The finalists for WashingtonExec’s Pinnacle Awards were announced Oct. 13, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place virtually Dec. 8.
Next is Healthcare Executive of the Year (Government) Chris Martin, director of the Financial Management Systems Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Here, he talks achievements, what made him successful, career turning points and more.
What key achievements did you have in 2020/2021?
We successfully completed a first for any government agency back in June of this year, to execute a “Week Long-Self-Induced Production Disaster Recovery (DR) Exercise” for HIGLAS, CMS’ financial system of record, CBS/Consolidated Budget System (Hyperion), HBI/HIGLAS Business Intelligence (reporting), Tableau (data analytics and visualizations) and HIDM/HIGLAS Identity Management, as well as all systems/infrastructure monitoring tools (SolarWinds, Splunk, Gitlab etc).
We failed over in 6 hours, processed over 21.2 million Medicare claims, accounting for over $17.1 billion in payments, accounted for a $43 billion CCIIO entry, which was then processed once we failed back, which took only 6 hours, to production for payment to Treasury. The failback to production within 6 hours and the CCIIO payment also demonstrated zero data loss.
What has made you successful in your current role?
Having an incredible, talented federal team of professionals who are dedicated to the success of program. Empowering my team at all level to take ownership of their projects and support their recommendations for improvement.
What was a turning point or inflection point in your career?
Taking on two major responsibilities at the same time when I became an SES at CMS. The group director for the Financial Management Systems Group responsible for CMS financial system of record, HIGLAS, along with several other Office of Financial Management mission critical systems and asked to be acting group director for the Payment Policy & Financial Management Group for the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.
What are you most proud of having been a part of in your current organization?
The continued innovation and modernization activities my team proudly takes ownership of implementing, reducing the overall operational costs by eliminating manual and time-consuming processes.
What are your primary focuses going forward, and why are those so important to the future of the nation?
Continue to ensure my team has access to the necessary training or hands on experience to sharpen their skills while advancing their knowledge, have access to IT service management best practices to continue to maintain accurate operation procedures as we keep abreast with the advancement of technology.
In other words, ensuring the people, processes and technology are in constant sync with each other as we advance forward with technology and IT service management, DevSecOps, to allow for the best place to work.
How do you help shape the next generation of government leaders/industry leaders?
Lead by example, encourage team members to take on additional challenges when opportunities arise or create them when I see a need, strongly encourage details within or with other agencies, thereby assisting them to advance career opportunities
What’s one key thing you learned from a failure you had?
Not to try and do it all alone. I do not know everything! It is OK to reach out and seek assistance from others.