Scaling What Works for Better Health - PCC Conference 2025

June 4, 2025 - June 5, 2025

Capital Hilton

Washington, DC

Leaders from across the health care landscape joined the Primary Care Collaborative for compelling conversations exploring how innovative new approaches to primary care delivery and payment may be successfully scaled.

A wide array of health care leaders discussed scaling primary care innovations in diverse settings, from rural to urban communities.

The Conference also featured breakout sessions led by award-winning innovators, focusing on hybrid payment models achieving real-world results.

Day one ended with PCC’s prestigious Barbara Starfield Awards Dinner as we honored those whose innovations have resulted in more investment in primary care and led the field toward achieving quadruple aim results, including whole-person care.

In an exclusive session before the conference, PCC members also joined us on Capitol Hill for an exclusive briefing highlighting how innovators are responding to urgent primary care issues in communities across the nation.

Below is a high-level overview of each Conference session.

Click through for more details about each session.

Day 1

June 4 | 9:30 am - 10:30 am | U.S. Capitol Building, Room HC-8

HILL BRIEFING — Finding the Path to Scale: How Public Policy Can Harness Private Sector Innovation

The PCC 2025 Conference kicked off with a Hill briefing limited to Hill staff and PCC members. The briefing featured remarks from PCC Board Chair and Innovaccer GM Sean Hogan and PCC President and CEO Ann Greiner, both of whom underscored the impressive innovation occurring in primary care, its critical the important role that primary care plays in the American health system – and the many perils it faces, including potential rollbacks to Medicaid.

Featuring:

Ann Greiner

Primary Care Collaborative

Margaret Faso

National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions

Ravi Kavasery

Blue Shield of California

Sean Hogan

Innovaccer

Zenobia Brown

VillageMD

June 4 | 1:00 pm - 1:45 pm | Presidential Ballroom - Capital Hilton

Setting the Foundation: Welcome and Opening Remarks

PCC’s 2025 Conference opened with a video featuring Chente Bryant, a Maryland man who experienced a cascade of major health issues following an accident while working as an independent trucker. In the video, Bryant recounts his experiences recovering from the accident, being diagnosed with a brain tumor and surviving a heart attack – and explains how his primary care team at AbsoluteCare has helped him recover.

Featuring:

Ann Greiner

Primary Care Collaborative

Aruna Nathan

AbsoluteCare

Nadine Doyle

Doyle Strategies

Sean Hogan

Innovaccer

June 4 | 1:45 pm - 3:00 pm | Presidential Ballroom - Capital Hilton

Bright Minds, Quick Connections: Conversations with Leading Voices

In this 75-minute session, participants engaged in three rounds of small-group conversations guided by table hosts. These discussions built meaningful connections, explored how the conference theme applies to their work, and identified what attendees personally want to gain from their conference experience.

Featuring:

Dorothy Siemon

AARP

Nadine Doyle

Doyle Strategies

June 4 | 3:15 pm - 4:00 pm | Presidential Ballroom - Capital Hilton

How Generative AI will Reinvent Primary Care – with Benefits for Patients and Clinicians

VillageMD Co-founder & Chief Medical Officer and PCC Board Member Clive Fields hosted a fireside chat with former Permanente Federation CEO and Stanford University’s Robert Pearl on how generative AI will truly revolutionize primary care, speaking to many of the major themes in Dr. Pearl’s book: Chat GPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.

Featuring:

Clive Fields

VillageMD

Robert Pearl

Stanford University; formerly Permanente Medical Group

June 4 | 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm | Presidential Ballroom - Capital Hilton

Medicare at the Crossroads: Ensuring Primary Care Access

CMS Innovation Chief Strategy Officer Gary Bacher joined PCC’s Ann Greiner on stage for a fireside chat to discuss Medicare’s ongoing and future efforts to bolster primary care. During the conversation, Bacher emphasized that strengthening primary care remains a core goal of the Administration and CMS, pointing to the agency’s recently released strategic direction, which centers prevention as a key goal.

Featuring:

Gary Bacher

CMMI

June 4 | 4:30 pm - 5:00 pm | Presidential Ballroom - Capital Hilton

Review, Preview & Close

American Academy of Pediatrics Chief Executive Officer & Executive Vice President and PCC Board Member Mark Del Monte delivered rousing remarks to close day one of the conference. Del Monte reflected on learnings from the day and underscored the importance of building strong relationships that foster an effective social movement that can effect change. He also urged attendees to champion primary care with new audiences, going beyond traditional allies and industries to build a movement capable of affecting real change.

