Biography of Charles D. Baker

Founded in 1969, Harvard Pilgrim and its affiliates are licensed to provide comprehensive health insurance solutions in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire.  Its provider network has more than 22,000 physicians and 125 hospitals in MA, ME, NH and Rhode Island.  HPHC and its affiliates offer health and benefit plan solutions to over 910,000 members in New England.

Baker was brought in as CEO in mid-1999 to turn around the organization's financial performance.  HPHC lost $227 million in 1999, but lost just $10 million in 2000.  It has posted gains in excess of $40 million in 2001, 2002 and 2003, and earned $38 MM in 2004.  It has now generated positive financial returns for 21 quarters in a row, and is rated Ba1 with a "positive" outlook by Moody's Investors Services.  

Throughout its history, HPHC has consistently been ranked as one of the nation's best plans for clinical effectiveness and member satisfaction.  Under Baker's leadership, HPHC has finished first in the country for two years in a row on the National Committee for Quality Assurance's (NCQA) annual ranking of health plan performance, which was featured this year in a special issue of U.S. News & World Report.  

HPHC is also a market leader in the development and use of secure, online tools to reduce administrative costs and improve the accuracy and speed of health care transactions.  Its chief tool, HPHConnect, is serving thousands of employers, providers and members, offering 24/7 administrative support for a wide variety of transactions.  HPHConnect currently supports over 1 million transactions a month for HPHC providers, employers and members.  

Before becoming Harvard Pilgrim's CEO in May 1999, Baker was President and CEO of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, a non-profit, multi-specialty group practice whose more than 800 physicians and other clinicians provide care to nearly 300,000 residents of Eastern Massachusetts.  

Prior to joining Harvard Vanguard, Baker spent eight years in Massachusetts state government, where he served as Secretary of Administration and Finance and Secretary of Health and Human Services during the Weld and Cellucci Administrations.   In these posts, Baker planned and implemented major changes in public policy that reaped hundreds of millions in taxpayer savings while expanding health care coverage and services. 

Baker serves on the boards of The Kenneth Schwartz Center, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the New England Council, and America's Health Insurance Plans.  He chairs the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans.  He is also on the Board of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, and the IXIS Advisors and Loomis Sayles Mutual Funds Board.  He is an elected member of the Board of Selectmen in Swampscott, MA.  

Baker received a Master's Degree in Management, concentrating in Public Administration and Finance, from Northwestern's Kellogg School and a BA in English from Harvard College.