athenista Spotlight: Meet Michael Yun
athenaPulse: Thank you Michael for taking the time to participate in the athenaPulse Spotlight. Can you explain your job at athenahealth?
Michael Yun: Sure. I am on the Process Innovation team here at athena. The mandate of the Process Innovation team is fairly simple: to improve our workflows and functionality to make our operations efficient and effective. The way we achieve this is by scoping and leading projects in matrix teams with software developers and operations managers. In these teams the Process Innovation team member will do a variety of things to push out new functionality to athenaNet, everything from figuring the estimated value, writing up the business specifications, testing new features, documenting changes for release trainings, and monitoring the impact of the changes in production. Athena in particular was a natural fit for me, as I spent a good portion of my youth working at my father’s primary care practice in Indiana thinking about how he could improve his office.
aP: What do you like most about working at athenahealth?
MY: Just one thing? If I had to pick just one, it would have to be working with so many fun, interesting, and most importantly inspired people every day. However, a close second would have to be the nighttime hallway bocce games.
aP: Our entire issue this month is revolved around the 3rd Annual PayerView Rankings and I understand you’re the “man behind the metrics”. Can you explain how you’re involved in gathering and analyzing the PayerView data?
MY: I have been part of PayerView for two years now. In that time, I’ve done everything from compiling the data, previewing the data with payers, and speaking about PayerView results at various conferences. The process behind putting together our data set actually begins in January, when I pull data from athenaNet and begin my research on the various payers that will become part of our analysis. From there I work very closely with our Claim Analytics team and Melissa Lukowski, Director of Payer Outreach, to ensure the quality of our data and aid in putting together the payer profiles that help explain variation among payers. At that point I sit and wait for the questions to pour in stemming from the dialogue we start in the industry.
aP: Wow, and that’s only part of your job correct?
MY: Well, I also support the Rules, Claim Analytics, Real Time Transactions, Payer Tracking, and Claim Resolution teams in the Process Innovation role with the different initiatives they do. Most recently I have been involved in integrating Claim Status Inquiry into our Payer Tracking workflows, allowing us to start tracking the state of any given claim, much like you can track a package at UPS.
aP: Do you have any future plans for your career here at athenahealth?
MY: Well, as of June 9th, I’ll be living and working in Chennai, India for the next year building up the Business Process Analytics group at athenahealth India. Its both extremely exciting and nerve wracking at the same time!
aP: That’s a long move! Do you have any friends or family in India?
MY: A good friend and colleague, Drew Baker, has been in India for the past 9 months. Also, I’ve already met a number of other colleagues from our India office. The most interesting part of this process though has been all of hospitality that people have shown, as people as removed from me as relatives of friends of friends have offered me advice on living in Chennai, home cooked meals, and even places to stay while traveling.
aP: Aside from crunching PayerView numbers and moving halfway around the world, what else do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
MY: There hasn’t been much of that lately, but I spend most of my time traveling, watching live music, and going to restaurants around Boston. I also like to read a lot of non-fiction and hopefully one day apply all my useless knowledge on some sort of game show. Until then, local trivia nights will have to do.
aP: If you were given one million dollars, how would you spend it?
MY: After creating the requisite rainy day fund from it, I’d start a number of scholarships, travel around the world, and throw a huge party on an island somewhere. Then it’s back to work as normal!
