Insurance IT: still growing & hiring

The field continues its drive toward a fully diverse workforce

“The power of thoughts, culture and ideas that a diverse workforce brings seems to result in a stronger team that delivers stronger systems.”
– Bernadette Rasmussen, Healthcare Service Corp

By Laura Gater
Contributing Editor

The insurance industry continues to grow and meet its challenges despite the current economic woes.

“The insurance industry, and particularly the health insurance industry, is faring better than many others,” declares Steven T. Sample, director of enterprise talent acquisition, HR service and solutions, at Health Care Service Corp (Chicago, IL), an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

“We will continue to fill the roles in IT that we consider critical to our success and long-term goals,” Sample continues. “Roles such as informatics and Web access to health data, that allow companies to provide greater value to their customer base and enterprise, will still be at a premium within our industry.”

Margaret Resce Milkint, managing partner at the Jacobson Group (Chicago, IL), an active staffing firm for the insurance industry, also sees IT as a bright spot in today’s economy. The insurance industry in general, and health insurance companies in particular are preparing for growth in their IT departments, she notes, on both the applications and the infrastructure side.

“We are hearing a cry for increasing transparency in compliance and regulatory demands, driving a need for heavier risk analysis and more business intelligence models,” Milkint explains. “IT folks are needed to help with these demands.”

Mutual of Omaha (Omaha, NE), for example, has had about 200 positions open in a variety of areas across the company and is in a growth mode. “The outlook is very good,” according to Liz Mazzotta, HR VP.

Signe Bonnet is a systems analyst at Mutual of Omaha
Signe Bonnet is a systems analyst in the information services operation of Mutual of Omaha.

Bonnet attended Northern State University (Aberdeen, SD), but left early to get married. She began her IT career in 1985 as a customer service rep for Word & Data Corp (Omaha, NE), a hardware and software distributor for Unisys. She demonstrated, installed and supported in-house and Unisys products, and later became an account rep and corporate trainer for the company.

In 1989 Bonnet and Marcia Cain, her sister, opened their own business called, Pro-Solutions, Inc (Omaha, NE). It was a provider of contracted data entry and administrative services. Bonnet also worked at Universal Assurors (Omaha, NE) as a systems analyst. In 1992 she joined ICS Software Group (Omaha, NE), a small software company, as director of development and support.

In 1994 she accepted an offer from Mutual of Omaha. She started as an application developer, and in 1998 became planning tech coordinator for Y2K compliance in the company’s information services operation.

In 2001 she was promoted to her current role, systems analyst of information services internal support. She’s a consultant to the company’s business customers, and supports internal apps for time, financial and asset management.

“My job requires hard skills and continuous study, but soft skills like listening, interpreting and analyzing, brainstorming, and actuating and implementing solutions are just as vital,” she explains.

She loves being part of the full development process, from concept to implementation. “If customers ask about my credentials, I tell them I have a master’s degree in experience,” she says with a smile. She likes to share that experience with her colleagues, helping them understand the complexities that their customers and policyholders face today, and the importance of their IT work in addressing those needs.

Jo Abernathy: VP of IT business apps at BCBSNC
Even in a tough economy, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC, Chapel Hill, NC) continues recruiting for programmers, developers and designers. “There will continue to be a strong need for qualified IT candidates,” says Robin Miller, VP of people strategies.

Last year Jo Abernathy became VP of IS business apps at BCBSNC. It’s her responsibility to ensure successful delivery of application architecture and design and oversee development for large corporate projects, QA testing and production support. She’s also designed a new governance and vendor management strategy for the company’s core claims processing system.

Abernathy got her BA in economics from the University of North Carolina in 1986, and went to work at BCBSNC. She began as a customer service rep and advanced to inquiry coordinator. In 1988 she became a systems analyst in tech services, and in 1994 she moved up to supervisor of distributed client services.

The next year she was appointed manager of the technical assistance group, and established a new centralized helpdesk for IT. She became director of tech support in 1998.

Her next move, in 2001, was to director of IS ops. Her responsibilities included managing a 24/7 data center for all production IT systems.

