Healthcare affordability is the top concern for Americans, and value-based care has been the promised answer for decades. But scaling it across an entire country is a different problem than proving it works.

Dr. Patrick Conway, CEO of Optum, joins host John Marchica, CEO of Darwin Research Group, to discuss what he learned architecting value-based models at CMS and how he is now applying those lessons at national scale, from integrated care in the home to AI-powered clinical tools to making specialty medicines actually affordable for the patients who need them most.

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🎙 ABOUT DR. PATRICK CONWAY
Dr. Patrick Conway, MD, MSc is the Chief Executive Officer of Optum, the health services division of UnitedHealth Group, which generates revenues exceeding $200 billion and serves over 127 million people. He has been with UnitedHealth Group since 2020, having joined as CEO of Optum’s care solutions business before being promoted to CEO of Optum Rx in 2023 and then elevated to CEO of all of Optum in May 2025.

Before joining Optum, Conway served as Deputy Administrator for Innovation and Quality at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from 2011 to 2017, where as the most senior non-political leader at CMS he worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations and is considered one of the driving forces behind the national movement to value-based care. He also served as President and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina before joining Optum. A practicing pediatric hospitalist by training, Conway received his MD with High Honors from Baylor College of Medicine, completed his residency at Boston Children’s Hospital, and earned a Master’s of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

🎙 ABOUT HEALTH CARE ROUNDS
Smart conversations with the people moving health care forward.

Health Care Rounds podcast brings together the leaders changing the future of health care and pharma, from how it's delivered and paid for, to where it's headed. Each episode goes deep on the decisions, innovations, and ideas reshaping the industry from the inside out. Hosted by John Marchica, CEO of Darwin Research Group and a longtime industry insider, every episode has one goal: leave you thinking differently than when you arrived.

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CONNECT WITH US:

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⚙️ Health Care Rounds is produced by Grippi Media: Healthcare Marketing & Media Consulting.

There's a wide gap between how medical breakthroughs get announced and what they actually do for patients. Few people have spent as much time inside that gap as Mary Roach, the author of eight New York Times bestsellers, including REPLACEABLE YOU: Adventures in Human Anatomy and STIFF: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.

Mary has spent years reporting on medical innovation and tracing the often complicated journey from scientific breakthrough to real-world impact on patients. More often than not, it’s a journey that’s far messier than the hype would have you believe.

In this episode, host John Marchica sits down with Mary to pull apart the gap between how innovation gets sold and what it really does for patients, and why the flashiest technology and the biggest gains in patient outcomes are so often two different things.

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🎙 ABOUT MARY ROACH
Mary Roach is the author of eight New York Times bestsellers, including STIFF: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers; GULP: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, FUZZ: When Nature Breaks the Law and PACKING FOR MARS: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. Her new book, REPLACEABLE YOU: Adventures in Human Anatomy, debuts in September 2025. Mary's books have been published in 21 languages, and her second book, SPOOK, was a New York Times Notable Book. Mary has written for National Geographic, Wired, The New York Times Magazine, and the Journal of Clinical Anatomy, among others. She was a guest editor of the Best American Science and Nature Writing series and an Osher Fellow with the San Francisco Exploratorium and serves as an advisor for Orion and Undark magazines. She has been a finalist for the Royal Society's Winton Prize and a winner of the American Engineering Societies' Engineering Journalism Award, in a category for which, let's be honest, she was the sole entrant.

🎙 ABOUT HEALTH CARE ROUNDS
Smart conversations with the people moving health care forward.

Health Care Rounds podcast brings together the leaders changing the future of health care and pharma, from how it's delivered and paid for, to where it's headed. Each episode goes deep on the decisions, innovations, and ideas reshaping the industry from the inside out. Hosted by John Marchica, CEO of Darwin Research Group and a longtime industry insider, every episode has one goal: leave you thinking differently than when you arrived.

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CONNECT WITH US:

🌐 Visit us on the web

🌐 Follow Health Care Rounds on LinkedIn

🌐 Follow Darwin Research Group on LinkedIn

📺 Watch Health Care Rounds on YouTube

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts

🎧 Listen on Spotify

⚙️ Health Care Rounds is produced by Grippi Media: Healthcare Marketing & Media Consulting.

More than 70 million Americans are covered by Medicaid, and the people with the most complex needs, those juggling mental illness, housing insecurity, and chronic disease simultaneously, are the ones the traditional health care system is least equipped to reach.

Dr. Toyin Ajayi, Co-Founder and CEO, and Mike Roaldi, President of Cityblock Health, join host John Marchica to break down how a trust-first, interdisciplinary care model is producing measurable outcomes for over 100,000 Medicaid and dual-eligible members, and why value-based care may be more essential than ever as federal Medicaid policy undergoes some of its most significant changes in decades.

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🎙 ABOUT DR. TOYIN AJAYI
Dr. Toyin Ajayi is co-founder and CEO of Cityblock, a value-based healthcare provider serving Medicaid and dually eligible beneficiaries in underserved communities through integrated medical, behavioral health, and social care.

Previously, she served as Chief Medical Officer of Commonwealth Care Alliance, where she led clinical operations and care delivery innovation. Dr. Ajayi has been recognized by Modern Healthcare, STAT, and the Aspen Institute, and serves on the Board of Directors of Evolent Health and the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Health Advisers.

She earned degrees from Stanford University, the University of Cambridge, and King’s College London School of Medicine. Board certified in Family Medicine, she continues to practice primary care with a focus on patients with complex needs.

🎙 ABOUT MIKE ROALDI
Mike's career has spanned both legal and healthcare leadership roles, starting as a commercial litigator before joining UnitedHealth Group as National Vice President of Medicaid Policy and Product. He went on to serve as CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio, then as Chief Transformation Officer and President of Government Programs for Optum BH Solutions, and later as Chief Growth Officer and SVP of Growth and Product at UnitedHealth Community and State. In 2024, he joined Cityblock as President to help drive the company's next phase of growth.

Mike holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, a JD from Notre Dame Law School, and attended an Executive Education Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

🎙 ABOUT HEALTH CARE ROUNDS
Smart conversations with the people moving health care forward.

Health Care Rounds podcast brings together the leaders changing the future of health care and pharma, from how it's delivered and paid for, to where it's headed. Each episode goes deep on the decisions, innovations, and ideas reshaping the industry from the inside out. Hosted by John Marchica, CEO of Darwin Research Group and a longtime industry insider, every episode has one goal: leave you thinking differently than when you arrived.

===

CONNECT WITH US:

🌐 Visit us on the web

🌐 Follow Health Care Rounds on LinkedIn

🌐 Follow Darwin Research Group on LinkedIn

📺 Watch Health Care Rounds on YouTube

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts

🎧 Listen on Spotify

⚙️ Health Care Rounds is produced by Grippi Media: Healthcare Marketing & Media Consulting.