Registration is open. Five sessions, one sign-up, Oct 14 through Nov 18. Save your seat
APM Connect | Boot Camp
Oct 14 – Nov 18, 2026/ Wednesdays, 12:00–1:00 PM CT/ Virtual

Downside Risk Bootcamp

Taking On Risk in Episodes

Preparing for success in episode-based payment models.

TEAM is here. ASM is coming. CJR-X is waiting. ACOs already hold bundle data, and LEAD opens the door to CARA. This series walks a cross-functional team through the whole arc of an episode: the economics, the data, the contracts, and the care model, with the operators, attorneys, actuaries, and clinicians who have already done it.

One registration covers all five sessions.

Sessions
4 core + 1 open round table
Cadence
Wednesdays, 12–1 PM CT
Recordings
Posted on demand for members
Scope
Model-agnostic

The sessions

Built in sequence, each session assumes the last

Session 01
Oct 14 Wednesday 12:00–1:00 PM CT

Why This Matters and What Has Actually Worked

The level-set and the urgency case. Everyone who attends the rest of the series should leave this session speaking the same language.

  • Episode payment in plain terms: target price, reconstruction, quality adjustment, and the difference between a reconciliation payment and a repayment.
  • VBC strategy 101 from the physician's seat: what has to be settled before go-live.
  • How to engage physicians from day one, what can reasonably be asked of them, and what they find most frustrating about these models.
  • What transfers from MSSP into the condition-specific models, and what a working definition of “specialist engagement” actually looks like.
  • Working with emergency medicine on avoidable ED visits and readmissions, plus where the well-established guideline conditions are headed next.
Discipline lead
APM Connect: VBC operator + physician engagement
  • Reyann Davis Reyann Davis
  • BS Dr. Ben Schwartz
  • CM Dr. Chad Mather

One further physician panelist to be announced.

Session 02
Oct 21 Wednesday 12:00–1:00 PM CT

Implementing: Provider Arrangements and Legal Guardrails

Implementation and legal, merged on purpose, because the care redesign and the contract that pays for it get built at the same table.

  • The post-acute question: preferred networks, SNF length of stay, home-first pathways.
  • Aligning surgeons and specialists: what actually changes practice, and what gainsharing can and cannot buy.
  • Structuring the arrangements: sharing arrangements, permitted participants, distribution caps, documentation.
  • The waivers that matter (SNF three-day, telehealth, post-discharge home visits), plus beneficiary incentives.
  • Stark, Anti-Kickback, and CMP: where model waivers protect you and where they stop, plus the VBE structure as an alternative path.
Discipline lead
Bass, Berry & Sims + Pinnacle Healthcare Consulting
  • JB Justin K. Brown, JD
  • Anthony Long Anthony Long, MBA
  • John P. Carter John P. Carter

Round-table format. The presenters put the questions to each other.

Session 03
Nov 4 Wednesday 12:00–1:00 PM CT

Developing the Strategy: Data and Where to Move the Needle

For the people who have the data files open and do not know which number to chase first.

  • What CMS gives you versus what you actually need, and how to close that gap.
  • Decomposing an episode: index cost, post-acute, readmissions, physician services, implants and supplies.
  • Benchmarks and risk adjustment: how target prices get built, and what that means for where savings are even possible.
  • Finding the variation that is yours to move: surgeon-level, DRG-level, discharge-disposition-level.
  • Picking two or three targets instead of twelve, and sizing opportunity against difficulty.
Discipline lead
Alliant Value-Based Healthcare Solutions: actuarial & analytics
  • Tara Lagu, MD, MPH Tara Lagu, MD, MPH
  • BM Brian Machut, FSA

Session moderator to be confirmed.

Session 04
Nov 11 Wednesday 12:00–1:00 PM CT

Executing the Episode: Coordination, Quality, Post-Acute, and Risk Coding

The operating layer: who calls the patient, who owns escalation, and where the episode is actually won or lost.

  • The 30-day window under TEAM versus 90 days under CJR-X, and why the longer tail changes staffing, not just tracking.
  • A touchpoint cadence that works: discharge call in days 1–3, follow-up appointment confirmed rather than merely scheduled, medication access check, day-7 and day-30 barrier calls.
  • Who owns escalation, and what a clean handoff to the care team looks like.
  • Discharge disposition as the single largest controllable variable in most episodes, including home-first pathways and who is genuinely safe for them.
  • SNF length of stay, preferred network design, and readmission prevention in the post-acute setting.
  • How the composite quality score is really built, from raw measure to scaled score to episode weighting, and why a 50-point composite means you keep only half your upside.
Discipline lead
CommonSpirit Health: quality & care management
  • Helena Moon, MD Helena Moon, MD

Additional care-management speakers to be announced.

