Technical Product Owner

VGM Group, Inc. is a 100% employee-owned company. HOMELINK, a business unit within VGM Group’s family of businesses, is an innovative national provider of integrated specialty services for the healthcare and workers’ compensation industries. HOMELINK provides a comprehensive offering of ancillary care products and services, including advanced clinical programs, and partners with both payers and providers. As a privately held, employee-owned company, HOMELINK team members are committed to delivering high quality service from referral to resolution. To learn more about VGM HOMELINK, visit our website at www.vgmhomelink.com .

Position Summary : The Technical Product Owner within VGM HOMELINK plays a key role on the HOMELINK IT team and is accountable for maximizing the value of a product family. In this role, the product owner will be responsible for organizing, prioritizing, and assessing work for the delivery teams, including developing and clearly communicating product goals, measurable business outcomes, product backlog items, and ensuring the product backlog is visible and understood. The product owner will incorporate feature requests, groom and prioritize backlog, and develop user stories and acceptance criteria. The technical product owner must have experience and familiarity with claims adjudication.

Reporting Accountability: Vice President of Information Technology within HOMELINK

Working Location: Remote, hybrid, and on-site (Waterloo, Iowa) opportunities available

Working Hours: Full-Time, Exempt

Responsibilities/Duties of the Job

• Collaborate closely with the development team and customers to ensure there is a clear understanding of what features are needed in the product or application
• Manage and prioritize the product backlog, translating product managers’ strategies into tasks for development, prioritizing needs, overseeing development stages, evaluating product progress at each iteration, and ensuring product quality
• Determine which activities will produce the most business value and prioritize based on business value
• Analyze, help design and implement highly efficient, user-friendly interfaces for national billing and reimbursement across all aspects and genres of insurance billing
• Keep current on industry, state and government policies associated with billing and payment of medical bills
• Maintain an understanding of insurance companies’ review process for claims, including initial processing review, approval, denial, and adjustment of claims
• Plan and head the development effort of a scrum project
• Envision the final product, communicate with the delivery team, and accept or reject work results
• Ensure management and stakeholders are informed and the vision is aligned with their wishes; communicates the business benefits of the entire product and each individual feature
• Acknowledge and respond to questions from the team, supports and respects the team's creativity, and delivers direction, based on whether the team is developing commercial software, software for internal use, hardware, or some other type of product
• Steer projects by tracking and forecasting progress
• Create, maintain, and outline work in the product backlog
• Determine the lesser of the catalog rate, state fee, or usual and customary rate (UCR) for claims adjudication
• Perform other duties as assigned
  
  

Position Qualifications

The product owner needs a diverse set of skills to effectively manage and deliver successful products.

Education/Experience

• 5 years’ experience as a product owner or related role
• Experience with claims adjudication and/or bill review platforms and familiarity with automated adjudication processes and tools (handling EDI 837 claims, matching records, and automating order creation)
• Experience with agile development methodologies including Kanban and Scrum
• Degree in Computer Science or significant related proven experience
  
  

Skills and competencies

• Knowledge of claims adjudication process (understand insurance companies’ review process for claims)
• Proficiency in SQL and SSRS
• Familiarity and working knowledge of HCPCS and CPT codes, and their application in the claims adjudication process and reimbursements
• Working knowledge and understanding of state fee, UCR, and catalog rates & possess the ability to determine the lesser of the catalog rate, state fee, or usual and customary rate (UCR) for claims adjudication
• Possess strong conceptualization, analytical, and logical skills
• Internally motivated, able to work proficiently both independently and in a team environment
• Strong communication skills with both internal team members and external business stakeholders
• Strong initiative to find ways to improve solutions, systems, and processes
• Expert project management skills and experience with product backlog and strategy
• Ability to effectively manage time to ensure timely delivery of product features
  
  

Physical Requirements

• Working at a physical desk, moving about the office and facility as needed for work
• Operation of office machinery and equipment
• Visual abilities to include reading, distance vision and peripheral vision
  
  

Learn more about VGM here: Headquartered in Waterloo, Iowa, VGM is a 100% employee-owned company providing business and professional services to thousands of business customers across North America. Services include group purchasing, commercial insurance, management of healthcare services and networks in post-acute cases, healthcare distribution direct to patient homes, specialty consulting, online education, digital, print, and traditional marketing and more. VGM employs approximately 1,600 people across 40 states and Canada, with more than 1,100 working in Iowa. VGM has been named the Top Workplace in Iowa on multiple occasions and is proud of its role in the communities in which it serves. For more information visit www.vgmgroup.com.

Compensation Overview: The annual base salary range provided for this position is a nationwide market range and represents a broad range of salaries for this role across the country. The actual salary for this position will be determined by a number of factors, including the scope, complexity and location of the role; the skills, education, training, credentials and experience of the candidate; and other conditions of employment. As part of our comprehensive compensation and benefits program, employees are also eligible for performance-based cash incentive awards.

This job description reflects the general duties of the job but is not a detailed description of all duties which may be inherent to the position. Reasonably related additional duties may be assigned to the individual Associate.

VGM Group, Inc. provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.