Peak Performer: Jennifer Asamoah

Jennifer is a fantastic nurse that works for the Utilization Management department at CCHP and is an incredible asset for the Denial and Appeal team. For about 3 years now, Jennifer has worked as a Denial and Appeal Coordinator and has made a huge difference in the department. The Health Plan recently changed computer systems and started using Epic.

During this transition process, the department had to undergo many changes in order to make the workflow transition smooth and seamless. It was imperative that the documentation we use every day be transitioned over to the new computer system flawlessly, Jennifer stepped up and took on the task of making sure all of the communication pieces would be built into Epic. She was also part of preliminary testing, making sure to identify any areas that were not working correctly so that it could be fixed prior to go-live. After Epic was live, Jennifer stayed in close communication with both leadership and the Epic team to fix the broken processes. Because of her hard work and dedication, Epic is working to the highest functional ability for the Denial and Appeal team. Without her commitment to her department and her willingness to help develop these computer processes, I feel very strongly that we would not have had such a successful transition experience to the new Epic system. 

​Cook Children’s Health Plan has also been in the process of trying to secure a new accreditation called NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance). This is a rigorous process that requires a very in depth look at all of the Health Plan’s processes and documentation. When it was presented to the Denial and Appeal team that we were going to apply for and attempt to secure the NCQA accreditation, it became clear that the accreditation process was going to take a little more than a year to complete and
that there were going to have to be some changes made to the processes we were currently following. We understood that it would take many work hours to look over the new requirements for NCQA. Jennifer did not hesitate to take on the challenge though. She attended many meetings and made many suggestions on ways to improve our documentation and bring everything up to the NCQA standards.

Jennifer did all of this while still continuing to do her work as a Denial and Appeal Coordinator, which is no small feat. Nevertheless, she found ways to complete her work and take on the extra meetings and reviews needed for NCQA. She worked overtime when needed and never once complained or refused to participate.

Because of Jennifer’s dedication, we were able to improve all of our workflow processes and have now secured our NCQA accreditation for the Health Plan. I have no doubt that our success would not have been possible without her dedication to the project and her contributions for our team. The Health Plan and the D&A team are blessed to have her as a colleague. I cannot think of anyone more deserving of this Peak Performer award than Jennifer. She is the model of what we all strive to be as an employee of this wonderful company and I believe that she deserves recognition for all of her hard work and dedication to CCHP and all of its customers.​