Our Team
Bill Baker
William E. Baker, Jr. (Bill) has spent his professional career designing, building, implementing, and managing Medicaid managed health care operations by successfully structuring appropriate solutions to potential customers and establishing key working relationships to assure success. From being a founder of AmeriGroup Corporation, to running Centene’s largest state operation, to building a health plan under a federal waiver for Cook County Health and Hospital System for the expanded Medicaid population (pre-ACA), to developing and managing a thriving consulting practice that primarily serves as a Chief Development Officer for National Medicaid Managed Care companies, he possesses the skills, experience, and energy to build a strong foundation for any managed care initiative. Importantly, Bill has the enviable ability to identify opportunities in markets, develop innovative solutions, and ensure that such ventures are implemented successfully. He is an accomplished leader with superior management, planning, operations, contracting, and business development skills that are an asset to any growing organization.
As the founder of W.E. Baker Consulting, LLC, Bill has created a national niche as a premier design and build managed care consulting practice, With his years of operational and development experience, Bill shares his skills with various clients to maximize their potential for success. Currently, Bill is working with various payers in partnership with provider organizations to secure state bids for Medicaid managed care initiatives. Recently, as the operations and business development officer for Cook County Health and Hospital Systems health plan, CountyCare, Bill built the infrastructure to support the expanded Medicaid population within 4 months. The plan exceeded projected membership of 100,000 by year-end 2013 with revenues exceeding $800M. Prior to the CountyCare project, Bill created a successful strategic network for serving the complex ABD/SSI population within 90 days. Using his expertise in Medicaid managed care, he identified and secured the creative relationships necessary for winning a $168M annual contract which now exceeds $1B.
With Centene Corporation, Bill has served in several roles. Initially, he was assigned with developing all the expansion areas of Texas in which he brought his unique energy, relationship skills, and strategic planning to successfully build new operations for Superior HealthPlan. In his role as COO, Bill assumed a leadership role in an operation that was not structured for future growth. Aligning with his CEO, Bill crafted a solution to the management issue all while restructuring the operation to build a foundation for sustainable growth. Superior HealthPlan more than doubled the annual run rate from $250M to over $500M during his role as COO and several key members of his management team have been promoted and continue to be instrumental to SHP success which now exceeds $4B in revenue.
With Bridge Managed Care, Bill formed an independent consulting operation building on his strength and knowledge from developing and running several health care operations. At Bridge, he has served as acting President for a distressed HMO, identified over $4.5 million in claims overpayments through Bridge’s reconciliation process, completed several operations assessments, evaluated behavioral health carve-out vendors, developed managed care networks, and implemented an on-line marketing system to assist businesses with growth. With Bridge, Bill assisted in restructuring several operations and has had tremendous success in expense reduction and revenue enhancement.
At York Behavioral Health Care, Bill assumed the challenge of restructuring an unprofitable department of a national HMO into a successful business operation. In that process, he was responsible for redesigning the entire staff model delivery system as well as restructuring all the administrative functions to align with market demands. Within a year, he had created a market-valued business worth over $6 million with over 350,000 members.
Bill was one of the founding employees at AMERICAID Community Care, (now AmeriGroup) a start-up national Medicaid HMO. As one of the original team, Bill worked to refine business strategies and secure venture capital financing while he spearheaded the business development activities. He was instrumental in establishing criteria for evaluating initial market strategies and in developing innovative partnerships with both providers and hospitals. As Acting Chief Executive Officer of AMERICAID-Illinois, Bill developed and executed both the Certificate of Authority and HCFA contract, and subsequently developed and ran the Chicago-based operation. He designed an innovative marketing plan and negotiated multiple contracts to create a strong provider network. He generated revenue three months earlier than projected, and completed the business “start-up” $400,000 under budget. Importantly, Bill spearheaded a public-private partnership with the largest area social service agency which combined education and outreach with traditional case management and preventive medicine for high-risk inner city families.
Bill offers extensive knowledge of health care plans, experience ensuring state and federal contract compliance, and a commitment to the development of quality health care products. Combining the creativity and energy he brings to his work with his previous health care experiences, Bill offers the necessary expertise for a prosperous venture.