementing smarter tracking systems, and introducing streamlined intake processes. By adopting Smartsheet templates for project management, we aim to improve workflow efficiency, and portfolio executive dashboards will offer a comprehensive overview of all ongoing projects. These improvements are designed to create a more cohesive project management approach and enhance our ability to deliver results.
Meet our PMO & Professional Services Team Leads
Philippines Updates
Today, Convey Philippines operates with 60% on-site, and 40% work at home team members. Team engagement activities include:
Delivery of Leadership Training: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People opened for 25 team members from management and individual contributors. Thank you,Ramon Dalde, for facilitating this!
With our training experts in Manila, we initiated a development of a broader Convey leadership training to further advance management capabilities of our mentors, supervisors, and managers with the goal to improve employee support and help front line team members deliver first-class member experience. More to come on roll out schedules!
Women’s month themed wellness webinar series entitled “Wellbeing–Women’s Common Diseases” facilitated by our partner Dr. Monique Mendoza was made available to all women team members.
A week of celebrating women with virtual activities including trivia quiz and shout-out-wall to acknowledge the great women inspiration of our lives.
“Game On! The 2024 Convey Sports Fest”. Convey Philippines’ first ever sports competition on basketball, volleyball, badminton, e-games, and team building games was kicked off to open last April 5, 2024. One of the site’s most awaited activity with participation of players from all departments.
Special thanks to the members of the Philippines engagement committeeestablished in 2023 being led by Aiza ArguillasandJohn Mendoza for successfully executing site engagement events mentioned above especially the big preparations leading to the 2024 Convey Sports Fest kick-off.
Congratulations and more years to come! 14 employees celebrated their 10th year anniversary within the Philippines organization.
What is the HHS Office of Inspector General? And what is their exclusion list?
The HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) is a team of investigators, auditors, analysts, attorneys and cybersecurity specialists within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The team’s roles are to investigate and audit the Department’s operations to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse within the Department, and also to audit and investigate potential crimes against the Department.
The human resources team is pleased to announce the 2024 HR Summit – “Meeting of Minds”. Coming… June 2024
Objectives:
Learning and professional development, HR, and business strategy sessions for Q3 and Q4 goals
Team building, culture and engagement activities
Launch of new HR initiatives
During this time, the various HR teams: (talent acquisition, HR compliance and engagement, total rewards, talent development, and HRIS) will schedule virtual meetings with the business leaders to provide and introduce our areas of responsibility, process improvements and tools for interaction with HR. These sessions will include interactive dialogue to address the needs and areas for improvement.
Exciting new HR launches: the new Convey handbook, ADP team member data update project, and launch of the bi-weekly “Lunch and Learn” series, where the team will present HR topics that are relevant to the business.
What to expect?
Meet & Greet Your HR Team
Professional Development
Team Building Activities
Launch of the new Convey Handbook and ADP Updates
Launch of the HR “Lunch and Learn” Series for Leaders
Employee Highlights
Living Our Values
Angela Burroughs, vice president of client services, has been passionate about expanding our Miramar:Agent platform to include a broker commission module since we acquired Gorman Health Group (GHG Advisors) in 2017. She was not satisfied until she was successful at getting the executive team to support her investment idea. In 2023, Angela put together a formal product strategy and investment plan to build the commissions module and formally presented it to the leadership team. In January 2024, Angela’s vision was finally made a reality. The company finally launched the new broker commission solution as a part of the Miramar:Agent platform. We have signed up two beta clients, Peak Health and MediGold, who will be the pilot clients to serve as future references as we go to market broadly later in 2024. We have already began receiving interest in the solution from other prospective clients. The implementation was led by Andria Quintana, Brett Hartley, Samir Rajpal, Krystal Burroughs, and Wendy Chamberlin. Joanna Conley supported Angela in onboarding our first beta client. The broker solutions module makes the solution suite complete, and we are excited about growing the Miramar:Agent revenue.
Teamwork makes the dream work!
Team, YOU ROCK!
On behalf of the Convey leadership team, we are sincerely appreciative to the Cigna and Convey team members that participated in any way in yesterday’s Cigna Part D CMS audit. This partnership is truly special and yesterday’s results are a testament to the strength of our partnership.
Congratulations on a successful audit!
Thanks and appreciation to Cigna and Convey team members that participated in the Cigna Part D CMS audit.
Team Member Wellness
Cycling Around
Alarm blares. Time check. Stretch. Stretch. Get up!
