Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Andrew Molosky, President and CEO of Chapters Health System

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Andrew Molosky, President and CEO of Chapters Health System · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is where health care leadership comes together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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  speakers to Chicago April.
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  This series event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
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  visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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  in Chicago.
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  Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Health Care
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  podcast. My name is Chanel Banger. Today, I
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  have the pleasure of speaking with Andrew Maloski,
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  resident and chief executive officer of Chapters Health
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  System, one of the country's premier community based
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  health care delivery systems,
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  who joins the podcast today to share insights
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  in the health care trends he's keeping an
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  eye on, advice for leaders, and a bit
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  more. Andrew, thank you so much for joining
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  me. Thank you for the opportunity to be
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  here. Perfect. Well, to get us started out,
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  could you give us a brief introduction and
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  a peek into your background in health care
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  for listeners who aren't acquainted with you yet?
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  Certainly. Appreciate the chance, and I'll use the
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  word peak, at its true intention. Just a
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  little snippet. Right? So, Andrew Maloski,
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  president and CEO of Chapters Health System,
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  prior to that role. However, I've spent the
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  bulk of my career in what you might
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  call home and community based medicine settings, and
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  that includes everything from home health to medical
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  equipment to hospice and palliative medicine and primary
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  care and multi specialty care and the whole
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  kit and caboodle,
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  but really always that emphasis on moving care
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  to the community, moving care to the environment,
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  that patients and families wish for and that
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  payers
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  and,
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  accountable parties, seem to see the value in.
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  So really been a dedicated focus to growing
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  and building,
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  entities and organizations, and and that's what I
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  look forward to being able to share with
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  you today.
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  Perfect. Thank you so much for the introduction.
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  And now getting into it a bit, can
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  you talk about some trends that you're currently
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  watching in either health care as a whole
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  or palliative care or whichever direction you wanna
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  take it?
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  Yeah. Certainly. And so I think I'll speak
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  to that kind of health care as a
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  whole moniker
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  because everything else is really a microcosm of
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  the larger issues at play. Right? I think
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  two fundamental principles
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  independent of which sector or segment of health
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  care you work in prevail.
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  One, you know, the supply and demand curve.
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  Our population is aging. Our population is showing,
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  incredible signs of advancing illness. And, of course,
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  our workforce is diminishing. Right? The the dollars
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  are fixed. The need is great, and the
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  supply,
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  is substantially smaller than we wish it to
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  be. And so that kind of environment
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  fosters
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  innovation. It fosters a chance to get into
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  a quality over quantity approach, which is a
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  hallmark of chapters
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  and all of our leadership team. And it
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  certainly drives an emphasis on taking great care
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  of the staff and the human capital that
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  you have access to, which again, as we
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  talk, will be something you'll hear me speak
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  to excessively. So, you know, on the macro
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  trends, right, we know there are those components.
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  There's definitely economic headwinds,
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  at play right now, whether you consider that
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  to be the MA environment
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  or whether you consider that to be some
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  of the changing policies within state and federal
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  administrations.
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  You've certainly got, you know, insurance subsidies that
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  are at risk today. Medicaid is a hot
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  topic. So no,
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  no lack of stimuli for the problem solver,
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  if you will.
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  Definitely no shortage of headwinds and opportunities for
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  sure.
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  And going into 2026,
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  what do you think you're most focused on
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  and excited about?
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  Yeah. You know, I I I get the
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  luxury of answering this question the same way
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  every time. Right? And I think that whether
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  it's I believe it was Howard Schultz who
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  gets the credit for saying, you know, the
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  hallmark of a great CEO is to pick
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  a few stances and defend them the imminently
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  same things over and over and over until
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  it's so obvious
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  what you're going to say. So
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  if I give credit to the wrong, leader,
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  forgive me. Right? But it's a solid principle.
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  And my answer is always the same.
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  The mission statement in our organization is to
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  be taking care of patients or taking care
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  of those who do, so much so that
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  it's actually trademarked. Right? And in that environment,
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  our focus never waivers. It doesn't matter if
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  it's a good day, a bad day, or
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  somewhere in the middle. We show up ready
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  to do one thing and one thing only,
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  and that is is take optimal care of
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  our entire team.
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  Then when they are fully functioning and they
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  are kind of on all cylinders,
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  you know, that's when we see our patient
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  care explode in a good way. That's when
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  we see our finances follow suit. That's when
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  we see the fuel for reinvention or re
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  innovation
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  come around. So we don't stray from that.
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  In January, of course, after our holiday season
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  is the beginning of a new year, fiscal
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  and strategic. Everybody is refreshed, but everybody knows
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  there's work to be done. And we really
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  see it as an employee focused organization, you
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  know, that month in a big way.
