Andrew Molosky, President and CEO of Chapters Health and Chairman of the Board at SECUR

Summary

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast Summary: Interview with Andrew Molosky

Release Date: July 31, 2025
Guest: Andrew Molosky, President and CEO of Chapters Health and Chairman of the Board at SECUR
Host: Laura Darda

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Introduction

In this insightful episode of the Becker’s Healthcare Podcast, host Laura Darda welcomes Andrew Molosky, the President and CEO of Chapters Health and Chairman of the Board at SECUR. The conversation delves into Andrew's leadership philosophy, recent achievements, current challenges in the healthcare landscape, and his vision for future growth.

About Chapters Health System

Andrew begins by providing an overview of Chapters Health System, describing it as "the nation's largest not-for-profit, end-of-life care and chronic illness platform" (00:44). The organization operates across nine states, comprising over 30 different entities dedicated to serving high-need patient populations through various mechanisms.

Recent Successes and Workforce Development

When discussing recent accomplishments, Andrew highlights the organization's emphasis on workforce development, engagement, and readiness. He proudly states, "We put an incredible emphasis on our workforce development, engagement and readiness" (01:26). This focus has resulted in impressive retention rates, low turnover, and high employee engagement metrics. Andrew attributes this success to the belief that "take great care of your employees so they can take great care of your patients" (01:26).

Additional achievements over the past year include expanding into three new states, launching their own health plan, and experiencing substantial growth in the PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) environment. These initiatives align with a value-based care model, prioritizing quality over quantity.

Current Focus Areas in Healthcare

Laura inquires about the top issues Andrew is currently grappling with in the healthcare sector. Andrew breaks this down into two main areas: legislative changes and focusing on controllable factors within the organization (03:05).

He emphasizes the importance of change management readiness, stating, "Are you running towards [change] or hiding from it?" (04:45). For Chapters Health, the strategy is to embrace change proactively, recognizing that "every day brings a new opportunity to serve in a different way" (04:45). This approach contrasts with organizations that resist change, often struggling to adapt in a dynamic environment.

Leadership and Organizational Transformation

When discussing transformative leadership, Andrew shares the foundational principles that guide Chapters Health. He explains, "We approach our business the same way we approach our patient... We see them as a story. We see them as a life and a soul" (05:10). This holistic view extends to problem-solving within the organization.

Andrew advocates for an interdisciplinary team approach, fostering engagement by involving team members in diverse challenges. "We prefer to look at it, you know, very much in that team format... it brings a sense of engagement that you don't otherwise get in traditional hierarchies" (05:10). This strategy not only generates innovative solutions but also enhances team camaraderie and collective problem-solving capabilities.

Future Growth Opportunities

Looking ahead, Andrew outlines both conceptual and practical strategies for growth. Conceptually, he stresses the necessity of having a clear strategic plan, adequate capital reserves, and a focused selection of programs and protocols (07:05). Practically, financial resilience is crucial—"Are you positioned to weather storms or changes in accounts receivables or payer methodologies?" (07:05).

Andrew also underscores the importance of quality in clinical products and effective talent acquisition and retention programs. He advises organizations to "set your finish line and run towards it," ensuring that progress is measured against clearly defined goals rather than mere activity (07:05).

Adapting to Change and Organizational Growth

When asked about evolving goals, Andrew reflects on Chapters Health's significant growth—from $70 million to $800 million over four years—highlighting horizontal and vertical expansion, new service lines, and active mergers and acquisitions (09:53). This rapid growth has positioned the organization to adeptly handle further changes in the healthcare landscape. Andrew emphasizes adaptability, stating, "change is sort of our language here" (09:53).

Leading a Thriving Organization in Uncertain Times

In discussing leadership for the future, Andrew outlines key principles essential for thriving amidst ongoing change:

1. Embrace Change: "Understand that everything is subject to change. Be change embraced, not fight it" (11:44).
2. Remember the Core Mission: Focus on serving patients and employees rather than getting lost in financial metrics and growth for its own sake.
3. Authentic Leadership: "Be true to yourself... humility will define that... action will define leadership" (11:44).

Andrew advises leaders to balance humility with decisive action, fostering an environment where mistakes are learning opportunities and successes are collectively celebrated.

Conclusion

Laura wraps up the episode by thanking Andrew for his valuable insights and contributions. She looks forward to his participation in upcoming events, emphasizing the ongoing relationship between Chapters Health and Becker’s Healthcare.

