HealthPartners has brought in longtime UnitedHealth finance veteran Blake Berquist as its new executive vice president and chief financial officer, handing him the numbers playbook just as the Twin Cities nonprofit is running on a razor-thin operating margin and facing steep pharmacy and medical cost growth. With deep experience on the payer side, Berquist steps in as a finance leader fluent in coverage strategy and claims management at a time when every fraction of a percentage point on the margin counts.
HealthPartners announces new finance chief
In a press release, HealthPartners said Berquist will oversee finance across the organization’s care group, health plan, and institute, while also taking charge of real estate, supply chain, and growth strategies. Andrea Walsh, the health system’s president and CEO, said in the release, “We’re thrilled to welcome Blake to the HealthPartners team.” The organization noted that Berquist has already joined HealthPartners and will focus on strengthening financial stewardship while still backing care delivery and community investments.
Financial squeeze: numbers behind the move
At its 2026 annual meeting, HealthPartners reported that 2025 results showed an operating loss of about 1% on $9.3 billion in revenue, with medical trend climbing roughly 11% and pharmacy trend also moving higher. The system highlighted an 8.7% jump in the average cost of generic prescriptions and about a 10.4% increase in specialty drug costs, pressures the nonprofit said it is working to manage while maintaining cash reserves. Those figures were detailed in materials from the organization and republished via Business Wire.
Berquist’s payer résumé
HealthPartners said Berquist brings more than 17 years of health care finance and operations experience, including CFO roles across commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid programs. He most recently served as CFO for UnitedHealthcare’s national commercial business, which serves more than 30 million members. The release also notes that Berquist grew up in the Twin Cities, has sat on local nonprofit boards, and has volunteered as a tax preparer. HealthPartners pointed to those hometown ties, paired with his national payer experience, as key reasons he was the right fit for the CFO post.
Succession amid scrutiny
Berquist steps into the job following the retirement of former CFO Penny Cermak earlier this month, according to the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal. The timing means a new finance leader is taking over just as the system tries to juggle ongoing community investments with the hard work of shoring up operating performance.
Why a payer background matters
Executives with extensive payer experience can bring tighter claims forecasting, sharper pricing strategy and tougher contract management into a provider setting, skills HealthPartners will likely lean on as it works to close a roughly 1% operating gap. UnitedHealth’s recent earnings results and leadership shifts, covered by the Star Tribune, underscore how tricky margins have become across the health care industry.
HealthPartners said Berquist will help steer pricing, capital and supply chain decisions as the system advances new clinic and hospital projects, including a planned Lakeview hospital, according to Business Wire. For now, leaders and local reporters describe the hire as a pragmatic move that blends payer tactics with provider priorities as the Twin Cities system hunts for a path back to sustained margins.