Ahhh.. Coffee!!
Carb load. Plan road. Water bottle overload. Wheel check. 50. Pump pump pump. 60. Good. Gears good. Dress up. Jersey on. Shorts on. Shoes on. I look good. Sometimes.
Weather nice. Sun is up. Sky is blue. Gentle breeze running over you. Pedal pedal pedal. Road smooth. Kids about. Bike singing to the rhythm of your spinning. Left turn. Right turn. Then straight ahead. Google lady in your head ringing.
Three miles. Sweat glides. Sun burning your skin. Feels good. Wind rush. Feels better. Pedal on. Nice view left. Better view right. But look straight ahead.
Car whizzes by. Two inch clearance.
“Learn how to drive!!”
“Respect bikers! We are demigods!!”
Odometer number rises. Heart beat rises. This is my tour. I am hungry.
Ten miles. All flat. Fifteenth. All Flat. Yay. A bridge. Incline. Incline. Muscle burn. Feel it. Lactic acid. Seize it. Cramping? No. Heart pumping? Yes.
Where’s Ian? Leave no man behind. Pictures. Pose. Pose. I look good. Sometimes.
Halfway. Time check. Miles check. All good. Homeward. 200 calories. Burned. Hypertrophy. Earned.
Taking it easy. Soaking in the beauty – trees, grass, sea, sky. Wish she was here.
Normalization. Chilling. Some parts of me soring. A glass of iced tea. Heaven sent. Then I close my eyes and play everything again in my head.
Executive Welcome
Hello team!
I’m new to the team and couldn’t be more excited to be here as the new chief growth officer. I know I’m filling in BIG shoes with Brandon’s departure and have a personal commitment to Convey (and that’s the BIG Convey inclusive of Pareto) to exceed expectations. The work we do impacts so very many lives and I’ll always be focused on how we make a difference to our clients and the healthcare consumers that benefit from our services.
Some quick notes on my background:
Military school for undergrad then served five years in the active duty Army that solidified my commitment to serving;
Specialty Pharmacy at Caremark was my first “civilian” job and where I learned what it means to make a difference to members and caregivers in their health journeys;
Provider strategy consulting at Tiber Group (now Navigant) and the Chartis Group where I dove into the realm of how providers are paid and why their operations work accordingly;
Health insurance at Aetna in multiple roles that developed my understanding of how the healthcare dollar flows and where health plans need help across multiple business lines; AND
A solutions-based approach for client service inclusive of understanding what problems clients are trying to solve and defining solutions for them.
From a personal perspective, understand that I’m a servant leader who will strive to bring out the best of our collective abilities. I’m based in Chicago yet feel most comfortable at 30K feet in the air on my way to every market-facing opportunity. I have three children ages 26, 23, and 17. I’m approachable, direct and will always ask for a recommended solution. I look forward to getting to know all of you and growing this company together.
- Brigitte
Client Services Callout
Brooke Cottman, 28, client services manager for Convey Health Solutions, was elected to the Pocomoke City Council in Pocomoke City, MD on Tuesday, April 2nd. Cottman’s platform, which she called, “Break Barriers with Brooke,” is committed to supporting residents living in her district and other areas of the city who may feel unseen or unsupported by their local government. Cottman believes this can be achieved through transparency between the council and the public.
Brooke is focused on supporting the youth by promoting programs that will give them direction and a safe place to go. Cottman is also looking forward to working with the Pocomoke City Police Department on advancing all aspects of public safety. “Investing in our youth is investing in our future. As a Pocomoke City native, born and bred, having attended Pocomoke schools my entire educational career, I am passionate about nurturing the potential of the young people in the Pocomoke City community,” councilwoman elect said. Brooke Cottman will take her oath of office at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, April 9, in Pocomoke City Hall.
Please join us in congratulating Brooke on this monumental achievement and wishing her much success in her service to the community!
Operations
Nearly two years ago, the operations team hosted a client services summit in our Fort Lauderdale office. The purpose of the meeting was to get everyone aligned on the roles and responsibilities of a client services manager. Engaging with our clients is not an easy job and often times it can feel thankless. During the meeting, I challenged Owen Rogers, senior client services manager for Medica and OptumRx, to make it his goal to renew and grow the Medica account. In that moment, I could see the lightbulb go off in Owen’s head as if I had just offered a challenge he hadn’t considered as a part of his job before.
