Gemini S.

What are you most proud of from your time at Availity?

Back when Availity first started the clearinghouse, I was one of two implementation analysts who worked to certify the first vendors, providers, and health plans that connected to our gateway. I helped grow the EDI connectivity and brought in thousands of EDI transactions to Availity at the beginning of the clearinghouse business.

What’s kept you here the longest?

I’ve always believed that Availity is truly doing a tremendous job in helping streamline processes that can help the Healthcare industry in the long run.

When did you join Availity, what was your first role, and what do you remember most about your first year?

I joined Availity as a contractor in September of 2002, when we were supporting the Humana migration and were starting the clearinghouse business. I was one of 4 employees manning the Availity Helpdesk (now it has grown to Availity Client Services). I became a full-time employee in March of 2003.

This was after the migration of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida to the Availity gateway. I was providing helpdesk support for the very first customers using the Availity portal, where 90% of the calls we received at that time were to reset their Availity passwords (there was no self-service yet). We were getting calls every 20 to 30 minutes for that simple assistance.

When you think about our Core Values, which one resonates the most with you and which do you think will propel us through the next 25 years?

The value that resonates with me the most is ‘Healthcare is Personal’. This is the value that I think keeps Availity connected to the very core of why Availity exists in the first place, why Availity will continue to build systems that will benefit our customers by helping them simplify their healthcare processes.

What are three words you’d use to describe Availity today?

Connectivity, Network, Cloud.

• Connectivity is where our customers (payers and providers) get their work done.
• Network is the Availity systems that support this connectivity.
• Cloud is where Availity is headed in the future.

What’s a time Availity’s reliability or recovery made a difference (for a provider, plan, or patient experience)?

I think the security breach on the Change Healthcare systems 2 years ago, where Availity jumped in to keep the business of healthcare going, made a huge difference for the providers and health plans.

What’s one “tiny way” your team removes friction from healthcare that most people never see?

The Identity Crisis team, of which I am the QA, is working to create a consolidated users and organizations store for Availity. We are combining data from both the Essentials and the Essentials Pro systems into one model that can be accessed by all applications in the cloud.

What’s one thing we used to do manually that our network/platform does seamlessly today?

One of the earliest processes that we used to support manually was resetting Availity passwords. When an Availity user was locked out of their account, they had to call Availity to unlock their account. Now we have self-service tools that can assist them more quickly without making that phone call.

How has your job changed since you started?

So much has changed. But when I first started working as QA in 2008, there was no automation. Now we have built automation suites to continually run tests on our systems. We now have AI that we are working on to integrate into our daily tasks.

What’s the best part of your day‑to‑day work?

The best part of my day-to-day work is knowing that with the work that I do, I am helping our customers simplify their healthcare processes.

What are you excited about in the next year and over the next 25 years?

I’m excited about Availity’s transition to the cloud. This will help Availity’s continued growth in the years to come and make a difference in the Healthcare industry, always helping our providers and payers streamline their processes.