Excellus Health Plan Inc.
Manager, Government Relations, Public Policy Strategy, and Embedded Compliance Business Partnerships - 000005 (Project Management)
Summary:
Working in collaboration with the Executive Leadership Team, regional presidents, Legal, Regulatory Compliance, Corporate Communications and others throughout the organization, the Manager, Government Relations, Public Policy Strategy, and Embedded Compliance Business Partnerships develops and executes strategies supporting and responding to public policy issues and risks impacting the company. The role will foster and maintain relationships with elected officials in all regions and acts as a relationship manager for local, state and federal elected officials and their staff. In addition, this position develops and maintains relationships with our legal counsel and the BlueCross BlueShield Association (BCBSA) to ensure appropriate response to emerging trends and regulations/legislation, including the tracking and reporting of risks and developing internal strategies as needed.
This position has overarching responsibility to oversee and lead efforts to ensure the assigned division prepares for, achieves and maintains compliance with all federal and state regulatory requirements, that compliance is considered a key component in the development and execution of the division's functional strategy and that areas of risk are identified, tracked and mitigated.
Essential Responsibilities/Accountabilities:
Embedded Business Partnerships
• Assesses the business impact for new and updated regulations/mandates and oversees strategic responses for regulatory changes impacting all areas of the assigned division.
• Manages the Compliance Operations and Strategy Manager to enhance the assigned division's overall awareness of compliance, regulations and risk, and encourages the consideration of compliance as a strategic advantage; overseeing the use of a variety of methods and tools, including training/communication plans, auditing/monitoring plans, risk assessments, policy evaluation, metrics/measurement, and robust reporting to divisional leadership and team members on all compliance initiatives and plans.
• Facilitates the research, investigation, and escalation of potential and known noncompliance within the assigned division, maintaining a focus on root cause identification and risk mitigation. Champions desired actions and outcomes and oversees remediation activities and deliverables to ensure compliance is achieved through divisional and cross-functional collaboration.
• Ensures the Compliance Operations and Strategy Manager is acting as a liaison between division and Enterprise Risk and Corporate Services (ERCS): ensures team is providing appropriate support, collaboration, and response to Compliance incidents, internal and external Compliance audits, regulatory requests for information.
• Ensures the team to has appropriate and complete Compliance operations in place in the division: policies & procedures (P&P), internal controls, Compliance key performance indicators (KPI).
• Ensures team is proactively assessing compliance and business risk within the division using a risk-based plan to drive evaluations, reviews and/or assessments of business operations/functions, informing divisional and ERCS leaders of identified areas of risk.
• Plans, develops, and implements strategic, operational, and tactical business plans, special projects, initiatives, and activities to support the corporation's compliance goals and regulatory requirements.
Government Relationship Management
• Provides up-to-date information to senior leaders regarding substantiative political and public policy matters and makes recommendations on actions to take.
• Ensures organizational understanding of appropriate engagement with elected official via guidance from Hinman Straub and internal legal team.
• In collaboration with senior and regional leaders, act as a relationship manager for local, state and federal elected officials and their staffs to represent the needs of Excellus BCBS and stakeholders.
• Ensures creation of talking points and/or identifies appropriate collateral to proactively share with elected officials and prepares stakeholders for legislative engagements, as needed.
• Arranges the annual and as-needed engagement with priority legislative offices to maintain familiarity and provide updates on corporate initiatives.
• In collaboration with CAU, coordinates responses to constituent complaints received by legislators.
• Manages relationship with New York State Conference of Plans (NYSCOP).
• Prepares high quality written materials to support advocacy, government relations and public policy priorities including memos, reports and letters.
• Attends external events including legislative breakfasts, meetings and other events relative to legislative activities when appropriate. Coordinates Washington DC engagement.
• BCBSA policy and advocacy relationships/BluePac.
Public Policy
• Maintains general awareness of political environment as it relates to our business and shares relevant information with appropriate internal stakeholders.
