Pop Health Podcast
Real conversations about what’s working and what’s next.
The Pop Health Podcast brings you smart, accessible discussions with leaders on the front lines of health care transformation. Hosted by the Coral team, each episode dives into timely topics across policy, care delivery, drug pricing, and payment innovation. These episodes are built to inform, challenge, and inspire action.
Reimagining Post-Acute Care: Why the Future of Recovery Happens at Home
In this episode of The Pop Health Podcast, Brian Lobley, CEO of tango, sits down with Coral Founder Meg Koepke to discuss how post-acute care is evolving and why the home is becoming the preferred setting for recovery after hospitalization. Brian shares how tango is aligning payers and home health providers through value-based approaches that prioritize faster access to care, better outcomes, and lower total cost of care. Together, they explore the implications for Medicare Advantage and emerging policy models, the operational realities of managing post-acute episodes, and what the future of home-based recovery could look like as health systems continue shifting care beyond traditional facility walls.
New Model Mania: Unpacking CMS's RHTP, ASM, LEAD, ACCESS, and ELEVATE
As 2025 comes to a close, CMS signals are becoming clearer across rural health, specialty care, chronic care, prevention, and accountable care. In this end-of-year episode, Coral Founder Meg Koepke is joined by Maria Alexander, Kate Freeman, and Trevor Abeyta to unpack what the latest federal models reveal about where policy and accountability are heading in 2026 and beyond. They discuss what RHTP signals about rural transformation, how ASM expands mandatory accountability into specialty care, what ACCESS shows about the future of digital chronic care, how LEAD reflects a shift toward longer-term accountable care, and why MAHA ELEVATE represents a new bet on prevention. Together, they reflect on what this mix of mandatory and voluntary models and fast experimentation with long horizons means for organizations preparing for the next phase of health care transformation.
Coral Commentary | Breaking Down CMS’ New Direction
In this special episode, Coral’s Meg Koepke and Melissa Cohen break down the newly released CMS Innovation Center strategy, exploring what we heard and what it could mean for the future of health care transformation.
Season 1 | Episode 12 | Advancing Value-Based Care
In this episode, we’re joined by Emily Brower, President and CEO of the National Association of ACOs, and Mara McDermott, CEO of Accountable for Health, for a deep dive into the current state of value-based care. Emily and Mara reflect on recent policy developments, emerging trends, and the challenges their members face in advancing accountable care. They also share where they’re seeing alignment, or misalignment, with federal priorities, and offer practical guidance on how to track meaningful changes in the VBC policy landscape.
Season 1 | Episode 11 | Making the TEAM Model Work
In this episode, we explore the new Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM) with Rob Mechanic and Jennifer Perloff from the Institute for Accountable Care. They discuss the model’s implications for value-based care, the Institute’s analysis, and the tools available to support its adoption.
Season 1 | Episode 9 | Auld Lang Syne ‘24
The Pop Health Podcast talks final Physician Fee Schedule Rule, what to watch for in new MA policy, and more as the cast out 2024 and look forward to 2025.