Personal Preparedness at Premera: A case study

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1 Premera and Personal Preparedness April 27, 2011 Kathy Woods, Director, Business Continuity Jennie Clinton, Program Manager, Business Continuity

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Speakers:  Kathy Woods, Director, Business Continuity, Premera  Jennie Clinton, Program Manager, Crisis Management & Personal Preparedness, Premera Our presentation will provide a case study on our approach to overall preparedness the personal aspect being a large component; b. Program component; c. How we engage execs, employees, and community partners. In this presentation we will: 1. Share how we are getting our employee base more prepared to support keeping the company in business; 2. How to motivate and provide incentives for employees to take action; and, 3. Demonstrate how we partner and engage the public sector to do this.

Transcript of Personal Preparedness at Premera: A case study

  • 1. Premera and Personal PreparednessApril 27, 2011Kathy Woods, Director, Business Continuity Jennie Clinton, Program Manager, Business Continuity1

2. Agenda Premera Overview Business Continuity Framework Where Personal Preparedness Fits Why the focus Our approach SharePoint site Open Discussion/Questions 2 3. About PremeraPremera Blue Cross Premera Blue Cross is headquartered in Mountlake Terrace, Wash.,with operations in Seattle and Spokane, Wash., and Anchorage,Alaska. The company and its predecessors have operated inWashington since 1933 and in Alaska since 1952. More than 1.5 million members in Washington and Alaska Fiscal Year 2009 revenues in Washington and Alaska of $2.9 billion A network of 27,000 healthcare professionals in Washington andAlaska More than 2,800 employees in Washington and AlaskaThe Premera Family of Companies LifeWise Health Plan of Oregon; LifeWise Health Plan of Washington;LifeWise Assurance Company; Calypso Healthcare Solutions;Ucentris Insured Solutions and Vivacity Consolidated 2009 revenues: $3.1 billion Nearly 3,000 employees A network of more than 35,000 healthcare providers3 4. Business Continuity ProgramOur Business Continuity Vision: We will ensure the company is prepared to continue critical services during a major disruption, and torestore suspended services after a disruption, by operationalizing Systemic Business Continuity Management Practices throughout theorganization.4 5. Role of Health PlansThe healthcare industry is part of our nations critical infrastructure. Each of us playsa key role in crisis response situations. As a health plan, the actions we take in responding to any disaster situation are guided by these over-arching principles:Ensure our members have access to care which includes both medical care and prescription drug availability.Ensure our providers continue to receive paymentEarthquake for services rendered and covered by planEnsure compliance with disaster-specific guidance from all regulatory agencies. 5 6. Our Cornerstones for RecoveryAssociate Support Unless and until you recover your people, we will not recover your business.- Family/personal preparedness is the right thing to do and improves our responsiveness when itsWe cantneeded as well.recover without - The first we need to consider is our associate situation following a major disaster. If the family isour people. in need, get them stabilized. Once associates know their families are safe, they are good to go forincredible hours/days. This requires preparation work up front with associates and families.- Plan for potential associate absenteeism of 30-50%, or more. Business Operations will beimpeded.Member SupportFocus on not putting members in the middle for situations outside of their control.- Allow early refill of prescriptions to replace lost drugs or assist if members are forced toevacuate.- Guide members to network provider.- Ensure access to care for our members.Employer Group- Review data to identify employer groups with members in disaster areas. Support- Self-funded customers bear financial risk and provide guidance that we take for their members.- As the event unfolds, we analyze and document guidance we receive and determine how we willimplement for our fully insured groups.- Share our approach with Self-funded groups and ask if they want to enact the same guidance totheir members.- our proactive approach helps employers maintain a consistent approach for members who areimpacted by disaster events.6 7. Our Cornerstones for RecoveryProvider Support- Active outreach to our market contacts to determine impacts to providers and support we canprovide.- We publish information gathered about provider status in documentation our Customer CareSpecialists use when assisting members.- Extend timeliness for claims submission and/or documentation to support pended claims.- We have internal business continuity plans and processes in place to continue execution ofservice within our operational areas.Regulatory- We operate in a highly regulated industry; federal and state guidelines drive actionsAgencies- States Departments of Insurance provide guidance in many disaster situations requiring action- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provides standing guidance related toMedicare members.- In the event of FEMA disaster and/or Department of Health and Human Services Public HealthEmergency, includes:- Typical in large-scale disasters for CMS to provide additional guidance requiring action.- New guidance from CMS (currently in draft) suggest plans should do what they need to do inorder to support Medicare members.Challenges Health - Visibility to disasters that have occurred and subsequent CMS and/or DOI guidance issued.Plans Face- Must be in compliance with federal regulations as well as those in all 50 states.- All decisions are not our own.- Disasters appear to be occurring more frequently and with greater impact. 