In 2002 Abernathy became VP of IS ops, heading up two data centers staffed by more than seventy-five techies. She established a disaster-recovery strategy between the two centers, and developed an automated, real-time synthetic monitoring tool for critical business apps.

She became VP of decision support in 2005. This involved leading and overseeing the corporate data warehouse department, including analysis, development and ongoing support of key corporate data warehouse initiatives.

“I think all my previous positions prepared me for this work,” she says. “I learned not to be afraid to ask questions because sometimes that’s the only way you learn. I learned to keep people motivated in spite of projects that didn’t go well, and I learned to plan for worst-case scenarios. I know how to cultivate leadership skills and get things done.”

Abernathy has had many formal and informal mentors throughout her career. She says she benefited most from those who thought differently from her. “You tend to gravitate toward those who think like you, but they are not necessarily the people who will make you the most successful,” she concludes.

Joyce Campbell manages systems software at GEICO
Joyce Campbell is manager of systems software for the Chevy Chase, MD middleware team at the Government Employee Insurance Co (GEICO, Washington, DC).

The idea of becoming a system programmer always intrigued Campbell, even when she was in high school. She graduated from Howard University (Washington, DC) in 1984 with a BS in math and a minor in CS, and went to work at IBM (Bethesda, MD) as a computer operator. In 1986 she became a senior programming technician, and two years later advanced to associate programmer analyst. In 1991 she became a senior associate systems programmer.

In 1993 she went to work at GEICO as a systems software programmer, first in the technical support division and then in the enterprise systems management division. She moved on up to senior system software programmer, lead system software programmer of the service management team and lead system software programmer of the Internet ops team.

In 2005 Campbell took her current job as manager of systems software for the middleware team. She manages a team of sixteen associates and two consultants, whose major responsibility is to support major Internet apps like sales, service and claims by keeping the application servers up and running 24/7. Her team installs and configures application server software that ensures high levels of stability and reliability, using standard industry software tools.

The big focus, she notes, is on providing excellent service to internal and external customers. She and her team work a lot of odd hours: late nights and Sunday mornings, for example.

“When there’s a problem, we have to fix it as soon as possible,” she explains. “I’m on call 24/7. I can wake up on a dime, be coherent, ensure that the problem gets solved and then go back to sleep.”

Campbell never planned to go into management, but credits her managers and mentors at GEICO for steering her in that direction. “My attitude has always been that I’m going to give 200 percent. I’ve worked very hard to prove I earned this job.”

Jess Reed, GEICO group VP and CIO in Washington, DC, points out that IT skills continue to remain a much-needed resource at GEICO. With the company’s solid growth rate, increasing expansion of functionality within its applications and infrastructure, and the need to enhance systems more quickly, the job opportunities at GEICO are great, he says.

State Farm’s Micheal Mosley is on the IT infrastructure team
Micheal Mosley has been involved with computers ever since 1985, when he won a Commodore 64 in a school competition in seventh grade. He still has that machine.

Today he’s a systems analyst on the infrastructure team in engineering at State Farm Insurance Companies (Bloomington, IL). He has a BS in information systems, an MS in IT with a concentration in Internet security, and is currently working on a doctorate of management in organizational leadership in IT.

His previous jobs included assistant finance manager at Peoria Toyota Volvo (Peoria, IL), and, through Aramark Corp, assistant director of campus dining at Emory University (Atlanta, GA).

Mosley joined State Farm in 1999 as an auto claim representative in the company’s centralized total loss division in Duluth, GA. In 2001 he became an automation specialist for the claim litigation counsel in Atlanta, GA.

In 2002 he advanced to State Farm’s Bloomington, IL HQ as a business analyst in life services, and on to technical security analyst in cryptography a year later. In 2007 Mosley joined the P&C architecture division as systems analyst. He took over his current position in June 2008.

“My team has experience in technology, business and analytics. We look for ways to optimize performance and contain costs at the same time,” Mosley explains. “It’s a specialty team of diverse individuals with diverse backgrounds. We work on the company’s top initiatives.”

