It’s Baton Rouge: Out to Lunch

Hosted ByStephanie Riegel

OUT TO LUNCH finds Baton Rouge Business Report Editor Stephanie Riegel combining her hard news journalist skills and food background: conducting business over lunch. Baton Rouge has long had a storied history of politics being conducted over meals, now the Capital Region has an equivalent culinary home for business: Mansur’s. Each week Stephanie holds court over lunch at Mansur’s and invites members of the Baton Rouge business community to join her. You can also hear the show on WRKF 89.3FM.

The Ever-Changing Healthcare Local Landscape – Out to Lunch – It’s Baton Rouge

The rising cost of health care is one of the biggest challenges facing Americans today. Between 1996 and 2015, health care spending in the United States rose over a trillion dollars. And there is no end to this trend in sight. Locally, businesses and patients certainly feel the pressure. So do insurers and providers who are trying to innovate and find ways to keep costs down while remaining competitive and effective.

 Edgardo Tenreiro

Edgardo Tenreiro knows this first-hand. Edgardo is President and CEO of Baton Rouge General, which has facilities on Florida Boulevard in the mid city area and its main campus on Bluebonnet Boulevard. The General, as it’s known in Baton Rouge, has a long and venerable tradition in the market dating back to its founding in 1908. In the years since, it has grown to include the two main campus and multiple satellite facilities, including freestanding emergency departments and acute care clinics, around the Capital region. Edgardo has been CEO of Baton Rouge General since 2017, having joined the system in 2008 and overseeing many of its major functions such as physician relations, clinical quality, patient satisfaction, and financial performance.  

 Kerry Drake

Kerry Drake is President of Employee Benefits at BXS Insurance, a brokerage firm with 31 offices in eight states that specializes in commercial insurance, employee benefits, surety and private client services. Kerry is a 40-year veteran of the insurance industry who is passionate about healthcare costs, particularly where pharmaceutical companies are concerned.

 Edgardo Tenreiro, Kerry Drake, Stephanie Riegel

Photos over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard by Karry Hosford.