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Identifying a care gap is only the beginning. For health plans, the real challenge is understanding why the gap remains open, choosing the right intervention, and ensuring members complete care and document it. In this episode of Bright Spots in Healthcare, leaders from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Fallon Health, and Arbiter AI explore practical strategies for closing the last mile in Medicare quality.
Hear how health plans use AI to uncover care already completed, extend outreach to members who might otherwise go unreached, improve collaboration with provider organizations, and target interventions based on the actual barriers members face. The discussion also explores how to scale proven approaches, make quality a shared organizational responsibility, and use data more effectively to improve care delivery and performance.
Download the Episode Resources Episode Guide Key takeaways and practical lessons from the conversation: www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Episode-Guide-Bright-Spots-in-Healthcare-10.22.26-1.pdf Key Insights Summary Guest takeaways and discussion highlights: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Key-Insights-Summary-Arbiter.pdfRequest Arbiter's report: "Why Identified Care Gaps Stay Open, and What Closes Them, Contact Sherry Keyles at [email protected].
Featured Medicare Advantage LeadersErica Krieger, Vice President, Quality, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
John Willis, Program Manager, STARS, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota
Angela Spanos, Vice President, Quality and Population Health, Fallon Health
Jay LaBine, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Arbiter
Closing care gaps requires more than identifying members who need care. In this conversation, healthcare leaders share practical lessons and real-world examples you can apply to your own quality strategy.
Find gaps that may already be closed by using existing clinical data more effectively
Reach more members without overextending care teams through targeted outreach and escalation
Give providers clearer, more actionable quality data to focus resources where they matter most
Use AI where it fits best for defined populations, repeatable workflows, and scale challenges
Measure completed care, not just activity and decide which interventions deserve to scale
Featured Resource: Why Identified Care Gaps Stay Open, and What Closes Them
Arbiter's report, "Why Identified Care Gaps Stay Open, and What Closes Them," shows where care gaps break down and how the right response changes depending on where the member is stuck.
It also includes strong questions health plans should ask their outreach partners about what they're measuring and whether they're achieving documented closure.
The report examines:
Challenges in Care Gap Closure
Where Gaps Leak
Specific Breakdown Points and Proposed Fixes
Three-Step Operating Model for Scale
Case Study Results
Key Partner Evaluation Questions
To request a copy, contact Sherry Keyles at [email protected].
About ArbiterArbiter is an agentic care orchestration platform that closes the last mile at population scale. It activates each member through personalized, multimodal outreach — AI video, SMS, voice, and portal — then returns the verified clinical record that proves the care happened, with licensed nurses in the loop.
Learn more: arbiter.ai.
Connect With ArbiterTo explore how Arbiter can help your team convert identified gaps into auditable closures, with the clinical record returned. Contact Sherry Keyles at [email protected] to schedule a conversation with a senior Arbiter leader.
Panelist Bioshttps://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/events/closing-the-last-mile-of-medicare-quality-from-care-gaps-to-smarter-action/#url
About Bright Spots in HealthcareBright Spots in Healthcare brings together health plan, health system and healthcare innovation leaders to share practical examples of what is working — and how others can apply and scale those ideas.
Bright Spots Ventures creates healthcare content, executive communities, private peer discussions and go-to-market programs designed to accelerate meaningful change.
Learn more: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/
Subscribe for more conversations with Medicare Advantage, Stars, quality, health plan and healthcare leaders.
This conversation explores how Medicare Advantage plans are responding to the 2027 Star Ratings and rethinking the strategies, partnerships and operating models behind quality performance, including:
How Essence HealthCare is building on its history of strong Stars performance by strengthening analytics, aligning teams and adapting its strategy as the Stars program evolves.
