Along with being the oldest, largest health care provider in Minnesota, Blue Cross is an organization of people— more than 3,800 throughout the state— working to meet your needs. This series will help you get to know some of our outstanding employees.
thrive.: What is your role as a Medicare Product Manager?
Matt Johnson: I help strategize and design the benefits of our Medicare Advantage and Platinum Blue plans, as well as the drug benefits that go along with those plans. We start with what is mandated for the product from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Then we work with people throughout the organization, including our customer service departments that get feedback from our members and agents. We do a lot of research so we can put together a plan that’s going to give our members something that they know is going to help them with their health.
thrive.: What makes you passionate about serving members?
Matt: Working at Blue Cross, I look around at all the people I work with here, and they’re my neighbors, family, and friends, and that’s also who we are serving. I’m from Duluth, so it’s rewarding that I get to serve Minnesotans. That’s what keeps me moving.
thrive.: How do you communicate plan benefits and plan changes to members?
Matt: When I’m designing plan benefits or changes to benefits, I’m always thinking about our members and how it will affect them. That helps to ease the transition for members so if there are changes, their plans are as similar as possible from one to the next. We make sure that everybody is well aware of any changes before they happen. And they’ll get a lot of notifications from us. We’ll send letters and lay out exactly what their plan benefits are.
thrive.: Tell us a little about your life outside of Blue Cross.
Matt: I’m a guitar player. I have a vast guitar collection—on accident. They always say, “How many more guitars do you need?” Just one more. Then you accumulate 30 of them. I’m getting married this month. We have five children—three little kids are still at home—so it’s a fun and lively place to go home to after work.