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Key Takeaways:

• Workforce Engagement: Prioritizing employee well-being leads to better patient care and organizational success.
• Embracing Change: Proactive adaptation to legislative and market shifts is crucial for sustainability.
• Team-Based Problem Solving: Interdisciplinary approaches foster innovation and engagement.
• Strategic Growth: Clear planning and financial resilience underpin effective expansion.
• Authentic Leadership: Balancing humility with decisive action defines successful leaders in healthcare.

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For those interested in healthcare leadership and organizational strategies, this episode offers valuable perspectives from a leader navigating and thriving in an ever-evolving industry.

Transcript

[A]

This is Laura Darda with the Beckers Healthcare podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Andrew Maloski, President and CEO of Chapters Health and Chairman of the board at Secure Health Plan. Andrew, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.

[B]

Thank you for the opportunity to be here. I look forward to our conversation.

[A]

Absolutely. And you know, I'm just excited to speak with you because I know so much is happening in healthcare right now and certainly changing in a good number of ways very rapidly. And so I'm interested to hear your perspective on leadership, where it's going well, where, you know, we can continue to lean in, to prepare for the future. But before we dive in, I'm wondering if you could tell us just a little bit more about yourself in Chapters Health System. What's been your biggest winner success from the last year or so?

[B]

Yeah, no, I'd be pleased to, and thanks for the opportunity. So, as you mentioned, my name is Andrew Maloski, I'm the president and CEO of Chapters Health System. And for those of you perhaps not familiar with Chapters, we describe ourselves as being the nation's largest not for profit, end of life care and chronic illness platform, where we're a nine state collective of over 30 different organizations all focused on those highest need patient populations and the myriad of mechanisms that serve them.

[A]

That's great to hear and you know, definitely an important aspect of the healthcare system and keeping the continuum going. So when you think back, you know, to the last year or so, what do you see as being something that's gone really well for you or a project initiative? Anything that's been just really beneficial?

[B]

Yeah, you know, I tend to use a lot of the same sort of descriptions when I have these opportunities. And I jokingly say, you know, it's half high science and half everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten. So, you know, the more things change, the more they stay the same. We put an incredible emphasis on our workforce development, engagement and readiness. And so we're certainly able to celebrate as an organization incredible retention numbers, low turnover numbers, and perhaps more importantly, high measures of engagement, which we believe to be really the line of credit that translates to great patient care. You know, so of course, once you have your basic, you know, equation or algorithm down of take great care of your patients so they can, or take great care of employees so they can take great care care of your patients, then you can move on to more sophisticated endeavors, which we didn't lack either. So in addition to expanding to three new states and of course now we have launched our own health plan. We've had numerous growth opportunities in the PACE environment. All these things are moving rapidly into the value based design, which of course is where we feel we shine. Right. When you put an emphasis on quality over quantity and really sort of breaking that fee for service model, you have the workforce that's engaged to do it. You feel like you've got all the ingredients on the shelf to make something real special. In this last year, it all started to come together for us.

[A]

It's awesome to hear and definitely makes a lot of sense in having your people in a really strong position to be successful, showing them what success looks like, building that culture that really makes people feel belonged and part of that community there. So that's great to hear. Now, when you're thinking about today, a lot going on in health care in the space. So what are some of the top two to three issues you're focused on right now? What's really top of mind for you?

[B]

Well, you know, it's interesting how you read a question like that. You think the top two or three issues that you're focused on, and I break that into two parts. Right. Of course, we all, everybody in healthcare sort of writ large is trying to interpret what's happening legislatively on the state and federal landscapes. And then there's the old adage, and we all have a post or something to the effect on our wall of work on what you can control. Right. Or focus on what you actually can control. And so to that we're taking and distilling down all the chaos and all the unknown into a couple basic tenets. Right. Are you thinking, or are you looking around the corners for how new payer models might be coming into effect? Are you looking to how you can best retrofit your operations to optimize the margin for reinvestment in employee engagement or new programming? Are you rethinking your philanthropic approach if you're in a nonprofit position? If you're a payer, what is your plan design and how does it most accurately modify or adapt in these new times? So I think there's the reality that if you're going to be in a bit of a dynamic or chaotic environment, what is your change management readiness as an organization? What is your change management readiness as a leader? And are you sort of, you know, hiding from it or are you running towards it? And so I would suggest that at Chapters our biggest opportunity is run towards and run towards it with open arms and an understanding that we don't know what we don't know. But every day brings a new opportunity to serve in a different way. And it sounds so fundamental or rudimentary, but not every workforce is geared to hear that. Not every board is ready to work that way, and certainly not every payer is ready to partner in that manner. And so it takes an adept level of leadership to really kind of run towards it, if you will. And so that's really our focus on kind of a macro and a micro level.

