Business Analyst, Contract Management

Northwest Permanente, P.C., is a self-governed, physician-led, multispecialty group of over 1,500 physicians, surgeons, and clinicians, caring for over 600,000 members in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Kaiser Permanente is one of the nation's preeminent health care systems, a benchmark for comprehensive, integrated, and high-quality care.

The Business Analyst, Contract Management position is accountable for the creation, formatting and maintenance of templates that are issued by KP Legal and approved by the WA Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) for the purposes of creating compliant provider contracts in the McKesson Contract Management System (CM) and will support the Manager, Contract Compliance in the proper documentation, traceability, filing and reporting related to regulatory compliant contract templates for use in producing compliant provider contracts by system users. The position acts as the department SME as it pertains to working within the CM, aiding users in developing highly negotiated agreement templates within the system, and training users to navigate within the system.

Business Analyst, Contract Management has responsibility to develop and maintain provider contracting business processes, policies and procedures with the objective of continuous process improvement and efficiency. The position is accountable for creating quality documents that support the day-to-day business processes in addition to continually evaluating and enhancing workflows to implement and improve best practices. Responsible to identify system and process inefficiencies and recommending, designing, advocating for and implementing improvements.

The position will liaise with systems teams and IT to define provider contracting business requirements for the implementation of system upgrades in addition to exploring and ensuring new technologies to meet scope and strategic business needs of the Provider Contracting Department.

Major Responsibilities / Essential Functions

• Act as lead business user and primary accountability for contract and template design in Provider Contracting CM contract management system. Creates and maintains compliant contract templates in CM for use in producing compliant provider contracts for the types of legal agreements managed by Provider Contracting. Creation of custom forms to support contract templates and the different types of agreements that need to be implemented. Manages approved and retired templates in CM for use by the Provider Contracting team. Support the Provider Contracting team in the creation and maintenance of any templates or negotiated contract documents in the CM application and that would be required for filing with the OIC. Performs testing and validation of new contract templates in the CM testing environment prior to the release in CM production. Documents changes in processes for template creation, OIC filing process that might be impactful to the users of CM in the creation of contract documents. Organizes and manages non-standard language terms for consideration and introduction into template library for alternate (pre-approved by Legal) language structures. Responsible for library management, reference data collection, contract creation, activation, renewals and amendments.
• Deconstructs technical concepts and metrics to facilitate process development and process improvement. This includes maintaining standard operating procedures, department policies, and documentation of the end-to-end business process. The position is accountable for supporting and delivering training solutions to users, reviewing and assessing processes, and on-going monitoring and analysis against requirements. This includes working with subject matter experts and department staff and leadership to identify gaps and creating practical processes, training and support mechanisms that align with optimal business functions. Contribute to and develop user documentation and training curriculum, delivery and support of users of the contract management system.
• In consultation with leadership and users, the position will collaborate in defining the scope and strategic objectives of the business systems and will participate in business decisions related to implementation of technologies and management of vendor software releases. Coordinate and partner with cross functional system teams to advocate and represent provider contracting business, legal, regulatory and compliance needs and ensure implementation of upgrades are complete, documented, and consistent with business requirements and that impact analysis have been performed and communicated. Participates in CM testing cycles for new system upgrades or enhancements as it pertains to the Library Manager functions.

• Provides complex analytics and prepare analytical and statistical reports for Provider Contracting department leadership and staff, along with senior leaders, regulatory, and compliance requests. Develop specifications, identify data sources, design queries, and create reports to transform data into meaningful information that will be used to inform leaders in the assessment and management of Provider Contracting team workloads, contract deliverables and to ensure compliance.

• Project management of critical and strategic provider contracting projects, such as bulk contract amendment project requiring large scale regulatory or other remediation of provider contracts, monitor day-to-day activities of the project and ensure work is progressing as planned.

Minimum Education

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Minimum Work Experience

• Minimum five (5) years of experience in process development, contract and/or policy and procedure writing and documentation.
• Minimum five (5) years of expert level knowledge in the use of MS Office applications and relational database design concepts.
• Minimum two (2) years of experience as a systems administrator and performing system and user acceptance testing.
• Applied use of analytical skills including data analysis.
• Strong proofreading and editing skills.
• Ability to convey or exchange complex information including understanding statements of operations, essential components of a legal contract and procedural routines.
• Ability to communicate with external and internal stakeholders at all levels of the organization, including a strong ability to present, persuade and influence decision makers in order to meet business and regulatory needs.

Additional Requirements

• In depth knowledge of managed care contracting principles, language and regulatory requirements.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with a strong customer orientation. Ability to synthesize a variety of data to produce a cohesive and well-documented process.
• Self-motivated and able to apply judgment in the prioritization and coordination of multiple assignments and projects. Ability to adapt within a dynamic environment with competing priorities.
• Analytical, extremely detail oriented with ability to work effectively in both independent and team environments.
• Excellent problem solving skills.
• Organized and efficient in their approach to the work, and is able to work both independently and as a team member in achieving objective
• Flexibility in meeting the demands and strategic priorities of the department and organization

Preferred Education

• Master's degree or equivalent experience

Preferred Work Experience and Qualifications

• Six Sigma Green Belt Certification or Project Management Professional Certification or equivalent certification.
• Understanding of relevant corporate data systems including Onyx, Provider System of Record.
• Seven (7) years of experience process development, policy and procedure documentation.
• Seven (7) years of expert level knowledge in the use of MS Office applications and relational database design concepts.
• Five (5) years of experience in managed care contracting.
• Five (5) years of experience as a systems administrator and performing system and user acceptance testing.
• Five (5) years of experience in project management, facilitation, and team building skills. Ability to plan, prioritize and deliver within constrained timelines.
• Five (5) years of experience in managed care contracting, physician relations or practice management, legal administration, health plan administration. Strong familiarity with and ability to understand all aspects of a contract document.
• Knowledge of health care delivery systems and operations, specific knowledge of Kaiser Permanente medical care delivery operations and systems highly desired

At Northwest Permanente, P.C., we are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information (including characteristics and testing), military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Northwest Permanente, P.C. believes that diversity, inclusion, and equity among our employees is critical to our success and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.