How MyTruAdvantage improved Part D performance from 2.5 to 4 Stars through more timely data, provider collaboration and targeted outreach
How Doctors HealthCare Plans achieved five stars across all three medication adherence measures by addressing barriers such as transportation and pharmacy access
How Icario's work with CenterWell Pharmacy illustrates the value of understanding member needs and making it easier for members to take action
How executive governance, forecasting tools and cross-functional collaboration can strengthen Stars accountability
Why stronger provider relationships and ongoing care-gap management can improve performance as membership grows
How plans can evaluate vendor investments, measure results and redirect limited resources toward approaches that deliver value
https://psychotricks.com/yes-ladder/
About IcarioIcario helps health plans turn member insights into meaningful action by combining behavioral science, technology and personalized engagement.
Its approach helps Medicare Advantage plans better understand what motivates members, identify barriers to care and make it easier for members to take the next step.
Through its expanded collaboration with Google, Icario is also bringing AI-powered personalization into member engagement, helping plans connect insights with action and get more value from their engagement investments.
Learn more: https://icariohealth.com/
Connect With IcarioTo explore how Icario can help your team improve member engagement, address barriers to care and make better use of engagement investments, contact Nicole Roberts at [email protected] to arrange a conversation with the Icario team..
Panelist Bioshttps://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/events/2027-star-ratings-what-worked-what-didnt-and-what-ma-plans-do-next/
About Bright Spots in Healthcare
Bright Spots in Healthcare brings together health plan, health system and healthcare innovation leaders to share practical examples of what is working — and how others can apply and scale those ideas.
Bright Spots Ventures creates healthcare content, executive communities, private peer discussions and go-to-market programs designed to accelerate meaningful change.
Learn more: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/
Subscribe for more conversations with Medicare Advantage, Stars, quality, health plan and healthcare leaders.
Episode Description: In this episode, Atlantic Health System, Intermountain Health, and Navina explore how AI is transforming value-based care by boosting financial resilience and improving outcomes.
Learn how these organizations are:
Enhancing risk adjustment and closing care gaps
Reducing administrative burden through AI-augmented workflows
Equipping teams with real-time insights to drive performance under VBC models
From virtual medical assistants to smarter financial planning, this discussion offers actionable strategies for leaders across clinical, operational, and financial roles.
Download the Episode Guide: Summarizing key insights and speaker highlights, this guide is your companion to the discussion. Download it to follow along and take away actionable strategies.
Thank you to Navina for supporting this episode. Navina helps physicians thrive in value-based care with an AI-powered platform that turns data into actionable clinical insights. Learn how they're enabling smarter decisions, better care, and less burnout at www.navina.ai.
How to Engage:
Chat with Us: Share your thoughts with Producer Vekonda Luangaphay at [email protected]
In this Bright Spots in Healthcare episode, host Eric Glazer brings together health plan, provider, and cardiometabolic care leaders to examine a challenge becoming increasingly important to healthcare organizations: how to move beyond identifying high-risk members and determine which risks are actually movable.
The discussion explores what it takes to turn cardiometabolic risk information into action. Across health plans, provider networks, and care models, the conversation looks at how organizations are thinking about clinical strategy, GLP-1s, individualized risk, provider performance, meaningful engagement, care delivery systems, and the operational integration needed to make effective interventions work at scale.
This is a practical discussion for health plan and provider leaders navigating rising cardiometabolic risk, complex treatment decisions, evolving GLP-1 strategies, variable provider performance, and the growing need to demonstrate meaningful clinical and economic outcomes.
Our guests include:
Daniel Knecht, MD, Chief Medical Officer & SVP, EmblemHealth
Thomas Graf, MD, Vice President & Chief Medical Officer, Health Services, Florida Blue
Lisa Shah, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Twin Health
Together, they explore:
How health plans can move beyond identifying high-risk members to understand what is actually driving risk and what may be movable at the individual level
How health plans are approaching GLP-1 strategy, including formulary decisions, clinical criteria, lifestyle support, and the need to keep clinical considerations at the center
How provider networks can identify "pockets of excellence," co-create standards with physicians, and build systems of care that make better performance more reliable
Why successful cardiometabolic programs need to fit into existing clinical, pharmacy, provider, and operational workflows rather than becoming another disconnected solution
This episode offers an inside look at how leading organizations are rethinking cardiometabolic care by asking a more useful question: Where is risk actually movable, what can change it, and what does it take to make that change happen reliably at scale?