Mosley’s own focus is hardware costs, storage costs and business volume metrics. “In most cases the solution has already been decided on, so we make sure it’s stable and cost-efficient, and try to prevent any infrastructure- related delays in production rollouts.”

After work Mosley teaches IT to students at DeVry University, and mentors his students and co-workers. He’s particularly interested in the marriage of technology and business.

“Technical people need to look for business opportunities where technology can help, but many are afraid to do so for fear of losing their technical skills,” he notes. He praises State Farm for providing roles that help people bridge the gap between technology and business.

Michael Mathias is CTO at Aetna
As chief technology officer at Aetna (Blue Bell, PA), Michael Mathias employs strategic vision and applied technology architecture. Overseeing seventy people, he’s responsible for aligning Aetna’s technology vision with business strategy. He works to integrate company processes with the appropriate technologies, and handles all aspects of developing and implementing technology initiatives within the organization.

“We go through a process that involves strategy, technology, capabilities and integration architecture within our enterprise,” he says. “We look at our technology partners’ plans and get a sense of how they operate and what capabilities they’ll be offering, and how we can leverage those capabilities to give us a competitive advantage. Then we provide a technological solution to the partners’ problem.”

Mathias graduated from Long Island University (Long Island, NY) in 1983 with a BSCS. Each of his previous jobs has helped him understand how things come together, and how technology can help him do his job better.

“I always talk with people about how to go after opportunities and how to prepare themselves to take advantage of those opportunities,” he says.

Youssif Ansara: tech business analyst at Highmark
Today Youssif Ansara is a technical business analyst at Highmark Inc. It’s the latest of a number of interconnected careers which have provided an unusually rich background in education, business and IT.

Ansara was born in Cairo, Egypt but raised in the U.S. He is legally blind.

In 2003 he graduated from Lacrosse University (Bay St. Louis, MS) with a BSCS, and went to work as an assistant director of HR and recruiting manager for American Income Life Insurance (Raleigh, NC). Later that year he relocated to Egypt, where he helped open what he explains was the first nonprofit distance education center in the Middle East to provide an American high school diploma through e-learning technology. The new e-learning center was located at the Ansara Educational Technology Center in Cairo, and Ansara became director of academic affairs there.

The next year he became an HR/HRMIS consultant in engineering for Petroleum & Process Industries (Cairo, Egypt). But Ansara found that living in Egypt as a partially blind person presented major challenges. In 2005 he returned to the U.S. to complete an MBA at Lacrosse University and work in administrative support at North Carolina State University. A year later he moved to a job as associate systems consultant at Bender Consulting Services (Pittsburgh, PA), a firm specializing in technology consulting supplied by technical people with disabilities.

Bender sent Ansara to provide technical support to business and systems analysts at Highmark (Camp Hill, PA). His main role was testing coordinator: monitoring systematic and automated software testing, locating possible internal defects and following up with Highmark’s technical team to ensure timely resolution.

In 2006 Ansara became a fulltime technical business analyst at Highmark. Today he has three main support roles: functional support to large-scale projects, change request management for medium-scale projects, and research on issues impacting local and network systems. He sits with customers to hear what they need, then explains the solutions he and his team can provide.

“We always have changes in government regulations, HIPAA laws and more, so we always have to update our system,” he notes. “We work with all areas and departments of the company.”

Both his business and his computer background are valuable in this job, Ansara says. The position brings together all his work experience and lets him use his academic and technical skills.

“Without my mentors I wouldn’t be where I am now,” he says. “When challenges do come up, the people around me at work are very kind. We all help each other.”

Ansara hopes to continue as a business analyst and acquire more credentials, both academic and technical. In the future he’d like to transition into project management.

DeDee Smidt: IT lead analyst for Principal Financial Group
DeDee Smidt was recruited by Principal Financial Group (Des Moines, IA) at a college job fair. She’s been working for the company since 1993.