7 8. Our Approach to Planning Should you be onsite at work, Premera has an Incident Response ImmediateTeam (IRT) managed by the Facilities Department. This team is Response made up of volunteers trained to evacuation, provide search andrescue efforts and conduct basic first aid and medical triage for(Facilities)associates. The CMT is comprised of executives within Premera that manage Crisisthe response of crisis situations. If we needed to address policy Managementissues, or a major crisis situation that could be created as the result of an earthquake, this team meets to handle the issues that would(Business Continuity)arise. Business Continuity is currently working with business areas to refine,Business Unit maintain and develop plans around what the critical areas of thebusiness could do to maintain the most time-sensitive activities (e.g. Response customer service). Business Continuity works with IT Disaster(Business Continuity) recovery, to ensure infrastructure recovery is aligned with businessrequirements. While we have pieces in place to manage an earthquake-type ofPersonalevent on campus, it is the associates responsibility to ensure they arepersonally prepared. Business Continuity strives to create anPreparednessawareness and provide tools for our associates that will help them(Business Continuity) with that planning. This includes a very basic emergency/hygiene kitprovided to associates when they start employment. Ensures the Resiliency, Restoration, availability and Recovery of IT DisasterPremeras Critical Technology Services, as identified by the BusinessRecoveryUnits . Involves plans, procedures, and technical measures thatenable the recovery of information systems, IT operations, and (IT) critical data after a disruption. 8 9. The Need For ReadinessPremera must be ready to very immediately coordinate andcommunicate following an event: Disasters appear to be occurring more frequently and with greater impact. Customer expectations higher; less tolerance for downtime The Danger: Out of 5 businesses experiencing a major disaster or extended outage, 2 will never reopen their doors. Of the 3 remaining, 1 will close their doors within 2 years. 60% of businesses experiencing a disaster will cease operations within 2 years. Business continuity plans and disaster recovery services ensure continuing viability. Gartner (Roberta Witty, Donna Scott) GartnerDisaster Recovery Plans and Systems Are Essential12 September 20019 10. Why We Do ItPremera is concerned about associates and recognizes a higher level of personalpreparedness is generally correlated to a faster and more effective response.Even with the ability to respond, if families and homes arent ok, there is a lack ofwillingness to respond. If our associates have the awareness and resources to helpthem prepare at home, they are likely to be willing and able to report to work.In short we cannot recover without our people, our people cant recover without ajob to come back to. 91% of Americans live in places at moderate to high risk of earthquakes, volcanoes,tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, high-wind damage or terrorism. Dept. of Homeland Security researched several studies in different parts of the US, aswell as other countries revealing that between 44-66% of first responders andhealthcare workers surveyed, would not report to work if they had concerns aboutsafety for their families or homes. A study of the Medical Reserve Corps volunteers found the assurance that theirfamily would be cared for/be ok was identified as the most important factor in enablingthem to respond. Sister company in Florida needed to restart response and recovery after ahurricane .While business recovery was up and running according to plan,there were not enough people to maintain operations because they weretaking care of personal impacts. Until the employees were settled at home,they could not follow the recovery plan.10 11. ApproachKeys to our success: Obtain executive support Determine preparedness baseline Create and maintain awareness Provide the how Develop Personal Preparedness SharePoint Site11 12. Obtaining SupportPersonal Preparedness is not a clear-cut revenuegenerating department, nor is it a regulatory requirement so how did we do it? Focused on creating awareness with leadership Crisis ManagementTeam and Business Continuity Council, key executive champions Education with leadership: examples and statistics, particularly withother like organizations, guest speakers Worked into exercise scenarios withtop executives Provided program outline with aphased approach Leveraged momentum and feedbackfrom associates General culture of the company12 13. Determine baseline Developed a Preparedness Survey Released September of 2010 All associates asked to complete Additional question sets for response/recovery associates Used to determine specific aspects of preparedness Overall knowledge What steps they had taken Overall comfort with readiness for self and home Approximately 25% of population felt prepared Conduct annually to measure progress Next steps Voluntary program, recognize 100% participation unlikely Develop phased approach 2011- Target management & recovery teams 80% those teams begin activities in 2011 End of 2012-2013 80% completed 25% general employee base start program 13 14. Awareness Quarterly sessions on our campuses with guest speakers Focus on one aspect of preparedness General sessions for all associates, closed sessions for executives Speakers have included State and Local EMD; Snohomish County Dept. of Health; National Weather Service Prizes and giveaways focused on preparedness items Internal communication News articles Monthly preparedness tips Staff Meetings New employee orientation Monthly lunch-n-learn course Focus on one or two elements How to build kits 14 15. Provide the how Path to Preparedness Breaks into 12 specific steps to help associates prepare (aligned with WA State EMD) Incentives for each step completed Looking for our critical workers to complete these Formal launch Q2 2011 Easy access to 3-day kits, supplies (vendor discounts, Premera Perks) for our associates 15 16. Preparedness SharePoint Developed mascots Preparedness Patty & Disaster Dave Logo to use for all program communication/events Personal Preparedness SharePoint Site Path to Preparednessprogram details andparticipation tracking Incentives Upcoming events Resources, Videos Blogs Information sharing 16 17. The SharePoint SitePremera Personal Preparedness Site 17 18. In Summary Obtained executive support Multiple communication channels andvisible communications from the top Session topics/company articles arerelevant and were ready to seize opportunity H1N1 and Snohomish County Dept. of Health Chile/Haiti Earthquakes and UW Risk/Seismology Japan Earthquake/Tsunami and Tim Serban Incentives for attending and participating Building momentum and leveraging interested parties Continuous feedback (surveys, focus groups)18 19. Questions?Kathy Woods425-918-5010; [email protected] Clinton425-918-6533; [email protected] 19