Panelist Bios here: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/events/from-high-risk-to-movable-risk-can-health-plans-change-the-cardiometabolic-trajectory/
Download the Episode Guide: Get key takeaways and expert highlights to help you apply lessons from the episode. https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Episode-Guide-Bright-Spots-in-Health-Care-10-01-26.pdf
Key Insights Summary: Find key insights from the discussion, guest takeaways, and detailed moderator notes captured by Eric during the conversation. [Place PDF LINK HERE]
Thank You to Our Episode Partner, Twin HealthTwin Health is focused on helping people improve their metabolic health through a highly personalized approach that combines technology, clinical support, and individual health data.
The company's approach reflects several themes explored throughout this episode, including the importance of understanding what is driving risk at the individual level, distinguishing meaningful engagement from activity, and measuring outcomes that go beyond a single clinical metric.
The conversation also highlights a broader challenge for health plans: identifying the interventions most likely to change a member's trajectory and integrating those interventions into a model of care that can support sustained improvement over time.
To learn more about Twin Health, visit TwinHealth.com
Schedule a Meeting with Twin HealthTo explore how Twin Health can help your organization approach cardiometabolic health through a more personalized, data-driven model, reach out to show producer Vekonda Luangaphay at [email protected] to schedule a conversation with the Twin Health team.
About Bright Spots Ventures:
Bright Spots Ventures is a healthcare strategy and engagement company that creates content, communities, and connections to accelerate innovation.
We help healthcare leaders discover what's working, and how to scale it. By bringing together health plan, hospital, and solution leaders, we facilitate the exchange of ideas that lead to measurable impact. Through our podcast, executive councils, private events, and go-to-market strategy work, we surface and amplify the "bright spots" in healthcare, proven innovations others can learn from and replicate. At our core, we exist to create trusted relationships that make real progress possible. Visit our website at www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com.
How existing knowledge about returning members can support action before the first HEDIS results arrive
How CDPHP uses natural language processing to reduce clinical review time while expanding the number of measures reviewed
What it takes to identify time-sensitive member events, coordinate follow-up and reduce duplicate outreach
Why addressing a member's immediate need can build the trust required for future engagement
How community relationships and member feedback help plans understand why care is not happening
How benefit communications can help resolve questions before changes disrupt care or increase service demand
MedOrion's report, Removing the Blindspot: Making HOS and CAHPS the Advantage, explores how Medicare Advantage plans can build a more coordinated approach to member engagement across the year.
The report examines:
HOS and CAHPS strategy
Harder-to-engage Medicare Advantage members
Earlier clinical information
Member barriers including access, transportation, confusion and trust
Annual Notices of Change
Annual wellness visits
Next-best-action strategies
Governance across Stars, quality and member engagement
How plans can make limited resources go further
To request a copy, contact Nicole Roberts at [email protected].
About MedOrionMedOrion combines technology with hands-on expertise to help health plans improve Medicare Advantage, Stars, HEDIS and quality performance with limited resources.
Its approach helps plans determine where additional engagement can make a difference, where it may not be needed, and how to turn those decisions into action.
Learn more: https://medorion.com/
Connect With MedOrionTo explore how MedOrion can help your team prioritize engagement resources and build a more coordinated approach to Stars and quality performance, contact Nicole Roberts at [email protected] to schedule a conversation with a senior MedOrion leader.
Panelist Bioshttps://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/events/from-chart-chase-to-competitive-advantage-the-2027-medicare-advantage-playbook/
About Bright Spots in Healthcare
Bright Spots in Healthcare brings together health plan, health system and healthcare innovation leaders to share practical examples of what is working — and how others can apply and scale those ideas.
