Eileen Kuffner

In today’s show, Meghan gets to know Eileen Kuffner, Program Manager of Audigy Care. Eileen shares stories of her time in New York, working at hospitals and The French Culinary Institute, how to make killer breads and her surprising family ties to the WuTang Clan.

Read the transcript:

So, I’m sitting here with Eileen Kuffner. Am I saying your last name correct?

You are.

And Eileen, what is your title here at Audigy?

It’s Program Manager of Audigy Care.

Program Manager of Audigy Care. OK. So what does a typical day in the life of a program manager look like? What do you do?

I pretty much take care of everything, so receptionist to CFO for Audigy Care. So answer all the phones, make sure that all of the claims that we process for our providers with Audigy care are being processed properly, that they’re being paid timely, that they’re being paid correctly, and just assisting any of the providers or office staff who participate with Audigy Care that everything gets handled properly.

Sure. And how many participating members do we currently have?

We have about 120 in Audigy Care currently. So we’ve kind of stayed steady at that number. And we’re looking to expand the services currently that Audigy Care offers to be more assistance to our members in dealing with billing, coding, insurance issues.

Gotcha. Is that one of the big issues, the billing and coding?

Yes. Our providers have a lot of struggles dealing with insurance and submitting claims and getting things reimbursed properly and compliance with billing. So with the addition of my new coworker, Deb Abel, we’re really able to fit that bill now and really assist them with that. So I’m super excited about that.

Yeah. That makes sense. So your new co-worker started when?

She started in June.

In June, OK. So how big is the Audigy Care team now?

It’s two people.

Two of you, huh?

We doubled in size.

It must be nice to a little bit of company, right?

It was. It is. It’s really nice. And she’s very knowledgeable and well respected in the audiology community. So that’s been great.

Well, I’ve seen you around the building for quite awhile. Now we did the Present Like a Pro class together, correct?

Yes.

So how long have you been with Audigy Care? Tell me a little bit about what your career history has been– starting, I guess, with how long have you been with Audigy Care?

So I’ve been with Audigy Care for two years. It was just two years in May.

Happy anniversary.

Yes, thank you.

And so how did you wind up in this position? Where did you come from?

So I came from an anesthesia billing company. I started their credentialing department– so handling all the credentialing for the– I think they had about 800–

What’s credentialing? Excuse my–

OK, so yeah, let’s back up and talk about that.

I know the definition of the word. But as it applies to the–

So my job was to get the anesthesiologists participating with the insurances. So if you had to have surgery, your anesthesiologist would be participating with the insurance that you currently had. So if you had Blue Shield, Blue Cross of Oregon, that provider then was in your network and you got the benefit of your in network benefit. So that’s what I dealt with– making sure that they were all enrolled and credentialed in the insurances they wanted. We had about 900 anesthesiologists, so we took care of all of them.

Was that a Portland Vancouver-based company?

Yes. It was in Beaverton. That was the west office. The had an office in the east. We got bought out– I think it was in 2008. And the company changed, as they do when they get bought by a bigger company. And the company didn’t really seem to care about their employees. And it was hard to give my best when I felt like I wasn’t valued.

So one day, I just got one of those emails from LinkedIn that said, hey, we found a job that we think you’d be perfect for. And it was for the Billing and Credentialing Specialist in Audigy Care. And I thought, I’ve got to apply for this. And did, and–

The rest is history.

Yeah. The rest is history. So here I am.

Let’s go way back and talk about how you got into the insurance billing industry. Well, actually, let’s go back a little bit further. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in New York on Staten Island. Staten island, New York.

So this is where we’ve done a little bit of research on you and learned that your mother was an ER nurse. Is that correct?

My mother did work in the ER. My mother was a nurse. She worked in the ER in Greenwich Village at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan. She was in charge of compliance. Anytime anything happened in the ER, she was down there to make sure that the protocols were followed and that everything happened the way it was supposed to. And if there was any issues, she dealt with that kind of stuff.

And your father was a judge?

A Supreme Court judge on Staten Island, yeah.

And this is where it gets really interesting. I heard that there is a lyric in a Wu Tang song that actually calls your father out.

Yes.

Will you please recite that lyric for us?

So my dad had Old Dirty Bastard in front of him from Wu Tang. Because they started on Staten Island. They’re originally from Staten Island.

Oh, he actually–

Yes. All of Wu Tang are from Staten Island. So it was one of Staten Island’s big claims to fame. And he, I believe, had violated his parole or was on probation, something that he had done. He had gotten in a fight or something like that. And he was in front of my father.

And I don’t know if you know this about ODB, any facts about him.

I don’t know.

He had, if I’m not mistaken, 11 children by 10 different women. I think it was some sort of number like that. But they were all in court that day crying about how they didn’t want him to go to jail.

All the women were?

Yes. My father felt that he had violated his parole and sent him to jail. So the lyric is from a song called “Cash Rules.” And the lyric is, there’s no crying in Judge Kuffner’s courtroom.

Oh yeah.

So that was the lyric. And apparently, they might have had another lyric about him, something about my dad maybe being a cracker in another song later on in a different album. So my dad still to this day even here in Portland gets mileage out of that story.