Smidt began college with the idea of majoring in accounting, but found she enjoyed the computer classes more. She switched her major and graduated from the University of Texas-El Paso in 1992 with a BSCIS.

Her first job at Principal Financial was as a Cobol programmer on the cash disbursement systems team. She did online transaction programming and EDI support for the company’s corporate areas.

In 1996 she transitioned to central IT support and worked on the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) team, supporting thousands of daily FTPs and electronic file transfers for all areas of the company, both internal and external.

In 2000 Smidt transferred to mainframe hosting as a systems programmer. She was responsible for installation, maintenance, configuration and support of various mainframe subsystems.

In 2006 she moved into her current job as senior IT lead analyst. Her responsibilities include resourcing and prioritizing projects and workload, employee training and career development. Her leader team is also responsible for strategic planning and setting direction for the various technologies its area supports. She oversees three teams consisting of nine techies.

“Each job I’ve had has interacted in some way, shape, or form with the job I took next. It was always the next logical step,” she says.

Bhumit Shah is a QA analyst at WellPoint
Bhumit Shah graduated from California State University (Long Beach, CA) in 2005 with a BS in business. He has cerebral palsy, which requires use of assistive technology, and working at WellPoint (Thousand Oaks, CA), he says, gives him the flexibility he needs. “It’s a way that I can make a difference in people’s lives,” he explains.

His first position was as a project coordinator, on contract with Bender Consulting. He handled capacity management, performed data inventory, tested the interactive voice response system, learned asset and license management and scheduled capacity planning.

Now, as a QA analyst, Shah is responsible for defect management for interactive voice response enterprise releases. He conducts testing for the system, creates testing metrics, executes test scripts and cases, maintains the department website and oversees call center reporting.

“WellPoint is a great company for me at this point in my career,” he says.

In the future he hopes to get into management. He’s currently working on an MS in healthcare admin at California State University-Long Beach.

Jessica Fang: IT apps delivery manager for BCBS-TX
Jessica Fang was looking for a new career opportunity and new challenges when she found a job as an IT applications delivery manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas (BCBS-TX, Richardson, TX) last year. Today she manages four application development teams, some thirty people, who provide services for BCBS plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

She’s also responsible for budget planning and monitoring for projects, preparing and updating business cases, leading teams, delivering quality business solutions on time, and managing and coaching her team.

Computers were just gaining popularity in China when Fang was in high school, and she went on to a BSCS at Shanghai University (Shanghai, China) in 1994. She came to the U.S. in 1996 to enter the MBA program at Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA). When she got married she transferred to the University of Texas for an MS in MIS.

In 1998 Fang began work at Sabre Group (Dallas/Fort Worth, TX), the flight, car rental and hotel reservation giant, as a software developer. The next year she moved to AT&T Mobility (Richardson, TX) as an IT analyst, senior IT analyst, senior IT manager and finally senior technical architect for a middleware development team.

In 2006 Fang became senior technical director of the middleware development and environment configuration and management teams, then senior technical director of the production problem management team. These jobs involved managing high-performance IT delivery teams for end-to-end software development lifecycles, supporting company mission-critical apps and more.

“All my experiences at AT&T made me realize that I wanted to stay in a technology job,” she says. “My application development knowledge, delivery strategies and processes have all come together in this BCBS-TX job.”

The biggest challenge for her is, of course, that the insurance field is totally different from communications, where she built her experience. “Here we have a lot of legal mandates which cause more pressure on the delivery side. But I’m continuing to learn the business, and the more I learn, the more curious I am.”

Fang’s biggest challenge is balancing work and family commitments and enlisting family support when she needs it, since her job involves travel and being on call outside business hours. But there are a lot of women in senior leadership roles at BCBS-TX, and that is inspiring to Fang and other women there.

She would like to continue in her role at BCBS-TX, she says. She enjoys being a good influence on others, individually and in teams. She hopes to continue to see her teams achieve success and develop good services, boosting the customers’ wellness rates and helping the company increase membership.

D/C

Laura Gater is a freelance business and medical/ healthcare writer based in northeast Indiana.

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