The Real Economics of Value Based Care

• Erik Johnson Senior Vice President and National Practice Lead, Value Based Care, Optum
• Lyle Berkowitz, MD Founder and Chairman, KeyCare and Editor-in-Chief, THMT

Is value based care truly aligning incentives — or redistributing financial risk across payers, providers, and patients in ways that compress margins and shift burden? Is telehealth a costsaving lever under properly structured risk contracts — or perceived as a margin threat?

At a time when value based care dominates policy rhetoric, this episode moves past theory and into financial reality. This discussion directly examines whether value based care is delivering on its economic promise — or simply reshuffling financial risk across the system.

This episode also addresses the deeper economic tension beneath the surface: Who wins, who loses, and who is subsidizing whom?