Peter Andruszkiewicz

After you’ve worked in an industry for more than three decades, you start to get the hang of it. Peter Andruszkiewicz of Blue Cross & Blue Shield Rhode Island not only has left his mark on the state’s health care industry, he’s positioned it to make progress with regard to quality, outcomes and affordability. All this, despite a tumultuous time in the health care industry and the economy in general.

Andruszkiewicz came to Blue Cross from a leadership role with the nonprofit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia in 2011. At that time, Blue Cross had a $92 million premium deficiency reserve.

Calling Rhode Island’s health care system “broken,” Andruszkiewicz set about laying the foundation for a patient-centered model of organized and affordable care. He led the insurer in setting up accountable care organization contracts, inspired by the Affordable Care Act. New types of contracts produced a 30 percent decrease in hospital readmissions over four years. For the first time since 2007, Blue Cross made its first contribution to its reserves – $22 million – in 2013. And his approach to reforming how health care is delivered and paid for continues aggressively to challenge the status quo.

Andruszkiewicz is credited with creating the volunteer force Blue across Rhode Island, and was named to the state’s Working Group for Health Care Innovation by Gov. Gina M. Raimondo last summer.

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As he prepared to retire this year, he had set the path forward for a healthier and more sustainable health care ecosystem, all parties included. •

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