Happenings

Division 34 recognizes associates for exemplary work in the fourth quarter of 2022

Coach of the Quarter – Khosrow Heidari

Khosrow Heidari, a Statistical Programming Analyst III, is a leader on the Customer Support Front End Systems (CSFES), Advanced Communication Engine (ACE), and Data Integrity (DI) data analysis project teams. In addition to his regular responsibilities, Khosrow is always willing to help others on the team complete their tasks. He doesn’t simply provide the answers that an associate seeks but takes the time to train the associate to understand the relationships within the data and how the answers are derived. Khosrow is also instrumental to the staff training program, assisting them with teachings and education materials. His extensive knowledge paired with his calm and patient demeanor make him a highly successful coach and mentor for the entire team. Congratulations, Khosrow, on being named our Division 34 Coach of the Quarter.


Team of the Quarter - Enhanced Trading Partner Online Experience (ETPOE) Project Team

The Enhanced Trading Partner Online Experience (ETPOE) team worked on a project where the focus was to improve the user experience for both our internal and external customers. The project provides an infrastructure and service that results in cost savings for Palmetto GBA while achieving an improved user experience for our trading partners. It is one of the most highly visible Center for Medicare and Medicade Services (CMS) projects and required a great deal of coordination. The overall impact of the project is positive. It was originally launched in 2019 and implemented in phases over three years. The ETPOE team was the first to use these industry tools within Palmetto GBA, which benefits the entire company with knowledge that can be utilized by other teams with these new tools. The project team not only met but exceeded their expectations and received many accolades along the way. Congratulations to our ETPOE team on being named our Team of the Quarter for their hard work on this project.

Team Members: Chris Adams, Istvan Bathazi, Corliss Baxter, Michael Benecke, Steven Braswell, Scott Burkholder, Erika Burrows, Courtney Clarke, Brandy Creel, Alex Delage, Paige Dent, Gerald Eichelberger, Gary Estridge, Meryle Greve, Todd Hall, Erika Herrmann, Santosh Kumar Kadukuntla, Vicki Lamar, Katie McLean, Katie Portnall, Derek Roberts, David Russell, Gokul Sethuram, David Tilley, Chris Upham, and Doug Wells


Process Improvement of the Quarter - Build Application Programming Interfaces (API) in Debt Management System (DMS) for Check Application

The Debt Management System (DMS) team has been working as the lead Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) with the CMS and the consulting group General Dynamics Information Technologies (GDIT) to provide application programming interfaces (APIs) for inquiry and entry capabilities into the Healthcare Integrated General Ledger Accounting System (HIGLAS) for the past couple of years. This involved documenting to CMS and GDIT the functionality and data elements of the form-specific screens in the legacy DMS Automator System, which was built in 2013–2014. Then members from the DMS Team would work with representatives from CMS and GDIT to design those forms as inquiries and input APIs to HIGLAS. After that, the DMS Team redesigned the existing e-Commerce application to utilize the new APIs. The form that has the largest resource footprint is the Check Application form, with an average of approximately 11,000 HIGLAS entry tasks per month. After reconfiguring the internal Check Application form and adjusting it for the nuances of the API, the time savings in terms of data entry tasks have been monumental, with a reduction of an average of 250 entry hours of system resource per month. The implementation of this process improvement has also allowed for a 50% reduction in hardware, server, and licensing costs in addition to greatly increasing efficiency and accuracy for the designated staff members in the Finance and Accounting Department that utilize the DMS Check Application functionality.

Team Members: Reddy Boochireddy, Ray Dailey, Carol Harper, Derek Roberts, Danian Taylor, and Vishnu Vardhan


Associate of the Quarter – Gokul Sethuram

Gokul Sethuram, a Senior Developer, is dedicated to ensuring his work delivers excellent and quality results for our customers. His ability to analyze system issues and keep the customer's needs in mind reflects his day-to-day professionalism. He is a hard worker and has served as the system on-call technician, which was outside his normal duties, to monitor the system. Gokul took over as the lead developer and dedicated time to working with the corporate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) team to resolve connectivity issues. He handled all issues with ease and worked to ensure the project’s success. He also is a valuable team member for the provider audit team, as he helps provide audit reports to this team when needed. For his constant efforts to make the best quality work, we are excited to announced Gokul as our Associate of the Month for Division 34.