EP360: How to Deliver Value-Based Care That Meets Value-Based Payment Objectives, With Jeb Dunkelberger

The Operational Playbook for Value-Based Care, With Jeb Dunkelberger. Three Things Providers Must Fix to Actually Deliver on Value-Based Payment Contracts. Episode 360.

Stacey Richter talks with Jeb Dunkelberger, CEO of Sutter Health | Aetna, a full-risk payvider, about what has to change operationally—not just contractually—for a provider organization to actually deliver value-based care once it signs a value-based payment contract.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ Why providers won't switch up their fee-for-service business model unless value-based payments actually reward the value they create

✅ The five clinical-workflow fixes Dunkelberger says are essential: right data at the point of care, generics-first pick lists, easy access to pended orders, empowered medical assistants, and built-in referral management

✅ Why care navigators matter even more when the EHR doesn't support referral navigation on its own

✅ Why aligning physician compensation to organizational goals is a required third leg of the stool, not an optional extra

✅ Why claims data from payers needs to actually reach clinicians at the point of care, not just live in a report

✅ Why changing provider behavior is "an absolute art and science" that technology alone can't solve

WHY THIS MATTERS

Signing a value-based contract doesn't automatically produce value-based care—providers have to rebuild the clinical workflow, add navigation, and realign physician pay, or the incentive changes just sit on paper. Dunkelberger's framework, from a CEO actually running a full-risk payvider, gives provider organizations a concrete operational checklist instead of a vague call to "do better."

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

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00:00 Introduction.

08:36 What must a provider organization consider operationally when incorporating value-based care and value-based payments?

09:44 How can you use perverse incentives to encourage people to do the right thing?

12:25 How should clinical workflows operate to incorporate value-based care?

14:10 "How do you align patients?"

15:52 How should the EHR operate to maximize value-based workflow?

16:52 Why is taking action on claims data and clinical data together important?

20:26 "Have they actually solved the last mile of integrations?"

21:15 "Changing the behavior of a provider is an absolute art and science."

22:57 "We have to do more."

27:09 "That administrative headache … doesn't just end with the insurer."