As an advocate for patient-centered care, Dr. Raymond “Ray” Zastrow was recruited to QuadMed LLC by Dr. Leonard “Len” Quadracci in 2006. In 2008, Zastrow assumed the role of president at QuadMed, succeeding Quadracci.
QuadMed was created in 1990 as a subsidiary of Sussex-based Quad/Graphics Inc. to provide affordable, high-quality health care for the company’s employees. QuadMed has three locations on-site at Quad/Graphics plants and four non-Quad/Graphics locations at Briggs & Stratton Corp., MillerCoors LLC in Milwaukee and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. in downtown Milwaukee and Franklin.
Zastrow, who has an interest in medical informatics and a passion for patient care, had a desire to leave his private practice and saw value in QuadMed.
“Being in private practice at the turn of the millennium, it got increasingly hard in primary care,” said Zastrow. “I was primed and ready to make the move and saw a better model. I was honored to follow in Dr. Len’s footsteps and expand on the patient-centered primary care.”
Through the recession and even the reductions at Quad/Graphics this past year, QuadMed has grown and opened the two locations at Northwestern Mutual in September. With QuadMed, Quad/Graphics has limited its health care cost increases to only 6.8 percent during the last five years, compared with 8.3 percent at other Midwestern employers.
“My mantra theory through the recession was like manufacturing: flex our capacity to the volumes. I ran the organization leaner to be a good steward of our resources,” said Zastrow.
Zastrow has also been very vocal on the topic of health care reform, along with Joel Quadracci, Quad/Graphics president and CEO, and has been invited to Washington, D.C., for meetings on the issue.
“In health care transformation, we are missing the boat on legislation,” said Zastrow.
Zastrow also blogs about health care reform for The Washington Post.
“The QuadMed model works as a small investment in primary care providers in wellness active on site… it is a huge payoff in corporate expense,” said Zastrow. “Primary care is under looked in our country and the investment is small, but the real investment makes up for it in drives.”
Zastrow is also a founding board member of the Center for Health Value Innovation (CHVI), a nonprofit educational organization, and serves as its vice president.
“CHVI was founded by a group of like-minded employers dedicated to sharing best practices, which we
refer to as ‘levers,’ that move us from buying units of health care delivery to buying a healthy, productive workforce,” said Zastrow.
