Business Analyst, Consultant

Business Analyst, Consultant

The Clinical Coding team seeks an experienced Business Analyst, Consultant with strong analytical, business, and technical expertise to support complex, cross functional initiatives. This role is responsible for analyzing data, defining business requirements, and driving operational improvements related to payment policy, medical policy, and coding related processes, while also contributing to the development of annual operating plans, budgets, forecasts, and cost/benefit analyses for new initiatives. The Business Analyst, Consultant will report to the Sr. Manager, Clinical Coding. In this role, you will play a critical role in ensuring payment and medical policy logic is accurately translated into system configuration, directly impacting claims accuracy, regulatory compliance, and cost of healthcare outcomes, while influencing cross-functional decision-making through expert analysis and identification of improvement opportunities.

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.

Responsibilities

Your Work

In this role, you will:

• Provide highly complex analytical support through the analysis and interpretation of data in support of cross-functional business operations
• Lead the development of annual operating plans, capital budgets and forecasts, and build business cases for new business initiatives (cost/benefit analysis)
• Develop, prepare, and analyze reports with highly complex analysis and data for management review, and presents to various levels of management
• Define business requirements and provide analysis to increase operational efficiency
• Support multiple, highly complex cross-functional projects simultaneously by establishing work plans, managing timelines, and coordinating with internal and external stakeholders
• Manage critical programs including ClaimsXten monthly maintenance, release planning, and defect resolution to ensure accurate and timely claims adjudication
• Translate payment policy, regulatory requirements (e.g., CMS, NCCI), and medical policy intent into system configuration and business rules
• Partner cross-functionally with Payment Integrity, IT, Medical Policy, and Operations teams to design and implement business solutions
• Monitor operational performance and identify risks, gaps, and improvement opportunities to support cost of healthcare (CoHC) outcomes
• Support audit readiness, compliance requirements, and provider dispute resolution through data analysis and documentation

Qualifications

Your Knowledge and Experience

• Requires a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

• Requires at least 7 years of prior relevant experience

• Requires deep knowledge of job area typically obtained through advanced education combined with experience.

• Requires strong knowledge of business analysis, payment policy, California state mandates and claims operations

• Requires at least 3 years of Payment policies and claims processing or equivalent experience

• Familiarity with provider manuals, CMS/NCCI guidelines, and payment integrity operations

• Requires knowledge of ClaimsXten or similar claims editing software

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with ability to conduct independent research and synthesize findings

• Advanced knowledge and ability to perform process mapping, root-cause analysis, gap analysis and requirements gathering

• Requires practical knowledge of project management

• Ability to deal with complexity, compressed timelines and shifting priorities

• Proficient with MS Office products, including Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Visio expertise a plus

• Strong interpersonal and verbal and written communication skills.

• Agile experience preferred

Hybrid

This role requires employees to be in-office based on our hybrid workplace model, balancing purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility. For most teams, this means coming into the office two days each week.

Employees living more than 50 miles from an office location will work with their manager to determine in-office time based on business need.

About Us

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.

Our Workplace Model

We believe in fostering a workplace environment that balances purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility - providing clear expectations while respecting the diverse needs of our workforce. Our workplace model is designed around intentional in-person interaction, collaboration, connection, creativity and flexibility:

• For most teams, this means coming into the office two days per week.

• Employees living more than 50 miles from an office location, out of state employees, and employees in certain member-facing roles should work with their manager to determine in-office time based on business need.

• For employees with medical conditions that may impact their ability to work in-office, we are committed to engaging in an interactive process and providing reasonable accommodations to ensure their work environment is conducive to their success and well-being.

The Company reserves the right to require more presence in the office based on business needs, and requirements are subject to change with periodic reviews.

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.