Provider Contracting Specialist, Principal

About Blue Shield of California

As of January 2025, Blue Shield of California became a subsidiary of Ascendiun. Ascendiun is a nonprofit corporate entity that is the parent to a family of organizations including Blue Shield of California and its subsidiary, Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan; Altais, a clinical services company; and Stellarus, a company designed to scale healthcare solutions. Together, these organizations are referred to as the Ascendiun Family of Companies. 

At Blue Shield of California, our mission is to create a healthcare system worthy of our family and friends and sustainably affordable. We are transforming health care in a way that genuinely serves our nonprofit mission by lowering costs, improving quality, and enhancing the member and physician experience. 

To achieve our mission, we foster an environment where all employees can thrive and contribute fully to address the needs of the various communities we serve. We are committed to creating and maintaining a supportive workplace that upholds our values and advances our goals.

Blue Shield is a U.S. News Best Company to work for, a Deloitte U.S. Best Managed Company and a Top 100 Inspiring Workplace. We were recognized by Fair360 as a Top Regional Company, and one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States by Points of Light. Here at Blue Shield, we strive to make a positive change across our industry and communities – join us!  

Our Values: 

• Honest. We hold ourselves to the highest ethical and integrity standards. We build trust by doing what we say we're going to do and by acknowledging and correcting where we fall short. 
• Human. We strive to listen and communicate effectively, showing empathy by understanding others' perspectives.
• Courageous. We stand up for what we believe in and are committed to the hard work necessary to achieve our ambitious goals. 

Physical Requirements:

Office Environment - roles involving part to full time schedule in Office Environment. Based in our physical offices and work from home office/deskwork - Activity level: Sedentary, frequency most of work day.

Please click here for further physical requirement detail. 

Equal Employment Opportunity:

External hires must pass a background check/drug screen. Qualified applicants with arrest records and/or conviction records will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with Federal, State and local laws, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status or disability status and any other classification protected by Federal, State and local laws.

Your Role

The Provider Network Management team consists of Provider Relations and Contracting in Southern California. The Provider Contracting Specialist, Principal will report to the Director, Provider Contracting. In this role you will be responsible for managing contract negotiations for select providers in Southern California. The job entails comprehensive management of Medical Group/IPA and Hospital provider networks in the assigned service areas. Additionally, this role will be instrumental in driving strategic initiatives to support company objectives to achieve growth and maintain a strong market position and positive reputation in the market.

Our leadership model is about developing great leaders at all levels and creating opportunities for our people to grow – personally, professionally, and financially. We are looking for leaders that are energized by creative and critical thinking, building and sustaining high-performing teams, getting results the right way, and fostering continuous learning.

Your Work

In this role, you will:

• Manage contract negotiations for providers, including IPA/Medical Groups, PPO
• physicians, and hospitals for all products
• Participate in a cross-functional team to implement initiatives to help manage the total cost of health care across the assigned region
• Collaborate closely with Medical Management, Provider Relations, Network Analytics, and Sales to meet aggressive regional goals
• Drive alignment with Pricing, Underwriting, and Sales regarding unit cost and other contracting activities
• Identify strategic opportunities within local market (i.e., network expansion opportunities, utilization or unit cost excesses, etc.)
• Assess market trends and competitive benchmarks to enhance company’s market
• position
• Support initiatives to improve and maintain highly competitive unit costs across all products to ensure that a superior provider network is available to all employer groups
• Conduct investigations using critical thinking to understand the root cause of problems and propose solutions
• Perform other duties as assigned

Your Knowledge and Experience

• Requires a college degree in business, healthcare policy, public health or related field, or
• equivalent experience
• Requires at least 10 years provider contracting / negotiation experience including experience managing complex negotiations
• Requires a collaborative team player approach with practical knowledge and proactive leadership and management in the execution of processes and projects within a functional team
• Requires technical and functional expertise, business acumen, critical thinking, and decision-making skills

 

Hybrid Virtual Work

This role allows employees to work virtually full-time, however employees will be expected to come into the office based on business needs.