Emily Allen: Product Analyst at PNC Financial Services

I recently completed a summer internship with PNC Financial Services, in the PNC Healthcare line of business.  Within PNC Healthcare, I was a part of the treasury management group as a product analyst.  The products in PNC Healthcare, offer a comprehensive set of solutions for payers and providers.  These tools assist our clients with eligibilty, posting and reconciling receivable transactions, and billing. Treasury management specifically addresses the needs of payers and providers in regards to their short term revenue cycle. 

Although I worked on a variety of projects this summer, I primarily focused my attention on new product development as well as the impact of regulations on existing products.  By analyzing the future success of a new product in the first half of the summer, I concluded my summer by being part of the testing phase  with a product's first client.  The emphasis on the Affordable Care Act usually fails to acknowledge the impact it will have on payers and providers' finances.  Using my health policy background, I helped the product team assess the impact that a variety of new regulations will have on existing products. 

Despite not having a strong finance background, I found my HCPM education greatly valuable in navigating my way through the summer internship.  Although my fellow students most commonly interned within hospital administrations, consulting, health IT, or research fields, I found my summer in healthcare finance to be a strong learning experience that I know will serve me well in the future.  

Nayel Hakim, : Financial Analyst Intern at Gateway Health Plan

There has been a growing need in the healthcare sector to investigate novel ways of saving capital while delivering high quality and affordable care that meets the needs and expectations of patients. Currently, research is being conducted throughout the country; with ideas being shared and investigated by all the major players in healthcare sector: all this to come up with novel best practices to improve outcomes while reducing treatment costs.

For my internship, I decided to work one such project being investigated jointly by CMU and Gateway Health Plan Insurance in Pittsburgh.The program initiated by Gateway Health Plan was intended to address the perceived deficiencies in the current hospital discharge process among Gateway’s constituents by providing individualized and comprehensive follow up plan for selected discharge patients. With the goal of analyzing the success and improving the protocol, Gateway Health Plan partnered with CMU.

Having spent the summer researching and analyzing this program, I feel I was provided with a fantastic opportunity to apply all the quantities skills I picked up at Heinz. I realized there is a world of difference between learning and application; and by undertaking this process in totality, I took my knowledge from active to reflective to abstract to concrete over the course of the one year I spent at Heinz

I had the opportunity to analyze data, apply quantitative models, research best practices and finally, present and share my results with some of the best minds in the healthcare sector Pittsburgh. The feedback I got was very encouraging and enlightening. It’s been a great summer; I have learnt a lot from working with some of the best and brightest at CMU and Gateway Health Plan. I am looking to forward to meeting all my friends and colleagues at CMU and to another challenging and exciting year.