Bright Spots Ventures creates healthcare content, executive communities, private peer discussions and go-to-market programs designed to accelerate meaningful change.
Learn more: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/
Subscribe for more conversations with Medicare Advantage, Stars, quality, health plan and healthcare leaders.
In this Bright Spots in Healthcare episode, host Eric Glazer brings together an all-star panel of leaders who are reshaping the future of Medicaid and social care.
Our guests include:
Vanita Pindolia, Vice President, Medicare Star Ratings, Emergent Holdings (BlueCross BlueShield Michigan)
Jason Merola, MD, Chief Medical Officer, MVP Health Care
Charlotta Eriksson, Lead Director, National VBC Partnerships (Specialty), Aetna
Mary O'Connor, MD, Chief Medical Officer & Co-Founder, Vori
Together, they explore:
How Medicare Advantage plans are embedding Stars, CAHPS, and adherence metrics directly into provider contracts to drive accountability, improve quality, and sustain year-over-year performance gains.
How payers like Aetna are expanding value-based care into specialty domains—from CKD and oncology to musculoskeletal and cardiology—by partnering with specialty-aligned organizations rather than converting individual specialists to risk models.
How MVP Health Care is designing hybrid incentive structures that reward specialists for closing quality gaps and improving outcomes, without requiring full downside risk.
Why MSK care is becoming pivotal to Stars success, as physical and mental health measures grow in weight through 2027, and how holistic, physician-led models are improving activity, satisfaction, and cost savings simultaneously.
How digital-first specialty networks are solving access challenges, reducing "ghost network" exposure, and creating new opportunities for plans to meet CMS adequacy standards while improving the member experience.
How collaboration across utilization management, Stars, and member experience teams helps avoid trade-offs, ensuring that cost controls don't come at the expense of satisfaction or CAHPS performance.
Panelist Bios: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/events/stars-savings-and-satisfaction-unlocking-msk-and-specialty-care-strategies-for-medicare-advantage-success/
Download the Episode Guide: Get key takeaways and expert highlights to help you apply lessons from the episode. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a_rX23Ev5VRrJKqb8_UwAYBd9tUBIfWA/view?usp=sharing
Resources:
Maximizing 2026 Medicare Advantage Performance with Physician-Led MSK Care This report outlines how Vori's physician-led, virtual-first musculoskeletal (MSK) model helps Medicare Advantage plans:Improve up to 12 Star measures across preventive care, chronic condition management, and member experience
Deliver faster access to care—appointments available within 48 hours
Enhance outcomes for pain, fall prevention, and osteoporosis care while achieving an NPS of 87
Align with the new 2026 Star measures for Improving and Maintaining Physical and Mental Health
To request your copy, email [email protected].
Clinical Quality Performance of Value-Based and Fee-for-Service Models for Medicare Advantage: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2839238 This JAMA Health Forum article compares clinical quality outcomes for Medicare Advantage patients whose care is delivered under value-based payment (VBP) models versus traditional fee-for-service (FFS). It finds that VBP arrangements, especially those with two-sided financial risk—in general are associated with better performance on standardized clinical quality measures than FFS.
Thank you to our Episode Partner, Vori:
Vori partners with health plans and providers to improve musculoskeletal (MSK) care through data-driven, physician-led solutions. Their approach helps reduce unnecessary surgeries, improve recovery outcomes, and enhance patient satisfaction—supporting plans in achieving better Stars performance and overall member experience. To learn more, visit vorihealth.com.
Schedule a meeting with Mary O'Connor Chief Medical Officer, Vori: To dive deeper into how Vori can help your plan improve outcomes, reduce costs, and strengthen Medicare Advantage Star Ratings,or to schedule a meeting with Mary O'Connor. Reach out to [email protected] to schedule the meeting.
