Name:

Matthew Lynch

Hometown:

Burlington, NJ

Class year:

2015

Sports:

Men's Soccer

Major:

Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

Profession:

"I am an Optimization manager at Independence Blue Cross, the major Health Insurance company in Philadelphia. I also am a Statistics tutor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School."

Favorite moment at Wes:

"I have three:

1) I scored my first collegiate soccer goal in double overtime. This was an incredible moment, seeing my friends and family absolutely lose their minds on the sideline of Jackson Field and celebrating the win with my team."

2) "Sprinting across campus at night listening to a synchronized playlist with hundreds of my classmates during WesRave."

3) "Practicing and performing with my acapella group Quasimodal"

Achievements while at Wes:

• Dr. Neil Clendeninn Prize for Excellence in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.

• $10,000 Award winner in ZipCar's national community service program as Wesleyan's Alliance for Generational Exchange (WesAGE) Co-President

Career you have had after Wes.

"After I graduated from Wesleyan in 2015, I attended the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School, where I received my Master of Science in Healthcare Management. After graduating in 2016, I worked as a business transformation Consultant at HM Health Solutions in Pittsburgh, PA for 3 years; here I managed identity and access management projects that created security roles and automated security provisioning for BlueCross BlueShield plans in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wyoming and Philadelphia. I also implemented operational efficiency procedures that decreased turnaround time of problem tickets by 80%, contributing to the HM Health Solutions' attainment of ISO 20000-1 Certification. 

I left my job in Pittsburgh and moved to Baltimore in 2019 to start working as a Senior Population Health Strategy Consultant for CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, only a few months before the pandemic arrived. Under CareFirst's Patient-Centered Medical Home program, I worked with major health systems and independent primary care practices to implement health outcome improvement and cost savings strategies in the areas of primary care access, specialty referral patterns, clinical compacts, medication management, care coordination, and data interoperability.  

In November 2021 I started working at Independence BlueCross as an Optimization Manager, tasked with driving down manual administrative work, maximizing predictive analytics in claims decision making processes, and implementing machine learning capabilities across claims suspensions and customer service."

Advice you would like to share to current student-athletes.

"The Health Insurance industry is wide open for students interested in starting their career. I knew I wanted to be involved with healthcare in some capacity (hence my major in molecular biology and biochemistry), and I initially saw Hopkins as a year between undergrad and med school. As soon as I discovered consulting in my first grad school case competition, my mind was opened to the possibilities of various healthcare career paths outside of medicine.  The industry needs your help to break old habits and drive transformative solutions in the way we pay providers, engage with patients, and manage work. Reach out to me on LinkedIn if you want to chat more about my experiences!"

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mlynch31/