• Leverages BCBSA resources, Hinman Straub and internal subject matter experts to maintain awareness of key legislative issues
• Works collaboratively with Regulatory Compliance and Legal to identify and prioritize strategic public policy risks.
• Acts quickly to understand and respond to continuous changes and challenges in the public policy space.
• Serves as liaison to BCBSA on policy related issues and activities, including participating in Employer and Exchange Policy, State Relations and Congressional relations calls, monitoring email distribution lists, and ensuring engagement as needed with other organizational stakeholders.
• Uses and oversees internal communications channels to educate and inform employees on public policy and compliance issues that impact the health plan and the SMaC division.
Strategy
• Manages the development of a government relations and public policy strategy that requires identifying priority contacts and building relationships.
• Oversees the assessment of business, operational, and strategic impacts resulting from public policy activities; using collaborative processes to identify current state gaps and estimated work effort to comply; including but not limited to facilitating meetings, analyzing data, engaging stakeholders from other divisions.
• Oversees the production of a dashboard to effectively communicate, track, prioritize and summarize public policy risk to health plan leaders and business stakeholders.
• Partners with Enterprise Risk Management to prioritize organizational risks related to public policy.
• Creates, compiles and maintains library of support materials, including profiles of high priority elected officials.
• Works closely with other Departments for input and integration.
Other Accountabilities
• Manages the Compliance Operations and Public Policy Strategy team including recruitment, training, career development, performance management, etc.
• Manages the Compliance Operations and Public Policy Strategy team to ensure that work is properly prioritizes and effective outcomes are achieved.
• Consistently demonstrates high standards of integrity by supporting the Lifetime Healthcare Companies' mission and values, adhering to the Corporate Code of Conduct and leading to the Lifetime Way values and beliefs.
• Maintains high regard for member privacy in accordance with the corporate privacy policies and procedures.
• Regular and reliable attendance is expected and required.
• Performs other functions as assigned by management.
Minimum Qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in political science, communications, public relations, marketing, business administration or related field with seven (7) years of related experience. In lieu of degree, thirteen (13) cumulative years of health plan strategy, working in government, public policy, compliance or related experience required.
• Master's in public policy administration preferred.
• Four or more years of strong leadership and/or management experience.
• Knowledge of local, state and federal legislative and executive processes.
• Experience in dealing with Federal and state regulatory agencies (CMS, DOH, DFS, etc.) and/or accreditation agencies such as NCQA, or the BCBSA.
• Working knowledge of health plan business processes, operations and strategy preferred.
• Ability to identify complex policy issues and effectively communicate with internal and external stakeholders.
• Must be capable of establishing effective relationships with all levels of representation throughout the divisions including senior management in order to execute cross-divisional initiatives.
• Ability to think strategically, craft a vision and develop robust operational action plans.
• Exceptional written and oral advocacy skills.
• Organization skills and ability to simultaneously manage multiple demands.
• A self-starter who is intrinsically motivated and a collaborative teammate.
• Familiarity with project management and/or agile methodology a plus.
• Must possess strong computer skills, including MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Physical Requirements:
• Must be able to travel across the enterprise.
• Ability to work in a home office for continuous periods of time for business continuity.
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The Lifetime Healthcare Companies aims to attract the best talent from diverse socioeconomic, cultural and experiential backgrounds, to diversify our workforce and best reflect the communities we serve.
Our mission is to foster an environment where diversity and inclusion are explicitly recognized as fundamental parts of our organizational culture. We believe that diversity of thought and background drives innovation which enables us to provide leading-edge healthcare insurance and services. With that mission in mind, we recruit the best candidates from all communities, to diversify and strengthen our workforce.
OUR COMPANY CULTURE:
Employees are united by our Lifetime Way Values & Behaviors that include compassion, pride, excellence, innovation and having fun! We aim to be an employer of choice by valuing workforce diversity, innovative thinking, employee development, and by offering competitive compensation and benefits.
In support of the Americans with Disabilities Act, this job description lists only those responsibilities and qualifications deemed essential to the position.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)
Manager