Twenty years ago, the Palmetto GBA family grew when the Augusta, Georgia, Operation joined the team. The Augusta Operation has worked with Railroad Medicare since 1976, and in September 2000, the Railroad Retirement Board awarded Palmetto GBA the contract.

“Palmetto GBA leadership did an excellent job of communicating with us throughout the transition, and our associates quickly became acclimated to the company culture,” said Gina Jenkins, Augusta Operations Senior Director. “We immediately felt like we were part of a big family.”

While some people have come and gone over the years, many of the Augusta Operation employees have been with Palmetto GBA since 2000.

“We have many of long-tenured employees,” Jenkins said. “We have 58 associates who have been with Palmetto GBA the entire 20 years.”

Palmetto GBA’s dedication to employees is among the reasons people remain with the company, according to Jenkins, who is among those celebrating 20 years on the Palmetto GBA team.

“We are fortunate to have such a wealth of Railroad Medicare knowledge within the Augusta Operation,” said Shared Services Vice President Neal Burkhead. “Not only has the RRB team maintained our strong relationship with the Railroad Retirement Board for the past two decades, but they have developed innovations and shared best practices that have benefitted customers of the entire organization.”

The Augusta Operation employees’ extensive knowledge of Railroad Medicare has guided them in developing numerous process improvements to benefit Railroad Medicare customers. They have implemented self-service tools such as the interactive voice-response system and Medicare Second Payer lookup tools that enable providers to obtain Medicare information at their convenience.

Augusta Document Control Center Manager Selena Haskins was on the team that implemented iFlow, which won Palmetto GBA’s process improvement of the year in 2007.

“Palmetto GBA is so driven about process improvement, and we’ve seen so much innovation over the last 20 years,” Haskins said. “We set up iFlow in 2007 and what that has done between then and now has been incredible. It has become the workflow management system for the entire company, and most lines of business use it.”

Haskins, another employee who has been with Palmetto GBA since 2000, said this commitment to innovation is important, but it is the focus on employees that makes people want to stay with the company.

“Palmetto GBA is just amazing,” she said. “I couldn’t ask to work for a better company.”