Eric Shepherd: from phone calls to pharmacy management, a career defined by member service

From his first job in customer service to his pharmacy management role today, Eric Shepherd’s had a hand in many of the programs that help BlueCross members understand their coverage and use their benefits.

In his earliest days with the company, he saw that important decisions are often based on information members get from BlueCross. He took that to heart.

“I’ve seen first-hand that our work helps people at so many levels,” Eric says. 

First steps that made a difference

A native of Cincinnati, Eric spent much of his childhood in Cleveland, Tenn. He graduated from high school there and then pursued a finance degree at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC).

But the economic crisis gripping the country when he graduated from UTC in 2008 sent him in a different direction. He applied to BlueCross and started training in customer service.   

“There was a lot to learn to respond to member calls,” Eric says. “You could answer a simple copay question on one call and help someone who had a serious health condition and multiple questions on the next.”

Assisting members at critical moments stuck with him long after calls ended. 

“Helping others when they needed it was incredibly rewarding and reminded me why the work we do matters,” Eric says. 

Leading others to serve members

When Eric was promoted to technical team leader, he coached those he once served alongside and served as a subject matter expert.

“Ensuring customer service team members felt capable, did their jobs well and grew in their roles was something I really liked,” he says.

That early leadership role led to another growth opportunity when Eric joined the operations performance improvement team in 2013, soon becoming a lead analyst.

An early project helped customer service agents more quickly find and view multiple sets of information as they answered members’ questions. 

“My experience on member calls let me share what could be most impactful,” Eric says. The platform also brought something new to the customer service experience – reminding members who called BlueCross about health screenings they may need.

“We worked to make it an easy transition at the end of a call to encourage preventive care,” Eric says.

The team later spearheaded the operational side of implementing “click-to-chat” which gave the option for members to communicate digitally with customer service.

“It was rewarding to be part of modernizing the excellent service we already provided,” Eric says.

An enterprise view and the next career step

Eric’s analyst role let him collaborate with teams across the company. That broad view helped him take his next career step.

As pharmacy manager, he leads a team that provides information to companies considering pharmacy coverage for their employees.

“We develop strategies that demonstrate how our processes and programs meet the specific needs of a company,” Eric says. “When we’re chosen to provide an employer’s pharmacy benefit, it’s exciting because it reflects the value we’ve been able to demonstrate.” 

The team also helps to develop welcome kits for new members and materials about how to estimate drug costs or locate network pharmacies. 

“My team takes topics which can sometimes be complex and simplifies them to help members make the best choices,” Eric says. 

Eric’s team recently helped implement a program to better serve Medicare Advantage members with diabetes and heart conditions, another collaborative role for this team.  

Taking the lead with new technology

Over the last year, Eric’s also led a workgroup to discover responsible ways that artificial intelligence (AI) supported tools may help pharmacy teams  work more efficiently while keeping customer and member information protected.   

Those efforts helped to identify several frequently repeated tasks where streamlining could bring greater efficiency. That’s opened up more time for the strategy and production part of their work. 

Eric’s oversight of the workgroup provided its participants with thought-provoking insights to identify meaningful and responsible ways to use AI, says Pharmacy Analyst Andrew Bushey, a workgroup participant.   

One highlight has been exploring how AI-supported tools can supplement manual benefit testing and claim validation before a prescription is filled. This helps improve testing efficiency while maintaining human oversight.   

“Eric’s leadership as we considered AI in our work directly benefited pharmacy management in a way that will support our ongoing efforts to improve the experience of our business partners and members,” Andrew says. 

Paying it forward

The greatest reward of his work, Eric says, is seeing others grow in their skills and have success. He hopes he can pay forward the investment others have made in him through the years and his experience in the BlueCross Emerging Leaders program.  

“I’ve seen how beneficial it is to have mentors, and people who give you opportunities,” Eric says. “When I can do that for others and they shine, that’s a great feeling.”

Enjoying the simpler moments

Eric and his wife, Laurie Anne, also a BlueCross employee, keep busy with a preteen, teen and young adult in the house. They spend a lot of life’s simpler moments with them — movies, swimming and kids’ sports — and adventuresome ones, too, like hiking in the Smoky Mountains and the Rockies.

Eric’s a lifelong fan of his hometown Bengals, attending games as often as possible. He’s also a runner who completes four miles most mornings listening to his favorite Christian podcasts with his dog, Goose, at his side.

He says the early routine helps him get his head and his heart right to start the day. And running is another way he challenges himself.

“I’ve tried to step into things that weren’t always easy or comfortable for me,” Eric says.  “Those push me to grow, and that’s been a huge help in my career.”