Panel Highlights FOH Summit 2024: Population Based Healthcare Systems

The panel discussion explored the challenges and opportunities in moving healthcare systems toward population-based, value-driven care. Panelists shared real-world experiences from different countries, highlighting how interdisciplinary partnerships, community integration, financial models, and AI tools can be leveraged to better serve populations.

Moderator: Dr. Kevin Tabb, President and CEO, Beth Israel Lahey Health

Panelists:

Prof. Christoph A. Meier, Director, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Zurich
Dr. Sunny Eappen, President & Chief Executive, The UVM Health Network
Professor Chien Earn Lee, Deputy Group CEO (Regional Health System), SingHealth
Mr. Deon Kotze, Chief Commercial Officer, Discovery Health

Dr. Kevin Tabb opened the session by reflecting on the longstanding focus on population health at healthcare conferences and why, despite two decades of discussions, true transformation has been elusive. He pointed to persistent issues: escalating healthcare costs, suboptimal outcomes, and entrenched fee-for-service models.

He posed the central question to the panel:
In your country, what has helped advance sustainable, risk-based healthcare models, and what continues to hold us back?

Mr. Deon Kotze emphasized the need for healthcare systems to better define and segment the populations they aim to serve, not just focusing on those already engaged with healthcare due to illness, but considering the broader healthy population. He argued that risk-based healthcare often falters because systems lack clear population definitions and emphasized that understanding both healthy and unhealthy groups is essential to delivering equitable, scalable care.

Dr. Sunny Eappen shared Vermont’s bold experiment with a mandatory value-based care model encompassing Medicare and Medicaid populations. Forced to manage total patient costs, with upside and downside risk, providers invested heavily in systems that improved patient management, reduced costs, and enhanced outcomes. He stressed a key lesson: When the payer system changes, healthcare systems adapt. Commercial insurers that did not participate in value-based initiatives continued driving up costs, highlighting the need for universal system alignment to make meaningful progress.

Prof. Chien Earn Lee outlined Singapore’s systematic efforts to embed population health goals across the nation, led by political will and a redesigned funding model. The Ministry of Health assigned clusters of healthcare providers full responsibility for the health of defined geographical populations, regardless of whether individuals sought care.

SingHealth’s model emphasizes:

Place-based, person-centered, and value-driven care
Community collaboration through “Healthier SG Teams”
Capitation-based funding to incentivize preventive care

Professor Lee noted that while much progress has been made, full execution remains a work in progress, particularly in closing data gaps and reaching high-risk, underserved populations.

Professor Christoph A. Meier offered a contrasting view from Switzerland, where healthcare is universally available but remains dominated by fee-for-service payments and fragmented care. Despite high healthcare spending, there is limited integration or risk-based management. Efforts to pilot capitated models are emerging but have yet to create large-scale transformation. Meier pointed out that while social services are strong and community-based, the absence of incentives for integrated healthcare leads to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for population health improvement.

The second half of the discussion shifted focus to how healthcare systems can better partner with community organizations to achieve population health goals.

Mr. Kotze described how Discovery Health engages employers as key community partners, supporting workforce health through insurance, wellness programs, and preventive strategies.

Dr. Eappen shared Vermont’s approach of investing in local farms (through “food as medicine” programs), supporting mental health access outside of emergency rooms, and collaborating closely with state and local governments.

Professor Lee discussed Singapore’s “flow-hold-link” model, ensuring seamless hospital-to-community transitions and embedding social prescribing into care plans through community organizations.

Despite very different models, all panelists agreed: achieving population health goals requires expanding beyond traditional healthcare delivery and partnering across sectors.

Rethinking Success: Healthspan vs. Lifespan

A powerful audience question about life expectancy sparked a deeper reflection on how success in population health should be measured.

Life expectancy alone is not enough, panelists agreed. Health-adjusted life expectancy, years lived in good health, provides a more meaningful metric. Challenges like rising healthcare costs, aging populations, and persistent health disparities were cited as urgent reasons for transformation.

Professor Lee emphasized Singapore’s focus on reducing the 10-year gap between lifespan and healthspan, highlighting the importance of proactive, preventive, and community-embedded models of care.

Learning Across Borders

The panel ended with a reflection on the value of global learning.
Dr. Kevin Tabb pointed out that Future of Health’s strength lies in bringing together diverse healthcare models, and that meaningful progress depends on learning from successes and failures across different countries.

The consensus among the panelists was clear: there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Embedding population health into healthcare systems requires a combination of system-wide incentives, strong leadership, deep community partnerships, and a focus on patient-centered design. With mounting pressures from rising costs, aging populations, and widening health disparities, the urgency for change is growing, and the time for half-measures is over.

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Panel Highlights FOH Summit 2024: Population Based Healthcare Systems

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