It’s really, really fascinating.

It is one of those funny stories that once you get into it, he loves to tell it. He tells it way better than I do.

Well, thank you for sharing. I think you did a great job.

So you grew up in New York and have siblings?

Yes.

How many siblings?

So I have an older brother who currently lives in Texas. I have an older sister who lives in San Diego. And then I have a younger brother who lives here in Vancouver.

So those are kind of spaced out aside from you and your brother.

But we’re all out here now

Oh yeah, nice. That’s really nice.

So did you go to college in–

No. So that’s how I ended up out here.

Gotcha. So what took place to bring you out here?

So when I was in high school, my grandmother passed away. And my uncle Jim, who lives here in Portland, flew out for the funeral. And I was a junior in high school. And I had told my parents I’m not going to college. College is not for me.

And when he came out, he worked at the University of Portland. And he had worked there for years. I have a cousin who is the same age as I am who was going to go to the University of Portland when she graduated from high school.

And he just said to me, fill out an application. You’ve got nothing to lose. I did. I’m fairly certain my Uncle Jim pulled a lot of strings. But I ended up at the University of Portland, and went there for four years. And really kind of fell in love with the Pacific Northwest.

When I was a senior, my younger brother was a freshman. So he came out here, too. And actually, that’s where he met his wife. So he ended up coming out here, too. But when I graduated, I went back to New York. Because the job market was–

Was better at that time?

Yeah. And my mother was working at Saint Vincent’s Hospital. And that was my first real job after college, was at Saint Vincent’s Hospital in New York.

So what did you major in?

History. Wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with that. I like to joke with my son and tell him that the reason I majored in history is because that was one of the degrees I could take that I would have to take the least amount of math credits.

You’re like me. Just seeing math anywhere just makes me apprehensive and nervous.

So fast forward 15 years after I graduated, that we moved back out here.

OK. So you moved back to New York to work at the hospital?

Yes. So I moved back–

With your History degree.

Yeah, with my History degree. My first job there was in public relations and fundraising. I worked there for about a year, and then moved over to the Department of Surgery and assisted the chairman and ran their surgical residency program. And just stayed and did that, and then took two years off to bake at the French Culinary Institute.

Oh, that’s right. Let’s talk about that. Because I do remember when we did the class together, the Present Like a Pro class, you made the world’s best chocolate chip cookies.

Yes. That’s true.

So you took two years off to do– and they were. They absolutely were. In fact, you really should have brought some today. So talk to me about that. What happened there? And let me just say, I really admire that about you, that you just– because that’s a complete career change. What happened in your life at that point that you were like, I’m going to do something totally different?

So I think it was kind of that– just wanted to try something totally different. My grandmother was a great baker. I always felt intimidated by making yeast breads. How do you know when the water is too warm, that kind of thing? And did a little research and found out that the French Culinary offered a course in what they called International Bread Baking.

And did that for six months. Every Saturday for eight hours, baked bread at the French Culinary Institute. And right before I graduated from the class, the assistant baker in the class quit. And the instructor said, hey, you want to come bake with me? And it was a done deal. So I spent about two years there working in the bread kitchen, just assisting with teaching other people how to bake, and then baking for the restaurant that they had downstairs.

So what is the most complicated thing about baking bread? Actually, let me ask that in a different way. If there was one secret that you could share with me about baking the perfect loaf of bread, what would it be?

I think it would be to just trust your instincts when you’re touching it, when you’re kneading the dough. Don’t be intimidated by, oh, did I knead it enough, is it going to rise right? Just go with it.

Don’t overthink it.

Yeah, don’t overthink it, and just get into it. Unless you actually kill the yeast by your water being–

I mean, you can– yeah.

No, I mean by your water being maybe way too hot and making the yeast die out.

Can’t you overknead, too, or is that not a thing?

I don’t think so, not by hand. I think you’d really have to work it hard to overknead it. Kneading in a bowl, you probably could. But don’t overthink it. Let it happen.

Eventually, the bread is going to rise. Just go with it. But it’s definitely one of those things that you have to do a few times to really get a sense of, oh, this is what it’s supposed to look like. Oh, that’s how it’s supposed to feel.

Two questions. What’s your favorite kind of bread is number one. Number two is what is your bread specialty.

So my favorite kind of bread– so your final project at school was to write your own recipe. So that’s what you had to do. You had to write your own recipe, and that’s how you graduated from the class. So I did write my own recipe for cinnamon raisin bread, which is my favorite. I just love the whole combination of raisins and cinnamon. So that was my final. So really had fun doing that.

And then when I moved down here, my next door neighbor one day said, hey, can you bake me some bagels? And I thought, boy, I can’t remember last time I had a really good bagel. So maybe I will bake some. So I took the recipe that I created for my final and changed it into a bagel recipe and now make what I think are probably the best cinnamon raisin bagels you’ll ever have.

So that’s what I like to do. I like to do that in the winter when it’s nice and cold outside. Heat up my kitchen just do that.

I know that you are involved marathons. Or maybe not marathons, but competitive running, right?

Definitely running. Marathons, no. Definitely not on my bucket list.

What’s the longest race that you’ve ever run?

A half marathon, so 13.1, which I think is the perfect distance. I get tired driving 26 miles, so I’m certainly not going to run it. But I think 13 is the perfect distance.

How often do you run, and how long have you been running? How long has running been a part of your life?

So I ran in my ’20s when I was in New York. Same thing– did a lot of races and ran a lot in New York. Didn’t run in my ’30s, probably because that’s when I was working at the French Culinary, and didn’t have time, and then got pregnant. But didn’t start running until I moved back out here. And this is the perfect place to run.

What do you like about running? What draws you to it?

Running for me– no matter how bad my day is going, if I go out for a run, it’s like it completely resets the day for me. The whole getting out there, being mindless, and really just all about left, right, breathe.

Do you listen to music?

No. I did in the beginning. I used to listen to music mostly because I didn’t want to hear myself huffing and puffing while I was running. But now, it doesn’t matter what the distance–

Do you listen to music?

No. I did in the beginning. I used to listen to music mostly because I didn’t want to hear myself huffing and puffing while I was running. But now, it doesn’t matter what the distance–

You zone out.

I do. I zone out. And I just enjoy the whole feeling of it. And even if I have to drag myself kicking and screaming to go for that run, I always know I’m going to feel great after.

Yeah. It’s just getting over that– getting the first mile under your belt. And then you’re like, all right, I’m invested in this now. But it takes a little bit to–

It takes a little bit, sometimes, to get there.

Yeah. I get that. Do you ever run at lunch here? I feel like I’ve seen you out, maybe.

Yes. It’s probably the one time that I run the most. So just get out, try to get a quick three, three and 1/2 miles in, depending on how fast I’m running that day.

Do you wear a monitor? Do you know how fast–

Yes. Oh yeah.

OK. I’m getting some more insight into your personality. You like to have a lot of different gauges for how successful you are. According to whatever you’re wearing on your wrist, what’s a good run look like? When you look down and you see, oh, I just did a really good job.

What’s a really good run look like? A really good run for me, one, it’s going to feel good. So it doesn’t always necessarily matter the pace or the distance, but it might feel good. It just might be the perfect time of day. It’s early, it’s cool outside. It might be the perfect time of day. But a really good one is at a race maybe with a sub nine, like an 8:45 mile. That always feels really good. That feels fast for me. But every run is a good run once it’s done, once it’s over.

I hear you. When is the last race you ran?

The last race that I ran was this weekend. I have a triathlon team. So I have two other friends who participate in triathlons with me. I have a friend who does the swim, and a friend who does the bike, and then I do the run leg. So we did that on Sunday.

Very nice. What was it called?

It was the Midsummer Triathlon out at Blue Lake.

Very nice. So pretty local. How do you guys do? It was hot.

It wasn’t too hot. Our swimmer got kicked in the face in her swim, so had some struggles, and actually ended up coming out, didn’t finish her swim. But we did our bike, and we I did the run.

Was she OK?

Yeah, she was OK. She had a little bit of a panic attack after she got kicked in the face. And I think I would to if–

Just too many people in one space?

There was a lot of people. And usually, she starts in the back on the right, and this time, she was in the front on the left. And it just completely threw off her game. The water was really warm. She had her wetsuit on. And I think it was just sort of a perfect storm. And she just had some struggles.

But that’s OK. Because my biker still was able to do her bike leg, and I was still able to do the run lag.

And you’re doing it for fun anyway.

Exactly. We do it for fun. So she was a little bummed. The last one we did in July at Vancouver Lake out at Frenchman’s Bar, we were the top female team. So we were coming off that big high, and then for this one not to go the way we planned–

You needed to be humbled a little bit. Maybe that’s what that was all about.

That’s a good point. But like you said, it’s fun. And we’re a team, and we finish as a team.

So in your spare time, you like baking, you like running. It What else did you tell me about yourself?

That about sums it up right there.

Disagreeing with people. Your perfect day– let’s say you woke up this morning, and you knew that you could spend the entire next 24 hours doing anything that you wanted to do. Like there were no restrictions. What would you do? What would you choose to do? Right off the top your head. You can’t think about it or too long.

Well, I think it would depend on whether or not I had my son, because that always makes a difference. If it was just me, I probably would go out for either a long run or a long bike ride. I would come home and take a big, fat nap. And then we’d probably get up– you’re right– and probably bake or read or do something that I don’t always necessarily get to do at my own pace.

Now, if my son was around, we’d probably try to find some kind of adventure to do. Let’s do something we haven’t done before. Let’s go paddle boarding. Let’s try kayaking. Let’s go find a trail we haven’t hiked. I can usually pull him out and do stuff like that. So yeah, it will depend on with the kid or without the kid.

Gotcha. Well, Eileen, thank you so much. We have learned so many interesting things about you. I can’t believe that I haven’t spent more time talking to you. Because I can tell from this kind conversation that you’re super awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you for participating. It’s been great.

It was fun. Thanks for inviting me. It was a good time.