Chris Kurtenbach, VP, Service & Operations, and his team are responsible for service operations at BCS, including P&C claims, policy issuance, agent appointment, clinical claims review, data analytics, service partner management, and ancillary underwriting. Chris is also a key player in our high cost claimant strategy, and recently spoke at the 2021 RiskNavigator Conference on large claim trends. Read on to meet Chris and get to know his role.
Q: What does a typical day look like at BCS?
A: In the service department, we have our standard day-to-day of paying claims, issuing policies, appointing agents, and quoting business. We also work closely with a number of outside partners including many of our third-party administrators where we tackle unique challenges of new compliance requirements or changes and need to work with them to get those implemented. On the large claims side, with gene therapies and high cost SpecialtyRx, we get involved in complicated claims by understanding payment, billing and future costs of members by partnering with other internal departments. In many ways, both myself and my team are the orchestrators of many activities and projects in the company, ensuring they are tracked and managed.
Q: Describe your department in three words.
A: Service is Everything
Q: What was your first job?
A: My first job was I worked at Kmart in their appliance department. I have always liked technology things, and this allowed me to play with the newest items out in the market. It also taught me some important sales skills, since I was commissioned on what I sold.
Q: What do you think is the biggest benefit of the RiskNavigator conference (held virtually this month)?
A: It is hard to believe that this was my fourth Risk Navigator conference. Every conference brings new ideas and insights; it is great to learn from others and share best practices.
Q: There’s so much going on in the healthcare industry. How do you keep informed?
A: It is an impossible activity, but I do my best. I have already hit 80 hours of professional development, from conferences, articles, webinars, books, etc. It is tough with so much information out there to determine the good ones. Feel free to reach out to me for any of those insights as I’m glad to pass my ideas along.