Rahul Rajkumar, MD, JD

Rahul leads our Healthcare Division, which includes areas that involve contracting and relationships with health care providers, medical policy, corporate pharmacy, appeals, care management, health care quality and cost management. 

During his career, Rahul has focused on health care innovation, particularly in promoting value-based payment models for doctors and hospitals and improving patient care.

Rahul came to Blue Cross NC after leadership roles with public and private health care organizations. He was Chief Medical Officer at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, which serves the Washington, DC area. At CareFirst, Rahul developed and led programs addressing costs and health care improvement.

Before joining CareFirst, Rahul served for four years as Deputy Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. In this role, he led many federal efforts to promote value-based payments for physicians and hospitals. He oversaw programs promoting primary care, the initial federal pilots for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), bundled payments for health care procedures and patient safety initiatives.

Rahul has a bachelor’s degree in history, a law degree and a medical degree—all from Yale University. During his work at CareFirst and the federal government, he worked as an attending physician at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Washington, DC.