CIGNA Government Services
Company: CIGNA Government Services, Nashville, TN
Company Description: CIGNA Government Services, LLC (CGS) is a wholly owned subsidiary of CIGNA. CGS contracts with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to process Medicare claims for more than 16 million beneficiaries and more than 80 thousand healthcare providers and suppliers. CGS exceeds CMS expectations and focuses on controlling costs to maintain the integrity of the Medicare Trust Fund.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Training Team of the Year
Nomination Title: A holiday season to remember
Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
In the summer of 2009, CGS’ corporate parent, CIGNA Corporation, requested
temporary assitance with work for their Private Fee For Service (PFFS)
product. CIGNA requested that CGS manage the PFFS Customer Service Call Center
due to CGS’ consistent and exceptional call center performance with CGS’
existing Medicare business. Following an intense and successful roll-out with
this new PFFS Call Center, the PFFS Customer Service department and PFFS
training team anticipated a much needed Thanksgiving holiday break.
Then, on November 23, 2009, CIGNA notified CGS that due to increased sales and
unprecidented growth associated with the PFFS product – CGS would need to add
an additional 300 PFFS staff. On January 1, 2010, less than six weeks from
notification, the new PFFS customer service staff would need to be trained and
ready to answer phone calls.
PFFS management immediately engaged local staffing agencies to hire 300
supplemental employees while the training department reviewed curriculum. By
assessing the implementation time frame, available resources, and our
customer’s needs, it was apparent that we needed to reduce training time from
four weeks to three weeks to meet the deadline and give employees time to be
with their families during the holidays. In addition to condensing training,
we also needed to identify aditional training resources to increase the PFFS
training staff from one to 15 trainers.
Due to limited training space at CGS’ locations in Nashville, Tennessee and
High Point, North Carolina, we opted to create training space in local hotels
and add a third location in Denison, Texas. Training new employees at four
separate locations in three states created unique challenges. Once training
started, it was crucial to sync training classes so trainers could assist each
other in training new staff on time. Throughout training, trainers identified
individuals who struggled with the more fast-paced course. They pulled these
individuals from inbound call classes and trained them how to complete
outbound calls (a different, but easier, skill set). These adjustments allowed
the majority of trainees to continue on schedule while others were
successfully diverted to fill another organizational need.
Additional challenges included the inability of trainees to shadow and listen
to live calls, since training classes were taking place in hotels while
permanent work space was being completed. To counter this challenge, the
trainers walked the floor for up to 12 hours a day covering all shifts to
answer questions once the employees were released onto live calls. After X
weeks, these trainers returned to their own jobs but made themselves available
for questions.
While CGS was confident that the expedited training and integration of 300
additional PFFS Call Center reps had been a success, the true measure lies in
customer satisfaction results. The new employees began meeting customer
expecations on day one. To date, they have met their customer expectations
every month.
Actuals
Metrics Customer Goal January September
• Call Center Quality 90.0% 96.9% 96.1%
• Calls resolved in 3 days 85.0% 87.8% 91.2%
• Fee for Service level 80.0% 85.9% 96.3%
w/in 30 sec.
List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://www.cignagovernmentservices.com/
http://cigna.com/sites/cignamedicare/your_cigna_choices/
http://cigna.com/sites/cignamedicare/understand_medicare/
Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:
Kenyon Floyd is the Quality Assurance & Training Manager for CGS and has been
with us for 11 years. He has a Bachelors degree in Education from Tennessee
State University. He has a background government health care, Medicare Fee-for
Service Operations, government contracting, training, quality auditing, and
management.
Terry Salter is the CGS Training Manager. He has been with CGS for 9 years.
He has a Bachelors degree in Secondary Education from Samford University. He
is an experienced professional with expertise in Training & Development,
Quality Improvement, Government Healthcare and Management.