About Bright Spots Ventures:
Bright Spots Ventures is a healthcare strategy and engagement company that creates content, communities, and connections to accelerate innovation.
We help healthcare leaders discover what's working, and how to scale it. By bringing together health plan, hospital, and solution leaders, we facilitate the exchange of ideas that lead to measurable impact. Through our podcast, executive councils, private events, and go-to-market strategy work, we surface and amplify the "bright spots" in healthcare, proven innovations others can learn from and replicate. At our core, we exist to create trusted relationships that make real progress possible. Visit our website at www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com.
Healthcare doesn't have a shortage of good ideas. The harder problem is turning what works into the way care is actually delivered.
In this episode of Bright Spots in Healthcare, Eric Glazer sits down with Dr. Thomas Balcezak, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Yale New Haven Health, to explore why proven ideas can take years to become everyday practice, and what healthcare leaders can do differently.
Dr. Balcezak shares how Yale New Haven is using more than 2,500 Care Signature pathways to bring current clinical guidance directly into physician workflows, reduce unwanted variation, and improve outcomes, efficiency and equity.
He also reflects on an early-career experience in Tanzania that shaped how he thinks about positive deviance: finding people or teams achieving exceptional results under the same constraints as everyone else, understanding what they do differently, and spreading it.
The conversation also explores the changing economics of physician practice, what health systems often misunderstand about physician employment, and how technologies such as ambient documentation can reduce administrative burden when implemented well.
In this episode:Why healthcare struggles to close the gap between what works and what actually happens
How Yale New Haven is scaling Care Signature across clinical workflows
What positive deviance can teach leaders about innovation
How physician practice models are changing
What Yale has learned from ambient documentation
Why frontline teams may hold the key to scaling what works
Referenced Research: JAMA Network Open: Hospital System Acquisition of Physician Practices https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2850132 About Dr. Thomas Balcezak: Thomas J. Balcezak, MD, MPH, is Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer for Yale New Haven Health. In this position, Dr. Balcezak focuses on enhancing the provision of reliably safe, patient-centered, and cost-effective care of the highest quality. Over the course of his career, he has transformed the clinical enterprise around the core precepts of High Reliability, aligned operational and clinical care processes across the growing geographies of Yale New Haven Health, and built an exceptional team dedicated to accelerating the creation of a signature of care across the academic health system. About Bright Spots Ventures
Bright Spots Ventures helps healthcare leaders discover what's working—and how to scale it.
Through our podcast, executive councils, private events, and strategic advisory work, we bring together health plan, provider, and healthcare innovation leaders to exchange practical ideas that improve care, lower costs, and accelerate innovation.
Learn more: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com
Artificial intelligence is no longer just a buzzword, it's a practical tool transforming how healthcare organizations prepare for the future. From evaluating and pricing risk with greater accuracy to identifying rising-risk members and strengthening long-term financial strategies, AI is reshaping the very foundations of forecasting in healthcare.
In this episode, leaders from Florida Blue, Premera Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California, and Prealize Health share how they're applying AI across actuarial, clinical, and data science domains to optimize decisions, improve outcomes, and drive organizational sustainability.
In this episode, you'll learn:
How health plans are evaluating and scaling AI models to improve accuracy in forecasting and underwriting
Real-world examples of AI identifying rising-risk populations and transforming engagement strategies
Why "next best action" models are becoming central to member engagement and population health
How generative AI and workflow optimization are streamlining operations and reducing costs
What it takes to embed AI into financial planning, provider contracting, and long-term ROI strategies
Panelists:
Romilla Batra, MD, MBA, SVP & Chief Medical Officer, Premera Blue Cross
Ratnik Gandhi, Senior Director, AI, Florida Blue
Emily Allred, Senior Director & Actuary, Large Group Pricing, Blue Shield of California
Dean Noble-Tolla, PhD, Chief Product & Analytics Officer, Prealize Health
Download the Episode Guide: Get key takeaways and expert highlights to help you apply lessons from the episode. Download here.