Session 05
Nov 18 Wednesday 12:00–1:00 PM CT

The ACO Overlay, Plus Open Round Table

How episodes sit inside a total-cost-of-care world, then the floor opens. Bring the question you did not want to ask in front of your board.

  • Where episode and ACO incentives reinforce each other, and where they collide.
  • Recap across all four disciplines, then open Q&A with the full faculty.
Discipline lead
ACO veteran + full faculty panel

Presenters

Faculty across four disciplines

Reyann Davis

Reyann Davis

Co-Founder & CEO, APM Connect and Value Health Innovations

Reyann leads APM Connect, the learning community built for organizations in mandatory CMS episode and value-based payment models, and consults with ACOs and MSSP participants through Value Health Innovations. She opens the series with the economics of an episode in plain terms.

Session 01Host
JB

Justin K. Brown, JD

Member, Bass, Berry & Sims

Justin is a healthcare regulatory attorney who advises health systems and physician enterprises on collaborative arrangements, gainsharing, and fraud and abuse compliance under episode payment. He originated this series and has taught the arrangements-and-guardrails material twice already, most recently for the Care Continuum Alliance.

Session 02Legal guardrails
Anthony Long

Anthony Long, MBA, FACHE, FACCA, CAAMA

Partner, Pinnacle Healthcare Consulting

Anthony brings more than 30 years in healthcare, previously as a Director of Health Strategy at Navigant Consulting, EVP of Paragon Health, and president of multiple heart hospitals and centers. He has led hospital–physician and practice alignments, private equity acquisitions, and service line planning for large systems, and is a Fellow and past president of the American College of Cardiovascular Administrators.

Session 02Alignment & arrangements
John P. Carter

John P. Carter, MBA, MS, FACHE, FACHDM

Brand Ambassador & Business Development Director, The Pinnacle Family of Companies

John led network operations for one of North Texas's largest IPAs, overseeing payor contracting, physician engagement, and value-based care programs for 650+ physicians across 250+ practices. A Fellow of ACHE and the American College of Health Data Management, he serves on the board of the Texas Association of Accountable Care Organizations and brings fourteen years of military service to how he runs a transformation.

Session 02Physician engagement
Tara Lagu, MD, MPH

Tara Lagu, MD, MPH

Executive Vice President & Medical Director, Alliant Value-Based Healthcare Solutions

Dr. Lagu works on cost and quality outcomes for ACOs, Medicare Advantage plans, and health systems, overseeing interpretation of population health analytics with executive and clinical leadership. Previously a Director and Professor at Northwestern's Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research, she served as a clinical lead for CMS in developing quality metrics including Hospital Stars.

Session 03Actuarial & analytics
BM

Brian Machut, FSA

Vice President & Consulting Actuary, Alliant Value-Based Healthcare Solutions

Brian is the actuary in the room for Session 03: benchmarks, risk adjustment, and how a target price is actually constructed. Full bio to follow.

Session 03Actuarial & analytics
Helena Moon, MD

Helena Moon, MD

System Director of Clinical Programs & Population Health, CommonSpirit Health

Dr. Moon leads clinical programs and population health across a national health system, and brings the care-management view of the episode window: coordination, quality, and post-acute strategy. Full bio to follow.

Session 04Quality & care management

Physician panel

Session 01. What engagement looks like from the clinician's side. Full bios to follow.

BS
Ben Schwartz, MD, MBA Orthopedic surgeon · Physician Executive & Senior Advisor, Commons Clinic · Clinical Instructor, Harvard Medical School · Medical Director, RightMove Health · author of The Surgeon’s Record
CM
Chad Mather, MD Orthopedic surgeon · Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine · Chief Medical Officer, Specialty Care, Optum

One further physician panelist to be announced.

One registration. The whole series.

Sign up once and your seat is held for all five Wednesdays. Bring the people who will actually run the model. This works best when finance, legal, quality, and the service line attend together.

  • Five live sessions, Oct 14 – Nov 18, 2026
  • Wednesdays, 12:00–1:00 PM CT, with 45 min of content and 15 min live Q&A
  • All sessions recorded and posted on demand
  • Open round table with the full faculty
  • Model-agnostic, for TEAM, ASM, CJR-X, ACO, or commercial risk
  • Hosted on the APM Connect platform
Save my seat One Zoom registration adds all five sessions to your calendar.

Brought to you by

Hosts

Host platform

APM Connect

The learning community for mandatory CMS value-based payment models: TEAM, ASM, and CJR-X.

Consulting

Pinnacle Healthcare Consulting

Hospital–physician alignment, compensation design, and value-based care strategy for health systems and physician enterprises.

Legal

Bass, Berry & Sims

Healthcare regulatory counsel for provider arrangements, model waivers, and fraud and abuse compliance under episode payment.

With presenting contributors: Alliant Value-Based Healthcare Solutions (actuarial & analytics)  ·  CommonSpirit Health (quality & care management)