[A]

Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. And certainly it is a challenge. I can imagine. Easier said than done in some ways. But when you're looking at, you know, your workforce, what you've built, the culture that you've built there, what did it take to make that transformation? How are you? Can you be a transformative leader and really, you know, bring the whole organization along in the most effective way possible?

[B]

Yeah. You know, you ask a question that probably has a million different answers or a million times you ask it, you know, but I think we try to get back to the real basics, right? We tell all of our team members we're going to approach our business the same way we approach our patient. We don't see our patient population or our service member participant population as, you know, a sum of their medical parts or a series of diagnostic codes. We see them as a story. We see them as a life and a soul. And if we look at our business opportunities the same way, as every problem or every opportunity comes with multifaceted. And so are we looking at this from an interdisciplinary team perspective, or are we getting one single subject matter expert to take it out and solve it themselves? We prefer to look at it, you know, very much in that team format. So with every new piece of legislation, every new, you know, operational challenge, who are all the voices, what are all the talents that can weigh in on this? And you come up with some unorthodox solutions, but as an unintended but certainly valuable byproduct, you get a lot of engagement out of your team members. You. You teach them succession planning, you teach them problem solving. You give them an opportunity to get involved in things that are perhaps beyond their job title or their pay grade. And it really fosters engagement, but more importantly, it fosters, you know, solutions to things that, you know, even the best of us still would struggle to do in a vacuum. And so we've kind of employed that as our tactic, and it's really paid dividends for us. And at bare minimum, if we're going to be stumped, at least we'll all be stumped together and now all of a sudden you fostered camaraderie and teamwork. So I don't want to say it solves everything, but it certainly brings a sense of engagement that you don't otherwise get in traditional hierarchies.

[A]

That makes a lot of sense. And it's really helpful to understand how you've built the organization and workforce there to truly elevate the best ideas, the most innovative things, to try things out and be able to have that kind of relationship with the team. So that's amazing to hear. When you look at the future, where are some of the big opportunities for growth in the next few years?

[B]

Yeah, you know, and again, I'll try to break this into conceptual as well as practical or pragmatic things. You know, on the conceptual level, you have to have all the stuff you'd imagine, a really articulate strategic plan. You have to want to make sure your capital reserves are in place, your selection of which programs and protocols you want are in place. You can't be everything to everyone. Certainly we've seen the supply and demand curves when it comes to the aging population and the diminishing population of a scaled workforce. So you need to have, have a couple of things ranging from your strategic plan, your board and stakeholder buy in, as well as a well assembled leadership team that you know is, is already high functioning. You don't want to have to become high functioning in times of high stress. And we suspect that everything is cyclical, but the next five years are positioned to bring a lot of change. So of course that's the ethereal part, that's the, the, the academic part. The practical part is, you know, have you. And I grew up in the Midwest and I was always told, you know, make sure you save some money for a rainy day. Right. What does your financial position as an organization look like? Are you positioned to weather storms or changes in accounts receivables or changes in payer methodologies? You know, do you have a clinical product that's built for a quality over quantity of value based design? Not everyone does. Right. Do you have challenges with talent acquisition, you know, with retention and development and what are your programs there? So you have to marry the challenges of the day with where this is all marching to. And I tell folks, you know, there's two methods and I don't know endorse right or wrong. But certainly we, we believe in setting your finish line and running towards it, not just running for the sake of running. Right. Motion does not indicate success. And so we Tell people, you know, what does the finish line look like and what are our steps along the way? If you can't define that, whether it's one year, three years, five years or, you know, 10, you know, you're really going to struggle to ever feel like you're making progress. It'll be, you know, on a wheel going nowhere as opposed to making incremental but certainly important progress. So start with your plan, build out the tactics, make sure your oper and clinically sound, and always have an eye towards what matters most to you. And in our case, that's our employees and our patients.

