Dr. Stella Onuoha-Obilor earned her medical degree from Nigeria’s University of Calabar College of Medicine and her master’s and PhD degrees in public health from Walden University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She holds the certifications of Certified Professional in Health Care Quality (CPHQ), Certified Case Manager (CCM), Lean Six Sigma Healthcare Black Belt, Lean Six Sigma Healthcare Green Belt, Walden University Certificate on Meeting the Leadership Challenge, and Harvard School of Public Health Certificate on Measurement, Design, and Analysis Methods for Health Outcomes.
Dr. Obilor was the director of the New Jersey Innovation Institute Healthcare/ Garden City Practice Transformation Network’s measures management department prior to joining Highmark. She worked with a team of more than 50 clinical and non-clinical employees to a target of over 10,000 physicians in specialty and general care practices, saving $15 million through a $50 million grant-funded practice transformation project.
“My passion for improving numbers stems from the fact that every data point in the healthcare industry has a human narrative behind it. For me numbers are not just numbers for me. People’s spouses, siblings, friends, and relatives make up this group.”- Stella Onuoha-Obilor
Highmark Health
Highmark Health is a nationwide integrated health company with the vision of a world where everyone enjoys good health and the goal of providing a one-of-a-kind health experience that allows people to be their best. One of Highmark Health’s core behaviors is client first, which puts the customer at the center of everything the firm does. Highmark Health is committed to providing excellent service to both individuals and companies.
Health insurance, health care delivery, population health management, dental solutions, reinsurance solutions, and cutting-edge technology are just a few of the critical health-related services provided by Highmark Health businesses.
Under Larry Kleinman’s leadership, Highmark Health established a wholly owned subsidiary to assist businesses in achieving large-scale transformation through the use of digital tools, process improvement, and agile approaches to streamline and automate work that is highly manual, repetitive, time-consuming, and prone to errors. Some of the services provided include on-site and virtual ideation solutions to engage employees and gather ideas; change readiness and adoption techniques to support change management, and employee outreach to establish a community mindset around transformation.
The Living Health Model was created by Highmark to make use of our payers’ and care providers’ talents, technology, and insights as part of our unique integrated health approach. This new experience offers frictionless ease, simplicity, low cost, and beneficial health results. Dr. Tony Farah, EVP Chief Medical and Transformation Officer, and his team are rethinking health care with the goal of providing the finest treatment for the firm’s members at the lowest feasible cost while giving the best patient and clinician experience possible.
Ensuring Continuous Performance Improvement
Working with many stakeholders and important players across functional teams, according to Dr. Obilor, is difficult since some people are reluctant to change. It’s difficult to arouse others’ emotions in order to persuade them of the value propositions of fresh ideas. Change, she believes, is unavoidable, and persuading people to question the existing quo is difficult. Furthermore, what people have are behavioral flaws rather than a lack of understanding. As a result, a cultural shift is required to get people’s buy-in and to foster a culture of continual performance improvement. It’s also critical to shape the company culture in such a way that employees may perform their best while still feeling protected.
Every morning, Dr. Obilor gets up in the morning with the question, “Why?” She says, “I love this one word, “improving,” and that forms my why statement.” Her passion for improving numbers stems from the fact that every data point in the healthcare industry has a human narrative behind it. She adds, “For me, numbers are not just numbers. People’s spouses, siblings, friends, and relatives make up this group.”
She oversees the health plan’s clinical quality and medical policy as Vice President of Clinical Quality and Medical Policy. She is responsible for developing and executing a hybrid clinical quality approach that incorporates both structural and virtual integration models. Her mission is to prevent abuse and overuse while increasing underuse, all while improving the value-based member, patient, and provider experience in partnership with the clinical leadership team. She’s especially interested in identifying, standardizing, tracking, and improving quality outcome variables like provider satisfaction (quadruple objective) and showing value improvement. Dr. Obilor asserts, “I am in charge of leading Health Plan quality operations as well as developing the Health Plan’s quality improvement function and capability in collaboration with the Operational Effectiveness team and the Government Stars leaders to ensure that all quality programs are effectively connected and aligned.”
Additionally, Dr. Obilor is in charge of developing, maintaining, revising, and enforcing business medical policies for Highmark Health services in conformity with regulatory standards.
Creating a Transformative and Supportive Work Environment
When it comes to putting together a strong team, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. High performers and highly engaged workers, on the other hand, have one thing in common: a winning culture. According to Dr. Obilor, a company cannot create a successful culture unless the individuals who make up the culture change their habits. She goes on to say that cultural development necessitates human transformation. The good news is that the behaviors required for a healthy, high-performance culture are the same ones that people require for a happy existence. Collaboration, personal responsibility, learning and growth, respect, trust, and many other vital personal characteristics are all part of a winning culture.
Dr. Obilor believes in establishing an atmosphere that allows her team members to feel their best and achieve their best job as a powerful positive change agent and cultural champion. As a result, she strives to be a role model for all of the desirable fundamental principles. She shares, “Trust working together has always been a key factor to my successful leadership.” This is because Dr. Obilor feels that it is more important to create strong, trustworthy relationships with the individuals she works with than it is to have titles. She leads with empathy, passion, and mutual respect as a result. Team members have faith in a leader that lives the walk, talks the talk, and follows through on pledges.
Dr. Obilor has a strong belief in her team’s ability to do the right thing in all situations, and this has been proven to be true. Because appreciation is the glue that binds the team together, she does not miss opportunities to express praise to all team members promptly in the form of verbal acknowledgement, emails, and applause.
She opines, “Core behaviors matter because they will help us achieve our goals. Therefore, leaders must practice what they preach because ultimate employee engagement is a reflection of the organizational culture established by the leaders.”
Living a Self-motivated and Disciplined Life
Dr. Obilor says, “I am not too busy to live.” She schedules self-care time. She works out and eats well, as well as practices mindfulness. She understands that her health and happiness are important to her, and that she must bring her complete self to work every day. She strives to maintain a healthy and happy lifestyle. She mentions, “I ought to feel my best before I do my best work because I have only one soul and one body.”
Lead with Passion, Empathy, and Determination
Dr. Obilor considers herself an effective leader when her employees are happy and performing their best jobs. She believes in establishing objectives and holding herself responsible for achieving them.
Her advice to aspiring female leaders is to always mix strategy with empathy. She says, “You can never be wrong when you lead with empathy, passion, and mutual respect. Most importantly, build resilience by always lifting others because you are lifted while lifting others. Always practice childlike courage. Hope, grit, and determination are all must haves.”
