Value Based Care Advisory (VBCA) Podcast

About Value Based Care Advisory (VBCA) Podcast

The VBCA Podcast is a solution-focused platform dedicated to advancing the transformation of healthcare through value-based care (VBC) models. Our mission is to break down complex healthcare topics into accessible, actionable insights for leaders, entrepreneurs, engaged consumers, and anyone passionate about meaningful change in healthcare. By challenging the healthcare industrial complex, we provide tools, strategies, and expert perspectives that empower our listeners to navigate and accelerate the shift toward better outcomes, lower costs, and improved patient experiences. Each episode delivers thought-provoking discussions and practical advice from industry experts, spotlighting innovative approaches to healthcare reform and highlighting voices that are often overlooked in traditional dialogues. Whether you're a healthcare executive, provider, payer, policy influencer, entrepreneur, or informed patient, we aim to inspire new ideas and support you in driving transformation in the healthcare space. Powered by Carenodes.

Publisher

Carenodes

Category

business · health & fitness · news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

5 Jun 2021

Latest episode

20 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

28 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   20 Sept 2026

   She Built a Peer Mentorship Program to End Youth Loneliness

   Youth Loneliness & Chronic Conditions: The Shared Strength Project Guest: Esha Mittal, Founder, The Shared Strength Project Expert Words: Todd May, MD, Vice President & Medical Director, Health Net Host: Alex Yarijanian Episode Summary One in three young people in the U.S. live with a chronic condition, according to the National Library of Medicine — yet almost none of the funding, research, or attention going toward senior loneliness has followed youth loneliness into the room. Esha Mittal knows the gap firsthand. Diagnosed with a chronic condition in the fall of her freshman year of high school, she found that the diagnosis-based support groups meant to help her instead became what she calls "a pity party" — rooms where the illness was the only thing anyone had in common. In November 2025, Esha launched The Shared Strength Project, a mentorship program that pairs youth and young adults living with chronic conditions with mentors matched by shared interest, not shared diagnosis. The model grew directly out of her own experience at UCSF's Wellness Center for Youth and Young Adults with Chronic Conditions, where a nurse practitioner and social worker treated her as a whole person before they ever discussed her symptoms — and where she met the mentor whose own story became the blueprint for the project. In this episode, Esha walks through what that first isolating year actually felt like, why interest-based pairing works where diagnosis-based support groups didn't, and how a trauma-informed curriculum — built with a licensed social worker — structures every mentor meeting. We also hear from Todd May, MD, Vice President and Medical Director at Health Net, on why "youth loneliness" as a term hasn't yet made it into payer boardroom conversations — even as youth mental health broadly has. Esha will be speaking at Behavioral Health Tech 2026 in Nashville (September 22–24, Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center) on a panel about designing tools youth and young adults will actually use. Timestamps 00:00 — Cold open: the funding gap between senior and youth loneliness 01:39 — Esha's diagnosis, freshman year of high school 03:24 — "They did not get it" — the friend-group disconnect 04:56 — Why the first (diagnosis-matched) support group made things worse, not better 07:20 — Launching The Shared Strength Project (November 2025) and the interest-based pairing model 09:19 — Todd May, MD (Health Net) on why youth loneliness hasn't reached payer conversations yet 10:33 — The UCSF Wellness Center partnership and the mentor whose story inspired the project 13:20 — Where to find Esha and what she's looking for next 13:54 — BHT2026 — Esha's panel on designing tools for youth and young adults Key Quotes Esha Mittal, on the diagnosis-matched support group: "Once we started talking about our chronic condition, it felt like that was all we could talk about. And it just became like a pity party." Esha Mittal, on the design principle behind The Shared Strength Project: "I chose to pair people up based on shared interest because... it would have been so valuable for me to understand myself again outside of my illness." Todd May, MD, on payer awareness of youth loneliness: "That term hasn't actually come up... The loneliness piece is just not getting a lot of airplay." Guest-cited statistics (attributed to source) Per the National Library of Medicine, as cited by Esha Mittal: one in three young people in the U.S. live with a chronic condition, and 20 million American children with serious or chronic conditions face a higher risk of isolation, bullying, and mood disorders. Where to find Esha Esha is currently reachable via LinkedIn and is building out a project website. She's looking for opportunities to scale The Shared Strength Project beyond California. Upcoming Catch Esha Mittal at Behavioral Health Tech 2026 — September 22–24, 2026, Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, Nashville, TN. Value-Based Care Advisory Podcast | vbcapodcast.com (https://vbcapodcast.com/) Companies mentioned in this episode: Shared Strengths Project UCSF Wellness Center for Youth and Young Adults with Chronic Conditions Behavioral Health Tech Conference National Library of Medicine Health Net LinkedIn Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center Value Based Care Advisory podcast Esha Mittal Esha Mittal is a junior at Design Tech High School living with multiple chronic conditions. She founded the Shared Strength Project in 2025, aiming to reduce isolation among youth/young adults through meaningful mentorship. Todd May MD FAAFP Dr. Todd May serves as Vice President Medical Director at Health Net where he provides clinical expertise for the Commercial Team. He is deeply engaged in quality improvement, population health management, health equity, advanced primary care, and implementation of innovative member engagement programs. He also provides key leadership in an innovative multi-payer initiative that promotes Advanced Primary Care in California, and another focused on improving hospital quality. Immediately prior to joining Health Net, Dr. May was a Professor at UCSF for over 20 years. During this tenure, he served as Chief of the Medical Staff and then as Chief Medical Officer at the San Francisco General Hospital campus. He has been practicing family medicine for over 30 years and continues to see patients at a community clinic in Half Moon Bay.

2. 

   31 Aug 2026

   Bonus: 5 Contract Clauses Killing Your Reimbursement

   This bonus episode is the full recording of Alex Yarijanian's HBMA continuing-education webinar. It runs longer than a standard VBCA episode — treat it as a resource, not a highlight reel. Most revenue cycle teams treat denials and underpayments as billing problems. A meaningful share of them are actually contract problems wearing a billing costume — and you can't fix a contract problem at the claims desk. This session walks through the five payer-contract provisions that generate the most downstream billing failures, a three-phase audit framework for finding them before they cost you, and a denial-routing model that keeps contract-based underpayments from getting silently written off in a clinical appeals queue. What you'll learn: Why contract language — not coding errors — is where most systematic underpayment actually starts The five provisions to check first: fee schedule effective dates, carve-outs/exclusions, coordination of benefits, authorization & notification, and timely filing Why "rates effective upon execution by both parties" can quietly cost you weeks of underpaid claims Why vague terms like "experimental" or "time to time" in a contract are a red flag, not boilerplate Why state law — not the payer's internal policy — governs coordination-of-benefits primacy Why retroactive denial of an already-issued authorization is not just bad practice — it's against federal law for government-funded products A three-phase contract audit framework: highest-leakage provisions → highest-volume services → highest-friction appeal/recoupment timelines A three-bucket denial-routing model (clinical / administrative / contract-based) so contract-based underpayments get escalated instead of written off Session outline: Introduction — Alex's background: clinic operations, Cardinal Health/HCA, head negotiator for Humana's West Territories, then founding Carenodes to close the payer/provider information asymmetry. The framing stat — a striking share of providers don't actually know what they're supposed to be paid, and contract language is where the error is born. Provision 1 — Fee schedule effective dates & updates. Provision 2 — Carve-outs & exclusions. Provision 3 — Coordination of benefits. Provision 4 — Authorization & notification. Provision 5 — Timely filing. The three-phase audit framework. Denial routing: clinical vs. administrative vs. contract-based. Close — pick your top two payers, run the checklist, renegotiate. Resources: Contract audit checklist referenced in this session — request it at vbcapodcast.com About the host: Alex Yarijanian is CEO & Founder of Carenodes. He spent seven years managing payer contracting operations for 600+ provider organizations across 48 states, including a prior role as leadership and negotiator for Humana's West Territories contracting and network management team.

3. 

   25 Aug 2026

   Lindsay Clancy: Examining the Healthcare System's Failures

   17 minutes. That's how long Lindsay Clancy's last psychiatric visit lasted — the day before her three children died. Nine prescribers. Two hospitals. A suicide hotline called twice. And allegedly, not one person connecting the dots. Before you listen: This episode discusses allegations from a civil complaint and public criminal-trial testimony only. We do not cover the criminal case, describe what happened to the children, or speculate on Lindsay Clancy's state of mind. None of the allegations below have been proven, and no defendant has been found liable. One named defendant has petitioned for a Massachusetts medical malpractice tribunal — a screening step, not a liability ruling. South Shore Health and the Women & Infants Health Hospitals operator have said they cannot comment on pending litigation; Astor Mental Health has not responded to requests for comment. This is the care coordination failure hiding inside the Lindsay Clancy civil complaint (Norfolk Superior Court, filed January 2026) — postpartum psychiatric care, telehealth psychiatry's blind spots, and the reimbursement incentives nobody wants to talk about. Alex and Jasmine break down what the complaint alleges went wrong in the system, not the person. In this episode: Why access without coordination isn't the same as coordinated care The alleged medication cascade — nine to ten prescriptions, no single clinician alleged to own the regimen A courtroom cross-examination over one comma in a clinical note, and what it says about documentation standards Two crisis hotline contacts that reportedly didn't meet the "emergency" threshold, and why postpartum psychiatric crises fall outside standard screening calibration 14 consecutive telehealth visits during an acute stabilization period — and testimony on what an in-person exam might have caught Where AI can actually help operationally, and where it can't Why reimbursement incentives, not individual clinicians, are the root of this gap Hosted by Alex Yarijanian and Jasmine Singh. #ValueBasedCare #CareCoordination #BehavioralHealth #PostpartumCare #HealthcarePolicy Links referenced in this episode: risewestconference.com (https://risewestconference.com) lindseyclancycase.com (https://lindseyclancycase.com) newbedfordsuicidehotline.com (https://newbedfordsuicidehotline.com) Companies mentioned in this episode: South Shore Health McLean New Bedford

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

45,631

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 49 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

51

Social presence

0

YouTube

85

Engagement

32

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