In the latest Summit Series, BPD’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Sasha Boghosian sat down with healthcare policy expert Paul Keckley. Known for his role in shaping the Affordable Care Act and advising leading healthcare organizations, Keckley offered profound insights into the future of healthcare—calling for a transformation centered on affordability, purpose, and improved patient outcomes.

At the core of Keckley’s message is a call to rethink how we define healthcare success. He challenges health systems to move beyond traditional survival metrics—profit or nonprofit—toward a broader, human-centered approach. "Healthcare shouldn’t be about health or human services," Keckley asserts. "It must be both." His vision urges leaders to design models that equally prioritize operational efficiency and the well-being of individuals, especially as healthcare demand surges in an unpredictable landscape.

Keckley also points to the pandemic as a crucial inflection point, where public health and the need for deeper patient connections took center stage. He argues that the industry must move away from its historically reactive posture and instead adopt a more proactive mindset—one that’s already proven effective in other sectors like finance. In his words, healthcare is "getting it backwards," clinging to outdated systems instead of modernizing to meet the needs of today’s economy, where digitization and whole-person care are increasingly expected.

The answer? Bold reprioritization. Keckley stresses that both healthcare providers and their boards must be held accountable for adopting patient-first strategies. He takes aim at boardrooms across the country, suggesting that while hospital and health system boards are often staffed by smart, experienced professionals, they frequently lack the healthcare literacy and strategic foresight needed to drive true innovation.

“It’s time for systems to prove their value”, Keckley says. The disconnect between payors and health systems, he says, is largely due to a lack of mutual understanding—payors have data on outcomes, while systems deliver the hands-on care that is too often misinterpreted by those “living in the fog” of industry silos.

Looking ahead, Keckley’s vision for healthcare is bold: an integrated primary care system where patients’ needs are prioritized over the interests of executives and insurers. He advocates for healthcare systems to take collective responsibility for patient care, integrating the social determinants of health to better address the root causes affecting individuals' health. For Keckley, the future of healthcare rests on breaking down barriers between stakeholders—hospitals, payors, insurers, and beyond—and elevating the consumer voice to reshape how care is delivered.

Ultimately, improving healthcare requires candid discussions about what’s working and what isn’t, both on the administrative side and in direct patient care. These are the kinds of critical conversations being had at The Summit Series—stay tuned for the next one.