Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, the state’s largest health insurer with more than 600,000 members, signed a two-year, shared-savings contract in March with Coastal Medical, the state’s largest primary care group practice, serving more than 110,000 patients at 18 locations. The contract marked a tipping point in efforts in Rhode Island to improve patient safety, outcomes and access, to increase quality and affordability of health care, and to achieve payment reform. more

Cranston-based Taco Inc. has a long history of developing new heating and air-conditioning technologies, including such advances as the tankless water heater, zone valves and vertical pumps. more

Howard Schachter is a water guy. more

Back in the day, innovation to a bank meant a new toaster for customers opening an account. These days, it’s high-tech or die, as banks give customers up-to-the-nanosecond ways of checking on their money, transferring it around, paying bills and more, all from the comfort of their home or more likely, the palm of their hand. more

Innovation, for Providence After School Alliance, comprises the core of the organization and extends right through all aspects of the group. Its AfterZone Program, which may be the crown jewel in the educational offerings it helps oversee, just led the city to be named one of America’s Promise Alliance’s 100 Best Communities for Young People. more

It’s difficult for a business to grow when the economy is shrinking. For almost two decades, New England Construction has weathered economic storms – and thrived – by sticking to its principles no matter what the climate. more

Gurnet Consulting, a project- management-solutions firm that enables clients to deliver on successful IT initiatives, does not have a sales or marketing arm. Instead, as founder and CEO Martin John King explained, “We have grown our business through word of mouth and reputation. We’ve been able to exemplify that through social networking. We have done a very good job of nurturing our professional networking.” more

The secret behind the rapid growth of Drupal Connect, a Web-development firm headquartered in Newport, is “the willingness to hire the best talent, the best developers in the business,” said CEO John Florez. more

The staff-recruitment agency – based in Providence but serving all of southern New England – is one of the fastest-growing companies in Rhode Island. In 2009, the company’s sales totaled $238,000; by 2011 that figure had soared to $758,000. more

In 2012, American Partners Inc. earned a ranking of 371 on Inc. magazine’s 5000 fastest-growing companies list, with a three-year growth rate of more than 1,000 percent and an increase in revenue to $25.6 million in 2011 from $2.3 million in 2008. more