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To Scottie Swafford, senior information management compliance consultant at BlueCross, people always come first. Even while helping areas of the company safely store or dispose of records, his focus is always on what, and most importantly who, that information represents.

“I’m very passionate about my work, and I love that I don’t just talk with other compliance people, or even just a certain segment of leadership at the company,” Scottie explains. “I talk to everybody, because it really takes everybody working together to get the job done.” 

Information management compliance stems from the concept that a member’s protected health information (PHI), like name and address or diagnosis codes, should be kept private and accessible for members. Government regulations and industry best practices involve a number of rules around this information, from how long a record can be kept to the method of destroying it once it’s no longer needed.

Scottie’s team works with every department at BlueCross on identifying records that can be destroyed and the best ways to keep necessary records safe.

Information management wasn’t something Scottie expected to get involved with when he graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), but it’s become a passion for him.

Exploring new challenges and communities

Scottie grew up in a military household, and like many kids in those families, his early childhood revolved around military bases and the diverse cultures brought together by the armed forces. His father retired from the Army while Scottie was in fourth grade, and the family settled in Marion County, a small rural community that was a far cry from the military family melting pot he’d known to that point.

“It was a real culture shock for me and my three brothers,” Scottie remembers.

“We lived in a small town with one stoplight – everyone knew everybody else. If you did something bad as a kid on one side of town, news would get to your parents before you made it home.”

Scottie connected quickly with his community, however, and was actively engaged in school activities that he continued into college.

It was at college that Scottie would meet his wife, Teri, and earn his degree in mass communications, but only later would he find his career.

“Right after I graduated, Windows 95 had just come out, and computers were becoming ubiquitous,” Scottie explains. “I was the young guy fresh out of college who was comfortable with all the technology, so when I went to work for the City of Chattanooga as a PR intern, my job became managing all the digital information for my department.”

Scottie’s comfort with embracing new things kicked off a career for him, and an opportunity at BlueCross.

From connection to career

While working in the information management field, Scottie happened to meet a compliance manager from BlueCross and struck up a conversation. That chance encounter would become a friendship, running into each other at locations across the city over the next five years.

“One day he said to me, ‘We really need to get you on the team to help with outreach,’” Scottie recalls. “At the time I was doing a lot of travelling, so much so that my 3-year-old daughter wrote me a note begging me not to leave on trips anymore. It just felt like a great opportunity to prioritize my young family.”

Today, Scottie’s daughters are grown, and it’s his grandchildren’s crayon drawings on his refrigerator. They’re reminders to him of what his work at BlueCross is always about.  

“In my line of work, we always say that information is the second most important asset for a company,” Scottie points out. “The first is people.”

That’s Scottie’s approach to life as well as work.

Contributing to a healthy community

As a member of the UTC Alumni Association, Scottie is an avid booster for his alma mater. But it’s not just the school’s programs that Scottie supports; it’s the students, as well.

“Part of the alumni program lets you decide what part of the school your support goes toward,” Scottie says. “When I learned they had a student pantry for students struggling with getting enough to eat while paying for tuition, housing and books, I knew that was the cause I wanted to be a part of.”

Scottie has instilled in his children and grandchildren the importance of empathy and giving back,  and keeping an open mind to the unseen struggles others may be experiencing.

“When my wife and I had our first child, we were young, just starting out, and things were tight for a while,” Scottie admits.

“As my kids were coming up, I always reminded them, ‘Hey, not everybody is skipping on the way to school or to work today. You don’t always know that other people are going through, so always take the opportunity to give back when you can.’”

Being there for others by taking care of himself 

Scottie struggled with his weight for years but always put off making a change for himself for the sake of helping others instead.

After a meeting, a colleague who had undergone bariatric surgery mentioned it to Scottie. It was a conversation that would change Scottie’s life.

“He told me, ‘I’ve had the surgery and am on this journey myself, and I won’t tell you it’s not tough, but I think you should join a bariatric support group to learn more, and I’d like to help,’” Scottie says. “Being a member of the BlueCross Bariatric Support Group has really helped encourage me. I’ve lost [186 pounds] since my surgery,  and it has been life-changing — and life-extending — for me.”

Since his own surgery, Scottie has helped eight others navigate the bariatric process, using his own health gains to help pay it forward to others.

“To me, helping others is just something that makes me feel good. I think it moves the universe forward,” Scottie explains.

“I think that’s a mission everyone working here shares, too, from leadership to management to employees, and I love it.”