Success & Significance

Following a speech he delivered during his senior year at La Salle University, Ricardo Johnson ’03 found himself shaking hands with Joe Frick ’70, then-CEO of Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia. “I heard you say you went to Mount Saint Joseph,” Joe told him. “So did I.” A few minutes later, Joe’s business card in-hand, Ricardo walked away from the encounter with an invaluable connection that would shape the trajectory of his career. 

Ricardo followed up their introduction with an email and Joe arranged a meeting at his office. There, Ricardo explained that he was graduating soon with degrees in political science and economics and searching for a summer internship before starting law school at the University of Maryland in the fall. Joe offered him one on the spot. 

A few years later, Ricardo was out of law school wrapping up a clerkship with the Chief Justice of the Maryland Supreme Court and considering his next career move. He had enjoyed his experience at Independence Blue Cross so much that he knew he wanted to work for a company rather than a law firm. “I wanted to help people build things,” he says. So, he wrote letters to general counsels and deputy general counsels at dozens of companies, one of which was CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. 

“I called Joe, and he asked me to come back to work at Independence, but at that point there was a girl who didn’t want to move back to Philadelphia,” he laughs. “I told him that I’d sent a letter to CareFirst here in Maryland and he said, ‘Okay, let me make a call and see if I can get you a meeting.’” And with that, Ricardo landed a job at the healthcare giant as Associate General Counsel.   

“I happened upon healthcare because of Joe,” Ricardo says. “But it was one of the most meaningful accidents of my life.” 

After a few years of litigating for CareFirst, Ricardo found he really enjoyed the business side of the projects he’d worked on and decided to pivot to a new role. He became Special Assistant to the CEO, which allowed him to have his hands on every aspect of the company. During that time, he laid the groundwork for what would become Healthworx, the innovation and investment arm of CareFirst. 

“From there, I just sort of started adding responsibilities onto my job,” he says. Now, Ricardo serves as the Executive Vice President for Strategy & Growth. His team is focused on driving alignment throughout CareFirst to holistically fulfill the company’s mission of advancing accessible, affordable, and equitable healthcare. This includes managing the Healthworx investment portfolio. 

“What I say we do is build bridges and break down walls,” he explains. “The healthcare system is an incredibly opaque industry sometimes, and these startups don’t know exactly how they should sell, who they should pitch to. We help build bridges into the payer community, the hospital community, the physician community, and we break down barriers to them succeeding, like their operating model, their talent recruitment strategy, data – we have a lot of data they typically don’t have.”  

One company in the Healthworx portfolio that Ricardo says has potential to make a real impact is Health in Her HUE, a digital platform that connects Black women and women of color to racially inclusive and culturally sensitive healthcare providers.   

“There are great disparities in health outcomes along racial lines, particularly in women,” Ricardo shares. “So, it’s a focus of ours to bring health equity into our communities, and Health in Her HUE is a platform through which women of color can receive effective healthcare tailored to their lived experiences, ultimately contributing to larger health outcomes.” 

Ricardo is similarly excited about SafeRide Health, a non-emergency medical transportation service that ensures access to life-sustaining care. “If you don’t own a vehicle, transportation can be a huge barrier to your health,” Ricardo says. “Our population is aging faster and faster and the healthcare industry has to keep up. Forty percent of doctor’s office referrals are no-shows. This service is making sure that people are getting the preventative care that they need.” 

Also in the Healthworx portfolio, Baltimore-based Scene Health is a medication adherence program that simplifies medication management to help patients improve their health outcomes, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce healthcare costs. Through video Directly Observed Therapy, doctors and patients can ensure medications are administered at the correct dosage and on schedule. 

“Our mission is all about affordability, access, equity,” Ricardo says. “So, this one is attacking both the affordability and the access piece. Maybe you couldn’t afford to have a nurse in your home making sure you took the right medications, but there is technology that can help you with that.” 

Ricardo and his team at CareFirst are not just investing in up-and-coming healthcare companies, but they are also investing directly into the local community here in Baltimore by opening CareFirst Engagement Centers and deploying mobile care connection vans, which provide community members with access to tools and resources regardless of their insurance status. This project also inspired the implementation of the workforce development initiative in West Baltimore. 

Ricardo says, “We went to West Baltimore and met with business leaders, community leaders, political leaders, and said, ‘We want to put a CareFirst Engagement Center here. What do you think? What needs does the community have that we can address?’ And they said, ‘Honestly, what we need is more jobs.’” 

So, in partnership with Coppin State University and Whiting-Turner CEO Tim Reagan, CareFirst established a program providing workforce development training and support services to reduce barriers to gainful employment. 

Ricardo has had a hand in bringing so many innovative, impactful projects to life, but the one he is most proud of is CloseKnit, a leading virtual-first primary care practice. “Nearly 40% of our members do not have a primary care doctor,” he says. “Primary care doctors are incredibly important to the long-term health of a community, but some people don’t have access depending on where they live and their ability to take time off work. 

So, we started this to create deeper access in geographic locations like the Eastern Shore and Western Maryland, where there just aren’t enough doctors, and to solve some of the convenience and equity issues in healthcare.” CloseKnit has served more than 100,000 patients since its launch in 2021. 

Ricardo has dedicated 13 years of his career to growing CareFirst into a company that lives its mission. He says, “We are taking this health insurance company and making it into a healthcare company that will become a health company – not just the financing of healthcare but really helping people live healthier, happier, better lives.” 

Ricardo once heard his former boss Joe put it this way: “Healthcare is a place where you can achieve both success and significance.” “Joe is the reason I got into healthcare,” Ricardo says. “But the ability to have both success and significance is why I stayed.” 

Ricardo has certainly had a successful career — he was recently recognized as a 2024 Modern Healthcare “40 Under 40” honoree. His work has touched a significant number of lives, and it all started with a handshake from a fellow Gael grad.