Steven developed a passion for technology at an early age. As a military brat growing up mainly in Germany, he watched his dad, an aeronautical engineer and Air Force pilot, install software and upgrade hard drives. “We had a computer in the house since Windows 3.0, and he would always show me all the cool technologies used by the pilots and in the planes,” Steven explains.
Steven joined Availity in 2016 as a developer on the PDM team and later became a tech lead in Claim Status. Today, he is a Product Solutions Architect leading Claim Status, Overpayments, and Appeals.
He began programming in middle school and went to college, initially as an electrical engineering major, but switched to computer science. In college, he worked as a software engineer developing scientific tools at the United States Geological Society’s Astrogeology department, whose main client was the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After graduation, he worked with Lockheed Martin for seven years on various programs.
When he and his wife decided to move back home to Jacksonville to raise their young family, he found an opportunity at Availity. While he did not have any previous healthcare industry knowledge, he took advantage of working on various projects and always made a point to look up or ask for an explanation of any terminology he did not understand. Everyone was more than willing to help with his questions and support his desire to learn the business. He elaborates on why this is his favorite part of working at Availity, “I like the culture and collaboration. Everyone is willing to help each other get to the right solution.”
He’s most proud of one of his earliest challenges in Claim Status, which he calls “incredibly satisfying” because he saw his hard work and dedication pay off. He shares how the team developed their own multi-payer API requiring the payers to implement the Availity API instead of the other way around. Initially, it was a bit of an uphill battle, but the product leadership team supported the approach, clearing the path to build momentum. Because of their efforts, the team was able to reduce implementation time from 4-6 months down to a couple of sprints or less.
He is happiest and most productive when working towards a mission and supporting his team.
“I love it when we can innovate and make our products better. I want my team to be well-rounded and happy working outside their comfort zone. I try to spread tasks out to avoid creating a silo so that the same people aren’t doing the same type of work repeatedly. “I want each team member to be confident in their ability to figure out something new and learn,” he states.
He knows that Availity’s goal is to improve healthcare. His advice for being successful here is to contribute to platform code, share your ideas on improving your application or processes, and learn as much as you can about the other aspects of Availity’s business that go beyond your team’s focus. “I embraced the Aries 2 platform early on,” he said, “and I made contributions to add functionality to various core libraries and services.” I do my best to find the correct solution, even if that is something I don’t currently know, and then spend time learning the things I need to complete a task.”
When not working, he loves to play video games, stay up to date on current events, and work on home improvement projects.
Just for fun
Pets: A dog, 2 cats, 2 ferrets, and a mule.
Favorite Book: Red Rising Series by Pierce Brown
Favorite movie: Gladiator
Favorite food: Almost anything Italian pasta