Last fall, after 17 years with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, Dave Comella was named the company’s vice president and chief information officer. Shortly after his promotion, Comella, formerly an analyst and project leader at Blue Cross, was tasked with overseeing the insurer’s transition to remote work for most of its employees during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Comella discusses his new roles, a recently completed portal for Blue Cross members and his perspective on post-pandemic office working environments.
PBN: What part of the job as chief information officer is most demanding?
COMELLA: I am very fortunate to have such a high-performing, accountable team that manages day-to-day operations, which allows me to spend more time developing our future strategy. With all of the regulatory changes happening in health care, finding a balance between developing a multiyear strategy to bring innovative solutions to our customers while also meeting regulatory requirements is probably one of the most demanding parts of the role.
Equally demanding is rationalizing our technology investments to ensure that we are generating as much value as possible for our customers and members while also providing our associates the tools they need to do their jobs efficiently.
PBN: You were heavily involved with the creation of the new member portal myBCBSRI. What’s the response been so far to that?
COMELLA: I want to take a moment and thank the cross-functional team responsible for delivering the portal, specifically our managing director of IT [information technology], John Auger, and our manager of web services, Nate Bosgraaf, for their leadership and commitment to providing the best solution for our customers.
The response has been positive so far. We already have more than 21,000 registrations on the new portal and we are seeing significant improvement in the performance of the portal. Some of the most frequently used pages are loading 90% faster than before. Additionally, nearly 65% of newly registered customers are embracing the use of electronic documents, furthering our path toward a more green organization. We have also been seeing positive improvements in our web net promoter score, which measures customers’ willingness to recommend something to others.
PBN: You supervised Blue Cross’ transition to remote work for most employees as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. How challenging was this shift?
COMELLA: We were fortunate that a lot of the infrastructure needed was already in place as part of our business continuity planning, which we would have typically used during heavy snow days for example. That enabled us to continue operations in the early days of moving to remote work.
Unfortunately, the infrastructure wasn’t really scaled to sustain almost the entire company working remotely for such an extended period of time, so we accelerated a number of planned upgrades and coordinated the installation of new hardware while remote.
In the early days, I think that was the most challenging aspect – keeping our systems up and running while keeping our associates safe. Once we were able to stabilize our network, we shifted our focus to deployment of Microsoft Office 365 and Teams to provide our associates ways to stay better connected with each other to collaborate and continue to deliver high value for our customers.
PBN: We’ve all heard reports of companies saying they plan to eliminate some office space after realizing that employees were just as productive when working from home. Do you anticipate those sort of changes at Blue Cross?
COMELLA: We’ve had a lot of success working in a remote environment, and we are constantly evaluating options to enable our associates to be even more effective and efficient. There has been a slow shift toward teleworking in a number of industries in the past couple of years, and it’s clear that COVID-19 accelerated the movement toward and acceptance of telework.
I believe remote work opens up opportunities to bring in talent for certain roles from other parts of the country – and the world – without having those folks completely uproot their lives and relocate. Given how productive our associates have been at home, I believe we will see more of a hybrid working environment where associates will be remote some days and in the office other days.
We are exploring ways to improve collaboration between an on-site and remote workforce in the future, when we can safely welcome associates back into the office. As we contemplate a staged return to the office, our top consideration is the safety and health of our associates; and of course, like other companies, we are also looking at best practices for safely maximizing our space.
PBN: You’ve been with Blue Cross for 17 years. What has kept you there?
COMELLA: There are a multitude of reasons that I have spent the past 17 years here at BCBSRI, but I’ll give you my top three. The first, hands down, is the people who I am fortunate enough to work alongside every day. It is inspiring to see how much our associates care about our customers, members and the community they live in.
The second reason is the commitment that BCBSRI makes to our community. I have been a Rhode Islander my whole life and I take pride in the fact that I work for an organization that is constantly finding ways to give back to the people of our state.
And finally, I would say the opportunity to learn and grow every single day. I have been able to work in many different parts of the organization and have learned a tremendous amount from the folks who I worked with in every area. I have always felt supported and encouraged to ask questions and innovate. Overall, it has been a wonderful journey and I look forward to many years to come.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.
