From Pharmacy to Payor- Rik Patel’s Summer Internship with Humana

Interview by Mani Selvaraj, MBA ’23 with Rik Patel, MBA ’23

What company did you intern with this summer? Which program and/or functional area were you a part of? 

I was a 2022 summer intern with Humana and acted as an internal consultant for the retail strategy segmentation team. This team looks to fulfill the needs of key customer segments (IE special needs plan by disease groups, populations of various multicultural ethnicities, and veterans). 

What project(s) did you work on? 

My project entailed pulling pharmacy analytics from dashboards in the pharmacy arm of the company and retooling them on a more detailed level for these key segments— with the creation of a new Power BI dashboard. Utilizing this tool, I assessed relative performance and variances among segments for an array of parameters related to pharmacy filling behavior and benefit use and was able to identify several opportunities to improve outcomes, growth, and experience across one million plus Humana members. 

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome, and what did you learn from it? 

As a career switcher (previously a retail pharmacist), I entered a work environment that was vastly different to any other I’d been in before. It was initially a challenge for me to understand the organizational structure and step into a project with varied expectations from multiple teams. However, by reaching out to and meeting with as many people as I could—and maintaining open lines of communication—I feel I succeeded in acclimating to my role. I learnt to not hesitate to reach out to others and to be open to learning from their experiences. 

How was your experience networking with different colleagues at your company? 

Humana’s internship program offered a multitude of opportunities to meet and network with executive leadership across the company through “Business Series” meetings for interns, as well as a “one-on-one” mentorship program. Almost everyone I reached out to was happy to have a conversation with me, no matter their position in the company. It was a fantastic chance to learn more about various areas of the business and develop many great relationships. 

Has this experience changed your overall career goals? Did you identify any skills that you would like to develop as you return for the second year of the MBA program? 

I’ve always had a passion for wanting to help others, and I’ve found that Humana has validated my interest in continuing to work in the healthcare industry. Previously my goals have been centered on expanding my knowledge of business operations in healthcare. This has now evolved into a desire to further my career path on the strategy side—where I can both utilize my clinical experience and work across a variety of business areas to improve health outcomes and experience on a broad scale. As I return for my second year in the MBA program, I would love to continue to develop my skills in data analytics and project management. 

Are there any other suggestions you would give to future students that are about to begin their summer internship? 

To be successful, the project and remote internship experience as a whole required effective communication, eagerness to learn from and work with numerous stakeholders, and organizational skills typical of project management. I strongly recommend first year MBAs to take full advantage of all the opportunities presented to them to hone these soft skills during the school year. I additionally used skills ranging from data analytics to market strategy to managerial accounting; while a project may go into more detail in one area or span across multiple, I encourage you to keep up with business principles and terminology you learn in your focus area of expertise so that you may apply them in practice. Finally, don’t be afraid to ask questions and seek help during your project; you won’t come in (or leave) knowing everything, but the goal is to keep learning and work cohesively to achieve a positive end result.