Featuring:

Mark Del Monte

American Academy of Pediatrics

June 4 | 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm | Presidential Ballroom - Capital Hilton

Barbara Starfield Awards Dinner

At the 2025 Barbara Starfield Awards dinner, the PCC celebrated passionate, outstanding leaders who are helping to improve the nation’s health by advancing and strengthening high-quality primary care. The PCC is pleased to recognize Dr. Allan Goroll with the Barbara Starfield Leadership Award; Barbara Rabson with the Community Leadership Award; Dr. Anna Flattau and Jefferson Health with the Advanced Primary Care Practice Award; and Dawna Ballard, PhD, with the David Meyers Research Award.

Featuring:

Allan H. Goroll

Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)

Anna Flattau

Jefferson Health

Barbra G. Rabson

Massachusetts Health Quality Partners

Dawna Ballard

University of Texas, Austin

Day 2

Plenary

June 5 | 8:35 am - 8:50 am | Presidential Ballroom - Capital Hilton

A Bipartisan Cause: Primary Care on Capitol Hill

Long-time primary care champion Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) opened Day 2 of the conference with a firm commitment to primary care and a call for all attendees to continue advocating for high-quality primary care. Sen. Whitehouse discussed his past support and commitment to primary care—from his efforts to double primary care investment in Rhode Island to championing the Pay PCP’s Act, which would introduce hybrid payments for primary care in Medicare. Whitehouse also stressed the dangers of steep funding reductions for Medicaid, and asked attendees—especially those represented by conservative lawmakers—to call their representatives and urge them to vote against the reconciliation package.

Featuring:

Sheldon Whitehouse

United States Senate

Breakouts - First Sessions

June 5 | 9:05 am - 10:05 am |

BREAKOUT – Mind and Body: Integrating Whole-Person Primary Care

This session explored how innovative programs are making communities healthier by integrating behavioral health and implementing strategies to provide comprehensive, whole-person primary care. Panelists discussed examples of their work in the whole-person primary care space, highlighting how they are measuring success and exploring different approaches to funding these initiatives. They also delved into tackling scale, such as implementing team-based care models.

Featuring:

Aditya Mahalingam-Dhingra

Community Care Cooperative (C3)

Bob Chestnut

Cummins Inc.

Kavitha Reddy

Veterans Health Administration’s Office of Patient-Centered Care and Cultural Transformation

Laura Josh

California Health Care Coalition

June 5 | 9:05 am - 10:05 am |

BREAKOUT – Medicaid at Work: Transforming Care in the Safety Net and Beyond

This panel explored innovative strategies to redesign and scale primary care for Medicaid populations, focusing on sustainability, partnerships and scaling solutions to better serve safety net communities. Panelists also discussed how potential funding reductions could undermine the effectiveness of the Medicaid program. Panelists shared concise summaries of their work, innovations and key insights. The discussion emphasized strategies for embedding and scaling innovative primary care models, harnessing technologies like AI and telehealth, engaging community and non-traditional partners and ensuring long-term sustainability amid shifting policies.

Featuring:

Anoop Raman

AbsoluteCare

Brandon Wilson

Community Catalyst

Emily Feinberg

TEAM UP

John Morgan

Waymark

June 5 | 9:05 am - 10:05 am |

BREAKOUT – Learning from Leadership: Employer Innovators Seeking to Scale

In this session, attendees heard from employer space leaders who are advancing primary care innovation across diverse employers and markets. The discussion centered on how employers are leveraging on-site and near-site care, direct primary care and community-based strategies to scale primary care nationally. Panelists shared their approaches to strengthening primary care, addressing critical challenges and driving meaningful results for patients and employees.

Featuring:

Bryce Heinbaugh

IEN Risk Management Consultants

Laurel Pickering

Gateway Business Health Coalition

Lee Lewis

Health Transformation Alliance

Lowell Fernander

Rocket Companies

June 5 | 9:05 am - 10:05 am |

BREAKOUT – Building Smarter Care: A Partnership Between Employers and Payers

Panelists explored how each of the organizations is helping advance efforts in local markets across the country – including efforts to align payers in Washington and California. These leading employers and health plans understand that individualized solutions do not work for primary care, so they are aligning payment models, measures and even IT platforms to better support primary care.