In this episode of Bright Spots in Healthcare, host Eric Glazer brings together Medicare Advantage leaders from Drips, Johns Hopkins Health Plans, MMM Holdings, myPlace Health, and Independent Health to tackle a challenge every plan knows well: what happens when the same member has multiple open needs, and who decides what should happen first?
The conversation moves beyond measure-by-measure outreach to explore how plans can coordinate action around the whole member. Panelists discuss how to weigh Stars, claims cost, risk adjustment, member context, social barriers, provider workflows, and likelihood to act when determining the next best action.
Through practical examples, the group examines how plans are building shared views of the member, connecting plan and provider teams, using technology to recognize moments of influence, and giving frontline teams more room to listen and respond to what members actually need.
Our guests include:
Kathleen Faulk, Chief Strategy Officer, Drips
Brendan Generelli, Director, Medicare Stars & Quality, Johns Hopkins Health Plans
Nilda González, Vice President, Quality Management & Stars, MMM Holdings, LLC
Rob Schreiber, MD, Vice President and National Medical Director of Care Model Strategy, myPlace Health, part of SCAN Group
Amin Serehali, SVP, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Independent Health
Together, they explore:
How plans can prioritize when one member has multiple legitimate care, quality, pharmacy, and risk needs
Why enterprise impact, including claims cost and risk adjustment, can change which gap deserves attention first
How member barriers and personal priorities should shape the next best action
How MMM Holdings uses INNOV-A MD, Smart Profile, and its Office Advantage Quality Program to connect plan and provider workflows
How Independent Health built Member 360 to bring fragmented clinical, pharmacy, utilization, and member information into one actionable view
How plans can use real-time "moments of influence" to reprioritize outreach when a member is most ready to act
Why frontline listening can sometimes create more value than completing every item on a checklist
How more deliberate targeting can improve results while using outreach resources more efficiently
Whether you lead Stars, quality, risk adjustment, analytics, care management, member engagement, or Medicare strategy, this episode offers practical ideas for closing more gaps without creating more noise for members.
Panelist Bios: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/events/one-member-five-open-gaps-how-leading-medicare-advantage-plans-are-coordinating-member-action/
Download the Episode Guide: Get key takeaways and expert highlights to help you apply lessons from the episode. Download guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pZErXDEfncqTI-1yoB3yJAv7_Ox-JiqNJsmKep2OK4o/edit?tab=t.0
Key Insights Summary: Find key insights from the discussion, guest takeaways, and detailed moderator notes captured by Eric during the conversation, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V4mxERrmHf_IEWcUWzfPKwuRlY2dVV21/edit
Thank You to Our Episode Partner, Drips:
Drips helps Medicare Advantage and Medicaid plans turn member conversations into completed actions across annual wellness visits, care gaps, medication adherence, and other priority programs.
By helping plans connect outreach across programs, respond to member context in real time, and focus on the next action a member is most ready to take, Drips supports a more coordinated member journey with fewer disconnected touchpoints and greater follow-through.
Schedule a Meeting with a Senior Leader at Drips:
Interested in learning how health plans are coordinating outreach around the member and turning conversations into completed actions? To connect with Kathleen Faulk or another member of the Drips leadership team, contact show producer Jessica Tenzer at [email protected] to schedule a conversation.
About Bright Spots Ventures:
Bright Spots Ventures is a healthcare strategy and engagement company that creates content, communities, and connections to accelerate innovation.
We help healthcare leaders discover what's working, and how to scale it. By bringing together health plan, hospital, and solution leaders, we facilitate the exchange of ideas that lead to measurable impact. Through our podcast, executive councils, private events, and go-to-market strategy work, we surface and amplify the "bright spots" in healthcare, proven innovations others can learn from and replicate. At our core, we exist to create trusted relationships that make real progress possible. Visit our website at www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com.
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