[A]

Absolutely. I love that. It's just such a clear cut way to think about things and set up the right kind of structures and expectations for the team. As you're asking yourself these questions and understanding where your own organization fits into the broader healthcare ecosystem. And I love that idea too, of, you know, motion not equaling success, but really understanding what, you know, the finish line is, what completion is, what your expectations are in order to reach your goals. Do you see, you know, for you at chapter's health system, those goals changing at all or do you see that continuing to, you know, have the same goals and the same kind of like structure that you have with maybe slight tweaks depending on what is needed?

[B]

Yeah. You know, at chapters and thank you for the opportunity to answer that. You know, we, we are in a time of massive change. And I say that in the most exciting way possible. Right. Without making this an organizational dossier. You know, the company has grown, you know, from roughly 70 million to roughly 800 million in about 48 months. We've expanded horizontally and geographic, horizontally and vertically. And so with numbers of new service lines, tons of new team members, and active mergers and acquisitions affiliation pipeline, you know, we're in a, we're in a time of dynamicism for sure. Right. Lots and lots of change, which we think actually positions us handily for any change that may be given to us at a federal or state level. Right. As the marketplace changes, as the industry changes around us, you know, change is sort of our language here. Right. And so for better or worse, large or very consistent time tested organizations who aren't necessarily always at the ready for change sometimes struggle more. Right. When it's, when it's kind of your currency or it's kind of what you do for a living, you know, no matter what email or new policy comes out, it's kind of, well, you know, this is what we do on a daily basis. We adapt and we change. So we Expect that to continue. It's basically been our hallmark and we're going to do our best to avoid stagnancy or, you know, complacency in any position. And as healthcare continues to evolve, we'll be right at the front of the pack, to borrow that same sort of running and race parlance.

[A]

Absolutely fantastic. I just love that and seems to really make a lot of sense and fit into the ever changing dynamics and evolving healthcare and political landscape. Before we wrap up here, I want to take that one step further. What will it take to lead a thriving organization over the next five years, given the continued pace of change, the continued flexibility and continued, in some ways uncertainty of how all of this is going to play out?

[B]

Yeah, you know, I don't know that I can give anybody a playbook or a silver bullet. If it was that simple, we would probably not be having conversations like this routinely. You know, but I think there are a couple principles that will never lead you astray. Right. No matter what your organizational role, what your job title, your business card says, there's some underlying principles in healthcare that I think if we keep as a bit of our North Star, kind of as an industry, you know, we'll be fine. One, understand that everything is subject to change. You know, so many large scale health institutions fight for the status quo instead of the realization that, you know, we didn't get here overnight, we're not going to fix this overnight, but we have to be making incremental progress. And just digging in your heels on, you know, payment mechanisms and clinical protocols and adoption of new technology isn't really going to help anything. It's going to slow things down. So I say fundamentally be. Be change embraced. You know, embrace change, not fight it. I think. Two, remember why we're here. It is very easy to get distracted with discussions on margins and multiples and ebitda. It is very easy to get lost in the hubbub of mergers and acquisitions and growth announcements and new service lines. But at the end of the day, is it growth for growth's sake or is it growth to meet the needs of the most important people in the equation, being our patients and our employees? And if that's where you're putting your dollars and that's where you're putting your growth, I think you're fundamentally aligned to how healthcare needs to mature. You know, I think the last one I would always say is as an individual, be true to yourself. Right? It's okay to be humble, it's okay to have humility, and it's okay to say I don't know everything. Those are endearing traits when they're properly deployed. Conversely, don't be afraid to make decisions, right? Generally speaking, if you're in a role of leadership, you were given that chance because someone believes in you. And it's better to make a lot of right choices and an occasional wrong one to couple with it, than to not make any at all right. And I think that's the one thing I tell people on individual levels. If you want to be recognized as a leader, action will define that. Humility will define that. How you bounce back from mistakes as well as celebrate successes will define that. Simply being complacent in an office, digging in your heels and holding on for dear life is not leadership. That's survival. And they're dramatically different in my estimation. So those would be my organizational and individual pieces of advice if there was such thing as a silver bullet for how to make it through the next few years.

[A]

Andrew, that's amazing to hear. Thank you so much for joining the podcast today and sharing all of these bits of information, bits of advice I think truly valuable to keep us grounded in times of lots of change we've been talking about in truly just thinking through how organizations can set themselves up for success in the future. I appreciate your time today and then we'll be looking forward to seeing you as well at our CEO CFO Roundtable in November. I know you'll be so speaking and it's just always such a pleasure to have you on our panels and be part of our events, and so I'm looking forward to that as well.

[B]

The pleasure is mine. I look forward to seeing everyone in November or before.