A brief history of Robert Taketomo, Pharm.D., MBA, and Ventegra

“Ventegra was born out of the realization that the current health care environment has a lot of infrastructure inertia.”

After working as a pharmacist in non-profit environments, primarily hospitals like the Veteran’s Administration, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, St. Francis Medical Center, and Saint John’s Health Center, Robert Taketomo, Pharm.D., MBA, made a move to managed care, and a for-profit mentality that included stints at FHP, PacifiCare, and Health Net. After seven years on the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) side, and three years on the health plan side, Dr. Taketomo became somewhat disillusioned about where healthcare was headed in the United States.

After 26 years as a pharmacist, Dr. Taketomo recognized that some of the current managed care systems are experiencing the tough challenge of balancing the need of meeting shareholder expectations and providing healthcare insurance coverage, which results in priorities sometimes being misplaced. Dr. Taketomo believes that being profitable is important, but there needs to be a right balance between profitability and ensuring that patients have access to healthcare that is affordable.

No longer willing to stand by as an observer, and eager to spearhead innovative and actionable solutions, Dr. Taketomo launched Ventegra in January 2005, to first focus on the pharmacy segment of healthcare, with a strong vision and expectation to expand into other healthcare delivery segments.

Dr. Taketomo, Ventegra’s President and CEO, says, “Ventegra’s long-term vision is to develop other integrated healthcare services and products that utilize new ways of doing business. Ventegra was born out of the realization that the current health care environment has a lot of infrastructure inertia.”

This inertia results from existing business models and delivery systems that mandate that revenues are derived from businesses behaving in a certain way. These behaviors have driven fragmentation, inefficiencies, and administrative burden while doing little to improve the quality of care.

Rather than trying to fix this existing infrastructure, Ventegra was formed to create new channels in the delivery of healthcare that would be more efficient and less fragmented. An assumption is that if we improve efficiencies and provide better integration, affordability, access and the quality of care should improve.

Dr. Taketomo received his Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Southern California, and conducted his undergraduate studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. He completed a clinical residency in Pharmacokinetics at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in La Jolla, California. He went on to earn his Masters of Business Administration from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.

Mission Statement: Ventegra is the premier, fully transparent Contracting Services Organization helping to manage health care costs for businesses and consumers. Ventegra is committed to seeking innovative ways to channel our resources for a greater impact to improve the lives of others.

Philosophy: “Truth” and “Integrity” – Ventegra’s foundation for high standards of ethics. It’s not only our name, it’s HOW we do business.