Featuring:

Heather Urban

Aetna

Joe Castiglione

Blue Shield of California

Judy Zerzan-Thul

Washington State Health Care Authority

Kate Goodrich

Humana

Breakouts - Second Sessions

June 5 | 10:20 am - 11:20 am |

BREAKOUT – Policy Progress: Washington DC’s Recent and Future Efforts to Strengthen Primary Care

PCC Policy Director Larry McNeely was joined by Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) Health Policy Director Max Seltzer, NAACOS Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Aisha Pittman and Platform Government Strategies Founder Andrew Schwab for a discussion on recent efforts by Congress, the Biden Administration and the Trump Administration to bolster primary care. The panel explored how PCC and NAACOS were able to convince CMS to develop and launch the ACO PC Flex model; the importance of strengthening primary care funding; ongoing efforts to reform Medicare payment; and strategies for strengthening rural and independent practices. Panelists also addressed the potential impact of major reductions in Medicaid funding and the challenges that could pose to primary care.

Featuring:

Aisha Pittman

National Association of Affordable Care Organizations (NAACOS)

Andrew Schwab

Platform Government Strategies

Larry McNeely II

Primary Care Collaborative

Max Seltzer

Office of Senator Roger Marshall

June 5 | 10:20 am - 11:20 am |

BREAKOUT – Aging with Confidence: Innovations in Senior-Focused Primary Care

Many primary care organizations contracting with Medicare Advantage plans have redesigned care delivery under capitated payment arrangements, with some expanding into underserved areas. Panelists discussed how innovations in senior-focused primary care are benefiting the over 62 million Americans aged 65 and older and promising results from early research.

Featuring:

Efrat LaMandre

Duet

Marisa Rogers

Oak Street Health

Susan Edgman-Levitan

John D Stoekle Center for Primary Care Innovation, Massachusetts General Hospital

Vivek Garg

Humana

Wayne Dysinger

Blues Zone Health

June 5 | 10:20 am - 11:20 am |

BREAKOUT – Local Laboratories: How States and Communities are Leading the Charge

With 22 states working to measure and increase primary care spending, attendees heard how these leaders are advancing strategies to improve health outcomes and scale effective models. Panelists shared goals, strategies, successes and challenges.

Featuring:

Alicia Berkemeyer

Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield

Beth Bortz

Virginia Center for Health Innovation

Karen Johnson

American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)

Michael Fine

Primary Care for All Americans

Plenary

June 5 | 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm | Presidential Ballroom - Capital Hilton

Innovation Showcase

At the innovation showcase, the PCC highlighted four (4) organizations who are implementing real-world, innovative approaches that are strengthening and bolstering primary care. Presenters were chosen from a wide collection of submissions by PCC members NCQA and URAC. All four presentations were recognized by the PCC with awards recognizing their role as innovators. The innovators included: Dr. John Morgan from Waymark; Ramsey Abdallah from Northwell Health; Dr. Jacob Mirsky from the Massachusetts General Hospital Healthy Lifestyle Program; and Daniel Kim from Adventist Health.

Featuring:

Bob Chestnut

Cummins Inc.

Sarah Coombs

The National Partnership for Women and Families

Sean Hogan

Innovaccer

June 5 | 2:15 pm - 2:45 pm | Presidential Ballroom - Capital Hilton

How Change Happens

Social change expert and Georgetown Professor Leslie Crutchfield presented on how different social movements over the past decades have effected changes in Washington. Drawing from the push for marriage equality to Second Amendment advocates, Crutchfield noted the importance of an advocacy approach that combined grassroots, community-based advocacy paired with efforts on Capitol Hill and in Washington.

Featuring:

Leslie Crutchfield

Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business

Lisa Gables

American Academy of PAs

June 5 | 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm | Presidential Ballroom - Capital Hilton

Thoughts into Action: Taking Up the Challenge

PCC President and CEO Ann Greiner led a panel discussion of PCC Members about the importance of broad stakeholder engagement when advocating for primary care. Panelists discussed why they their organizations work across stakeholder groups to further change, including at the PCC table and through the PCC’s Better Health – NOW campaign. They also delved into why changing payment policy is so critical to shift the health care system to health and wellness.

Featuring:

Amy Milewski

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

Ann Greiner

Primary Care Collaborative

Anthony Wright

Families USA

Christina Bell

National Alliance on Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions

Jason Goldman

American College of Physicians

June 5 | 4:20 pm - 5:00 pm | Presidential Ballroom - Capital Hilton

Closing Keynote and Wrap Up

Dr. Joe Betancourt, President of the Commonwealth Fund and a primary care clinician, closed out the event with inspiring remarks recognizing the work of PCC’s membership and urging PCC and its members to continue educating policymakers on the importance of primary care. Dr. Betancourt reemphasized the central role that primary care plays in the health system, discussed his own personal experiences as a primary care clinician and encouraged attendees to continue building a broad-based movement that provides better support and funding for primary care.

Featuring: