Crisis management & disaster preparedness

Response to external inquiries re crisis management and disaster preparedness for Wellmark, Inc., and its subsidiaries, e.g., WSD, WHPI

Wellmark maintains an Enterprise Business Continuity Program (the Program) covering all of its business functions. The Program’s focus is to mitigate the business impact of a crisis or business interruption (e.g., weather, man-made disaster, network failure, disease outbreak, etc.) to the services Wellmark provides to and for its members. The Program includes the ongoing monitoring and assessment of potential business risks or interruptions. As required, the Program activity is modified based on risks and response to threats or interruptions (e.g., unplanned power loss, inclement weather, flooding, etc.).

Enterprise business continuity oversight and crisis management

The Program includes a Crisis Management Team (CMT) comprised of senior company officers/executives, who (1) act as the steering committee for overall enterprise business continuity and crisis management activities, and (2) lead the organization during a crisis. The CMT ensures that the coordinated response activities reflect the objectives and best interests of Wellmark and the services it provides to and for its members. The CMT's responsibilities are documented in the Crisis Management Plan (the Plan) and they meet regularly.

Enterprise business continuity

Support for the CMT is provided by the Enterprise Business Continuity function. Leadership of department-level business continuity activities reside within Crisis Management Sub-Teams (Customer Facing, Wellmark Technology Disaster Recovery, Human Resources & Internal Communications, External Communications, Recovery Support, and Finance & Legal) which are led by a vice president or director/senior leader, with direct support of the department’s senior executive.

The Program includes departmental Business Continuity Plans, ongoing business continuity and crisis management training, and emergency response/disaster recovery exercises for all Business Continuity Teams. Wellmark maintains a work-from-home program to support recovery of time sensitive business areas. The Business Continuity Program is reviewed with the Wellmark Board of Directors and is subjected to audit activity.

Technology disaster recovery

The Program includes a comprehensive enterprise-level technology Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan, focused on resiliency and recovery of Wellmark’s Business Applications and infrastructure. System recovery is designed to meet pre-defined recovery time objectives (RTO) in support of business requirements for system availability. Wellmark Technology (WellTech) maintains an alternate data center/site approach, regardless of location, this includes facility, equipment, and services to support the recovery of the Wellmark technical infrastructure and time sensitive applications. WellTech has developed and maintains technical procedures for the recovery of the technical infrastructure and time sensitive application systems that have been established and approved by Wellmark’s Crisis Management Team. Technology disaster recovery includes annual disaster recovery exercises. DR is under the purview of the Chief Information Officer.

Recovery plans notice

Wellmark will answer questions in general about the Program directly with our members, but to protect proprietary and sensitive information of the Business Continuity Plans (BCP) and Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan, Wellmark does not distribute this information outside of Wellmark.