Episode Description
Healthcare affordability is the top concern for Americans, and value-based care has been the promised answer for decades. But scaling it across an entire country is a different problem than proving it works.
Dr. Patrick Conway, CEO of Optum, joins host John Marchica, CEO of Darwin Research Group, to discuss what he learned architecting value-based models at CMS and how he is now applying those lessons at national scale, from integrated care in the home to AI-powered clinical tools to making specialty medicines actually affordable for the patients who need them most.
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🎙 ABOUT DR. PATRICK CONWAY
Dr. Patrick Conway, MD, MSc is the Chief Executive Officer of Optum, the health services division of UnitedHealth Group, which generates revenues exceeding $200 billion and serves over 127 million people. He has been with UnitedHealth Group since 2020, having joined as CEO of Optum’s care solutions business before being promoted to CEO of Optum Rx in 2023 and then elevated to CEO of all of Optum in May 2025.
Before joining Optum, Conway served as Deputy Administrator for Innovation and Quality at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from 2011 to 2017, where as the most senior non-political leader at CMS he worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations and is considered one of the driving forces behind the national movement to value-based care. He also served as President and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina before joining Optum. A practicing pediatric hospitalist by training, Conway received his MD with High Honors from Baylor College of Medicine, completed his residency at Boston Children’s Hospital, and earned a Master’s of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
🎙 ABOUT HEALTH CARE ROUNDS
Smart conversations with the people moving health care forward.
Health Care Rounds podcast brings together the leaders changing the future of health care and pharma, from how it's delivered and paid for, to where it's headed. Each episode goes deep on the decisions, innovations, and ideas reshaping the industry from the inside out. Hosted by John Marchica, CEO of Darwin Research Group and a longtime industry insider, every episode has one goal: leave you thinking differently than when you arrived.
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