Across the enterprise, our colleagues are committed to our mission of improving the health and vitality of those we serve, working with purpose to support our customers, patients, clients, and communities. In this series, People with Purpose, you’ll meet individuals and learn more about the work they do to make a positive impact.
Throughout the United States military, a symbol of true appreciation has a unique form – the Challenge Coin. When Michelle Horton received an individually engraved coin for her leadership and expertise in prescription home delivery services and pharmacy support at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, it represented a special moment of pride in her career.
Michelle is a Navy veteran and a senior advisor in the military and veteran division of Express Scripts by Evernorth, which provides prescription medications and related clinical services for the 9.6 million uniformed service members, veterans, and their families covered by TRICARE. She uses her experience and the insights gained in those roles to support Military Health System (MHS) prescribers and their staffs, which ultimately helps lower costs and improve patient experiences and health outcomes.
In honor of Veterans Day, we sat down with Michelle to learn more about her role, how she uses her experience to help those we serve, why she is proud to work at Evernorth Health Services, and how her military service helps drive forward our mission.
Q: What’s the best part about your job?
The best part of my job is building relationships with Military Health System pharmacists, prescribers and staff and being seen as both a resource and a partner. I incorporate many MHS work processes and challenges into our training which creates the most value to them. Even though they relocate often – whether they’re making a permanent change of station from a base in Japan to North Carolina or from San Diego to Jacksonville, Florida – we still maintain our relationships and that really helps validate the partnership.
In fact, the entire community is highly mobile. It’s not just the providers and their staff that are moving around, patients are moving around as well. So, we are intentional about streamlining their administrative work, so they can be more engaged with patients. That’s the rewarding part.
Q: How are you driving our mission forward?
My mission is to support their mission. I help Military Health System prescribers and staff utilize the digital tools, programs, and services we offer to allow them more time to spend with patients. I do a lot to reach out and identify prescribers, whether they’re new to the Military Health System or new to a certain military treatment facility in order to offer assistance and briefings.
In November, I will present at a conference alongside the Defense Health Agency. While it’s only an hour-long presentation, it’s a great feeling to be valued in light of their operational readiness mission. I’m driving our mission forward by being fearless in my approach to identifying opportunities, finding prescribers’ contact information and delivering training to them, often just walking into a Q&A session where anything can be asked or raised and still be considered a resource and a partner after that.
Q: What makes you proud to work here? What’s your why?
I’m very proud to work here because it’s professionally rewarding to serve the community that we do. But equally important is the mutual trust and respect that I feel within the division and my leadership team.