Mr. Russell joined the company in June 2023 after leading Delta Dental of Iowa. He sat down with Becker’s to discuss his approach to his first year of leadership.
Editor’s note: This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Question: BCBS Nebraska was awarded best in customer service in its region by JD Power this year. How do you keep consistent services during a leadership transition?
Jeff Russell: One of our guiding propositions, our competitive advantage, is in our name. We’re BCBS of Nebraska. It was important for me and for our organization to make sure that we are reinforcing relationships, whether that’s with members, or groups in the community or providers. What that really looks like is, how do we continue to bolster the ecosystem to make sure that we can deliver the best possible health outcomes for our members? That’s not just the things that happen inside our four walls. Part of what I’ve been working on with our team is how is it that we can rethink our role in the ecosystem? For 85 years, we have been there when our members need us, and that’s important. We can never give that up, we can never take that for granted. But we also need to widen our aperture and expand what we can do so our members believe that we are there to help them live their best and healthiest lives every single day, not just the days they interact with the healthcare system. What I think we all want is to be able to live whatever our own healthiest life looks like. The first year, really, I’ve been focused on how it is that we continue to build relationships across the ecosystem to really be a champion for the health and well-being of our members and the communities we’re serving.
What are the key priorities a CEO should have in their first year?
JR: I’d say culture is the first piece that is important to me, relationships the second. … I really believe that we have an opportunity here in the state to dramatically improve healthcare, because we can sit across the table from one another, and that’s part of the ethic of the Midwest and Nebraska. So I think we build a strategy that executes against that as we make those investments in technology, that we make sure our service levels stay at the level they have historically been. How is it that we better use data to meet our members and patients? Culture, relationships and strategy are the top three on my list.
