ABOUT THE STANDARD
By RaeAnn • Founder & CEO, HLTHWORKS
COVER STORY
The Standard / Article 17
THE ECONOMICS OF HEALTHCARE • NO. 17
The Seat Got Harder to Reach – Your Roadmap and Your Board Bio
This blog explores why securing a first corporate board seat has become more challenging and offers a practical roadmap for executives to build board-ready experience, strengthen their board bio, and stand out to nominating committees. It highlights emerging opportunities in AI governance and strategic leadership.
October 2026 • Leadership and Governance
The Economics of Healthcare
A serialized argument, in order. Start at the beginning or jump to any article.
03
The Economics of Health, and the missing Accountability Factor
How more than half a trillion Medicare Advantage dollars move through five sets of hands, and why none is paid for the member’s health span.
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Four capitation structures, who captures the upside, and why revising 2027 budgets and designing 2028 contracts around whole-person care is the real fix.
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From Value-Based Care to Whole-Person Care
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Who Owns Artificial Intelligence?
Ask four executives in the same organization and you will get four answers. Not because they disagree, but because the agenda is attached to people rather than to structures, and the people are moving.
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The Chief Transformation Officer
Healthcare has adopted the title faster than it has defined the job. Four organizations using the same two words mean four different things, and the difference is not stylistic. It follows the margin.
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Medicare Advantage Mass Exit for 2027
The cost curve moved up as the premium factors moved down. Everything else in the Medicare Advantage exits follows from that.
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The Hemsley Turnaround Model
The fourth largest company in the world spent a year deliberately getting smaller. Revenue held flat. Operating earnings rose fifty five percent. Wall Street re-rated it.
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No Surprises, No Ceiling
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AI in Health Plan Member Experience Is a Risky Venture
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Healthcare AI Survey: Deployment Is Outpacing Governance
What 133 Healthcare Companies Reported
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Taking Control of MSK
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The 30 Days Nobody Owns: Why Health Plans Must Redesign Transitions of Care
Why Health Plans Must Take Back Their Role
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The Penalty Moved. The Levers Did Not.
Redesigning Transitions of Care With Your Network and Clinical Partners
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Will AI Lower the Cost of Healthcare?
FROM THE ARCHIVE
Analysis, commentary, and field notes across payer, provider, and policy.
Will AI Lower the Cost of Care?
Access, Quality, and Cost. What the Evidence Actually Shows. By RaeAnn, Founder and Chief Executive…
The Penalty Moved. The Levers Did Not.
Redesigning Transitions of Care With Your Network and Clinical PartnersBy RaeAnn, Founder and Chief Executive…
Taking Control of MSK
Clarity on Process and Value as Prior Authorization Tightens and Costs Accelerate By RaeAnn, Founder…
The 30 Days Nobody Owns: Why Health Plans Must Redesign Transitions of Care
By RaeAnn, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, HLTHWORKS The 30 days after discharge are among…
The Seat Got Harder to Reach – Your Roadmap and Your Board Bio
By RaeAnn, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, HLTHWORKS A first board seat is harder to…
Healthcare AI Survey: Deployment Is Outpacing Governance – What 133 Healthcare Companies Reported
Across health plans, health systems, physician groups, and the vendors serving them, deployment is running…
AI in Health Plan Member Experience Is a Risky Venture
Three regulations already on the books were written on the assumption that member outreach is…
Nothing to Inspect
The compliance function was built to verify that a process was followed. Artificial intelligence produces…
No Surprises, No Ceiling: The Design Flaw in the Law That Worked
Congress removed the patient from the transaction and left the price to arbitration. Six years…
Centene and the Limits of Discipline
A company can do everything the turnaround literature asks of it, three years early and…
The Hemsley Turnaround Model
The fourth largest company in the world spent a year deliberately getting smaller. Revenue held…
Medicare Advantage Mass Exit for 2027
The cost curve moved up as the premium factors moved down. Everything else in the…
The Chief Transformation Officer
Healthcare has adopted the title faster than it has defined the job. Four organizations using…
Who Owns Artificial Intelligence?
Ask four executives in the same organization and you will get four answers. Not because…
From Value-Based Care to Whole-Person Care
Licensed nurses and medical assistants spend 6.1 hours per physician per week entering information into…
The Audit Mandate Comes to Healthcare AI
A single state just made independent AI audits the law. The reach will not stop…
Whole-Person Care: The Benefits Are Already There
We do not need to invent new benefits to protect HealthSpan. We need to stop…
HealthSpan: How We Should Measure a Life
HealthSpan is not the years you are free of disease, because almost no one is.…
Value-Based Care: What It Pays For, Who Wins, and Where to Start Fixing It in 2027
Value-based care was supposed to align the system around outcomes instead of volume. It is…
Welcome to the AI Swamp – AI Doesn’t Create Complexity. Leadership Does.
EXECUTIVE EDITORIAL Healthcare is about to spend billions of dollars on AI while missing the…
Healthcare Isn’t Too Expensive. We’re Designing It Wrong.
Every year, healthcare leaders prepare for another renewal cycle knowing one thing with certainty. Healthcare…
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