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  Love to hear it. And looking back at
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  2025,
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  can you talk about an initiative or project
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  that either you or Chapters has accomplished in
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  last year?
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  Yeah. You know, our our mission is quite
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  wide. If you spent any time studying our
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  company, we're a portfolio organization of over 30
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  different companies. Right? And so a lot of
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  folks will talk about opening a note a
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  new OR. They might have stood up a
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  new clinic. And those are all wonderful initiatives.
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  We're grateful for them. You know? But ours
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  ours are widely varied. Right? From our consulting
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  organization to our accountable care organizations to our
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  MA plan. Everybody has had hallmarks and high
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  watermarks, throughout the course of the year. But
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  I think what I'd say as an entity
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  is our largest success story is that we've
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  been able to expand our mission to include
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  the West Coast this year.
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  Prior to this year, we had no West
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  Coast presence, and now we're actively in California,
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  Oregon, and Nevada.
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  We've expanded service lines successfully to include
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  far more of the risk based platforms, the
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  upside downside capitation type platforms,
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  you know, and the launch successful of our
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  own Medicare Advantage Plan, with a focus on
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  high needs and end of life is certainly,
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  a hallmark for us. So it was a
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  an eventful 2025,
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  and, certainly, yeah, we hope the springboard to
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  an even better 2026.
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  That's amazing to hear. And I can tell
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  that you're very passionate about what you do.
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  And with that, I'm curious to know if
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  you could give a few pieces of advice
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  for emerging leaders looking to have the same
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  drive and passion in their careers as you
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  have.
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  What would you say?
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  I I love the platform that I can
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  say this, but to anybody taking the time
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  to listen to this, let me give a
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  big disclaimer before my answer.
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  A lot of these,
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  if they have been successful for me, they
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  have been successful for me because I wasn't
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  afraid to admit where I went wrong or
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  that it didn't go as planned. Right? Anything
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  I'm about to say comes with all the
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  humility and all the disclaimer I can offer
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  on these positions. I believe in them. I've
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  taken them, and I will stand by them,
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  but they didn't come without a little pain
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  or a little learning.
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  So my first one, you know, to a
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  true leader, there's a difference between a manager
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  and a leader, and I always make sure
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  people understand that. Managing is showing up, following
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  a job description, and making sure the wheels
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  don't come off the bus.
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  Leading
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  is empowering. Leading is developing. Leading is
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  building
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  a a a a momentum,
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  a cohesion behind you of followers and and
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  stakeholders.
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  So a true leader should be innovative. A
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  true leader should always say, great. It's done
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  this way. If it's working, what can we
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  do more and better in that spirit? If
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  it's not working, how do we blow it
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  up and learn from this?
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  Right? Take a bold position. Don't be afraid
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  of failure. In fact, don't even think of
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  it as failure. Think of it as an
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  incremental learning lesson. Obviously, you don't wanna repeat
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  the same lessons over and over, but I've
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  talked to so many managers who operated a
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  fear and leaders who were fearless. Right?
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  Didn't say naive. I didn't say, you know,
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  poorly calculating,
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  but I said fearless. And the ability to
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  take a bold position and defend it in
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  the face of politics,
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  in the face of economic headwinds, in the
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  face of, you know, increasing,
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  regulatory environments,
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  it's okay to be bold. Be ethical, be
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  compliant, but take a position and defend it.
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  That's how you lead, and that's how you
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  build followership to truly accomplish things.
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  Excellent advice. Well, Andrew, I wanna thank you
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  for your time today. But before I let
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  you go and while you have the ears
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  of many health care leaders across the country,
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  do you have anything else that, listeners should
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  know? You know, I I always close this
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  in a bit of a self serving manner,
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  but I believe wholeheartedly in it. You know,
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  we as Chapters
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  realized a long time ago, you don't have
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  to be everything to everyone.
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  You have to be exceptional at what you
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  choose to be involved in. But partners make
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  for wonderful things. And whether that is joint
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  ventures, whether that is just educational partners on
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  the journey, whether that is trying to learn
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  from our peers. One of the things that
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  I like about Becker's and all the environments
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  it supports is it wants best practices out
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  there. So if you think the chapters can
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  benefit you in some way, please reach out
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  out to me. I'd love to know that
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  that door is open in reciprocity. But, together,
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  we can be better, and it's not always
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  about necessarily having your name or your stamp
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  on it exclusively. If we're to change the
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  health care landscape,
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  all of it would I say, many hands
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  make light work. Right? So,
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  look forward to meeting and talking to anybody
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  who has heard this with interest, and my
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  door is open to you.
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  Absolutely. Well, Andrew, that's a great place to
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  end on. I wanna thank you once again
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  for your time today and for sharing your
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  insights on the Pickers Healthcare podcast. Thank you
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  so much. Thank you for the chance.