He took that challenge seriously. We are now positioned to grow the Medica account in 2025 including the possible addition of their DSNP population and a likely two-year contract extension. Owen doesn’t manage the account relationship alone, however, he is the primary face to the account and has been instrumental in the success of this account.
Thank you, Owen. We see you!
June 2024, the company reorganized operations and joined the SBA and APA operating teams under a single leadership structure. This was a major change for the company and a significant departure from how we had previously operated. It took trust and patience from the operations team as we navigated these changes. One of the first new committees we launched was the process improvement committee, led by Shawn Kral. Initially Shawn was hesitant about leading a committee because of his workload and the uncertainty around the purpose of the committee. But he took it on anyway. In the first 30 days of the committee’s launch, Shawn and the call center operations team led a new initiative called purposeful benefit utilization (aka PBU). PBU was aimed at proactively educating our OTC members on the importance of using their OTC benefit and helping them to maximize their benefits. This initiative drove positive results for the members and Convey alike.
Thank you, Shawn for embracing change.
AMarketingMoment
What's in a name?
As ambassadors for both Convey and Pareto, our marketing team frequently encounters mispronunciations and curious inquiries about our company names.
Each of you–our team members–play a vital role in representing our organization, making it essential to provide clarity and reinforce our brand identities.
Convey (verb): to transport or carry from one place to another; to make an idea or feeling known, to impart, or to communicate a message.
Our company's name, Convey, aligns seamlessly with our vision to empower excellence and our mission to drive health plan growth and member engagement. Daily, we convey important information and engage with our health plan clients and the members they serve.
At first glance, you might think our company’s name is pronounced “CON-vay”, "con-VAY" or "CON-vy". However, the correct pronunciation is "kuhn-VEY".
Pareto (adjective): denoting or involving the theories and methods of the Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto.
Pareto Intelligence’s name is inspired by the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, which suggests that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. This principle guides our approach to data analytics and intelligence, helping us focus on the vital few–the most impactful insights and strategies to drive results.
While less susceptible to to mispronunciation, it is worth noting that Pareto is pronounced “puh-REY-toh”, as opposed to “puh-REH-toh” or “puh-REH-doh”.
Pictured: A poster from the organization’s renaming in 2001. Special thanks to Sue Garofalo for preserving this significant piece of Convey’s history.
Why This Matters.
Understanding the correct pronunciation and embracing the significance of our company names fosters a deeper connection with our purpose. It brings us all closer together. And it reinforces our collective commitment to providing our health plan clients with innovative solutions, enhancing engagement with members, and empowering excellence through our technology and service expertise.
Thank you for taking the time to explore the meaning behind our names and our fundamental, unwavering commitment to healthcare excellence. Together, we get it done.
Calendar of Events
Holidays & Events
Date
Event
Location
May 1, 2024
Labor Day
Manila
May 5, 2024
Cinco de Mayo
US
May 12, 2024
Mother's Day
US & Manila
May 30, 2024
Memorial Day
US
June 12, 2024
Philippines Independence Day
Manila
June 16, 2024
Father's Day
US & Manila
Culture & Wellness Events
Date
Event
Location
May
Asian American and Pacific Islander Month
US
May
Diversity and Inclusion Month
US
May
Operational Leadership Training
Manila
May
Q1 2024 Townhall & Performance Awards
Manila
May
Annual Compliance Training Kick-Off
US & Manila
May
Compliance Week
US & Manila
June
Pride Month
US & Manila
June
Caribbean American Heritage
US
June
2024 Wellness Fair
Manila
June
Operational Leadership Training: New Supervisors
Manila
June
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Manila
Communications Committee Commentary
We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Convey corporate newsletter, a collaborative effort spearheaded by our dedicated communications committee.
Over the past few months, the communications committee has been hard at work developing content, designing layouts, and ensuring that our newsletter reflects the essence of our company culture and values.
From insightful articles to employee spotlights, the newsletter showcases the diverse talents and achievements within our organization. It serves as a platform to celebrate successes, share important updates, and foster a sense of community among us.
The goal of the communications committee is to enhance internal communication while promoting engagement within the organization.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the members of the communications committee for their dedication, creativity, and unwavering commitment to enhancing internal communication.
Communications Committee Members:
Zatal Stephen, Business Analyst
Heather Hyland, Director, Marketing
April Cunningham, Director, Compliance & Employee Relations
For any inquiries or feedback regarding the newsletter, please feel free to reach out vianewsletter@conveyhs.com. Alternately, you can submit your responses directly to our feedback survey by clicking here. We welcome your input and look forward to hearing from you.
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