Get to know Blue

In September, we announced the appointment of Erin Barney as President of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota’s Commercial Markets division.

Erin’s role is critical in advancing our trusted solutions that bring the greatest value and quality in health benefits to the employers and members we serve, including:

• Minnesota-based national employers
• Large and small businesses
• Individual and family plans
• Taft-Hartley groups
• Public sector plans
• Minnesota residents covered by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s Federal Employee Program^® (FEP)

We sat down with Erin to learn about her background and her unique lens into the challenges employers face. Read more about the role that curiosity has played in her career across Blue plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association as well as her strategic vision for shaping the future of affordable health benefits in Minnesota.

Q. First, welcome to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota! Can you share a bit about your connections to Minnesota and why you knew this was the right fit?

A. I graduated from Augsburg University in Minneapolis and earned my MBA right after at St. Mary’s University. Shortly thereafter, I worked at the University of Minnesota. So, my husband and I started our adult life here in Minneapolis and are drawn to the richness of the culture, the arts, the food scene and of course the natural beauty of the state.

We had our first child 21 years ago when we were living in south Minneapolis. We ended up moving to Chicago to be around family while the kids were growing up.

Coming back to Minnesota is not just personal, it’s also because of my experiences I had professionally, working with the Minnesota plan while I was at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. I was so impressed by the folks I got to partner with, the innovation and the ideas that were coming out of Minnesota, as well as how the people showed up. In fact, Minnesota has a reputation across the system for being a great partner to work with.

Q. You’ve had an impressive career working for Blue plans in high-profile leadership roles and for the Association with broad visibility across the system. Tell us about those experiences and how your career progression has rounded out your overall perspective.

A. My path is a result of my curiosity and willingness to learn.

When we moved to Chicago, I started at Health Care Service Corporation in Employee Relations and raised my hand when a new role came along to be an HR business partner, and that evolved to further HR leadership and depth.

Then, a Chief of Staff opportunity opened where I would be supporting a leader in charge of growth, product, healthcare management and network. I got to lead early initiatives for value-based care and for pharmacy.

At one point, we had one of our largest customers in Texas at risk of leaving. As an organization, we wanted a different kind of team to partner with that account during the RFP process. So being curious, I raised my hand. We successfully renewed the group.

One thing organically led to another. Eventually, I was leading Sales and Account Management, then leading financial performance for the Texas plan, then working to close gaps in member experience and service issues and then becoming a voice for all our plans to enhance our shared service model. The path led deeper into Operations, including leading Network Operations.

Over time, it became clear I wanted to get back into an externally facing strategic role, and that’s when I moved to the Association. The platform the Association has is key in terms of influencing change and critical conversations that are happening right now across the healthcare industry.

So, my journey has taken me deeper into operational roles as well as externally facing strategic roles because I was curious. I always had an appetite to learn more and invested the time in doing so.

Q.  A key part of your role is leading commercial strategy and execution. What is your initial vision for ways we can strategically and sustainably advance healthcare in Minnesota for the benefit of employers and their employees? And how does AI fit into this?

A. The State of Minnesota’s 10-year economic forecast calls for the population with commercial health coverage to make up a smaller percentage of the state's population. You’re going to see more people going into Medicare.

As we think about this population shift, it’s all about going to market with newer, better ways to address healthcare needs — both employer needs and member needs.

My focus and vision are this: How do we get laser focused on the individual member and also think of new, creative solutions to tackle the issue of affordability?

As the market and population are changing, so are technology, AI and the way people are going to experience care. We already have more devices that can monitor health, or ways to access care virtually — that will evolve, too. With greater tech comes more data. We must consistently be anchored in how we will use this data to make those we serve healthier and care accessible.

AI absolutely fits in our strategy. In fact, it’s embedded, and we have governance to ensure it is leveraged in a responsible way that improves the employer and member experience and doesn’t increase costs.

So, it’s not just a shifting population — it’s also shifting technology. As we look forward, we need to adapt and be curious. The answers might be different than how we’ve thought about them traditionally.

Q. These are challenging times for employers looking to balance rapidly rising costs with the right benefits to keep employees thriving. How do you envision Blue Cross continuing to innovate to help them reach that delicate balance?

A. I see a future when we bring to market very different solutions than we do today to address the issue of overall healthcare costs.

In Minnesota, we are well positioned. When you’re a really big payer, it can be more difficult to innovate meaningfully. What I found working at large Blue plans is there’s so much that goes into how the portfolio of funds is determined, and piloting ideas can be a challenge because there are many competing priorities. Good ideas just take longer to generate and implement.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is well positioned not only because of our performance and strength, but because our size is in that sweet spot that supports effective and timely innovation. We’re willing and able to try new things and our customers demand it.

The other side of this question is acknowledging that employers have tough choices to make. We can help them and their agent or broker by evaluating every lever, digging deep and looking at every possible avenue available to come to the right balance.

We need to be surgical about going after affordability to really understand what’s driving utilization and costs. Pharmacy is a good example. Medications in development are going to change people’s lives. And that’s a great thing! Our challenge is to create a mechanism that makes it possible to access the medications in an affordable way for employers and members.