New York, NY (June 12, 2025) – Pearl Health today released its fourth annual Top 50 Value-Based Care Thinkers report, recognizing healthcare providers, policymakers, technologists, academics, and leaders across disciplines who are driving the healthcare system’s transformation toward value-based care.
“We created this acknowledgement to recognize the individuals who are lighting the path forward,” said Michael Kopko, Co-Founder and CEO of Pearl Health. “Their work reminds us that leadership in healthcare isn’t just about navigating systems — it’s about imagining what’s possible and making it real.”
The 2025 honorees represent a wide range of organizations and disciplines, united by their commitment to building a more sustainable, patient-centered, and outcomes-driven healthcare system. Together, they offer valuable insight into the challenges and opportunities emerging as value-based care becomes an operational imperative.
Pearl’s Top 50 Value-Based Care Thinkers of 2025 includes quotes and insights from healthcare leaders such as: Aneesh Chopra, Chief Strategy Officer at Arcadia and former Chief Technology Officer in the Executive Office of the President of the United States; Michael Chernew, Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School; Sarah Kachur, President & CEO at Illustra Health and Executive Director of Population Analytics, Strategy and Solutions at Johns Hopkins; Arshad Rahim, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, Population Health and Clinically Integrated Network at Mount Sinai Health System; Valinda Rutledge, Executive Vice President at America’s Physician Groups; Sanjay Shetty, President of CenterWell at Humana; and many others.
“Value-Based Care provides a critical response to the complexity of simultaneous technological advancements, population shifts, and economic strain,” said Lacy Heiberger, Chief of Practice Innovation at UVA Physicians Group. “Pearl Health’s Top 50 is a catalyst for innovation, celebrating the power of connecting leaders, creators and visionaries.”
“As a nation, we have tirelessly strived to deliver higher-value care—an existential necessity in an infinite game.,” said Henish Bhansali, Chief Medical Officer at Medical Home Network. “Witnessing my colleagues make bold, principled decisions, I remain optimistic and steadfastly committed to its pursuit.”
“I am humbled to be in a class of ‘out of the box’ thinkers,” said Shawn Armstrong, President of BayCare Plus at BayCare Health System. “BayCare is a successful integrated health system where the investment in the community is paramount to everything we do as leaders. Inherent in this commitment is a bold vision of delivering whole person care which is at the heart of our value-based care commitment to serving the community. Our partnership with Pearl Health has deepened our tech enablement capabilities, which allows our network of clinicians to reach a new plateau for delivering quality patient care.”
In addition to original commentary from this year’s honorees, the 2025 Top 50 Value-Based Care Thinkers report outlines 10 key themes shaping the evolution of value-based care—including provider-led risk models, policy shifts under the new administration, the integration of AI and technology, and the growing implementation challenges facing health systems and physician groups nationwide.
Read more insights in Pearl Health’s Top 50 Value-Based Care Thinkers of 2025: pearlhealth.com/top50vbc
About Pearl Health
Pearl Health is powering the future of healthcare. We help primary care providers and healthcare organizations deliver quality healthcare to the patients who need it most, when they need it most — and get rewarded for keeping patients healthy. Our technology, services, and financial tools enable better, more proactive care, decrease the cost of care across patient panels, and optimize performance in value-based care models for Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage. We are a team of physicians and public health experts, technologists, healthcare innovators, and experienced risk management professionals who believe that primary care providers are the key to addressing our healthcare system’s biggest challenges. Since its founding in 2020, Pearl has expanded to partner with thousands of primary care providers in practices and organizations across 44 states. Our investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Viking Global Investors, AlleyCorp, and Ulysses Management.
Learn more at www.pearlhealth.com.
Pearl Health
Madison Klein
Head of Marketing, Pearl Health
562-310-6219
[email protected]
Pearl Health
Madison Klein
Head of Marketing, Pearl Health
562-310-6219
[email protected]
