Unity BPO, an Albuquerque health care technology business, plans to hire nearly 300 full-time employees over the next few years as part of its expansion plans, Gov. Susana Martinez announced Thursday.
The jobs come with salaries ranging from $38,000 to $90,000. The average salary for the positions will be in the $55,000 range, Unity CEO Steve Wade told the Journal.
About 75 percent of the new hires will be clinical analysts working with medical professionals over the phone and using other technology to assist with healthcare information technology issues such as those involving electronic medical records. The company’s current staff of clinical analysts solve “tens of thousands” of such issues a month, he said.
Wade said to qualify for the entry-level clinical analyst posisitons, candidates will need a high school degree, a technical certification and a background in healthcare. All the positions will come with “competitive benefits” that include a 401k, he said.
The company, at 7601 Jefferson NE, was recently spun off from Kemtah Group, an Albuquerque-based information technology management and engineering firm.
“New Mexico has an ideal business climate for growing our business,” Wade said at a news conference. “We could locate elsewhere, but places like Austin, Denver or Phoenix wouldn’t provide incentives such as JTIP, LEDA or Rapid Workforce Development. These generous incentive programs help us grow our business and create more jobs in New Mexico.”
Wade also said he believed his company’s responsibility was not only to bring new jobs to Albuquerque, but to attract other healthcare companies to the city.
The state’s Job Training Incentive Program has awarded Unity $517,000 to help hire and train 70 health IT professionals with health domain understanding and IT skills by the end of the year. The company will add more than 200 additional new employees within the next two years.
Unity specializes in providing clinical, managed, professional, and telehealth services to hospitals, physician practices, private networks and clinics, as well as home health, hospice and skilled nursing providers, according to its website.
It has 35,000 clinical contacts monthly, its website said.
“Unity BPO is the kind of company we want to see grow and help diversify our economy,” said Economic Development Secretary Jon Barela. “They are creating economic-base jobs, bringing new dollars to our state and expanding our private sector economy.”
Kemtah, which provides a comprehensive suite of IT services to clients in 26 states, has been seeing big growth. It signed a $20 million contract in September with Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. The General Services Administration also selected Kemtah in early October as part of a team that will manage a new five-year, $50 million IT services contract.
“We all full well know what we need, which is a whole lot more announcements like Unity’s,” said Albuquerque Economic Development President Gary Tonjes.
