Upward Growth Podcast
Upward Growth is the podcast for anyone making strategic bets on the health plan market.
Host Ryan Peterson is the principal of Upward Growth, a health plan market advisory firm. With 15 years selling into health plans, Ryan brings an operator's view of the buying side.
Each episode breaks down how plans buy, operate, and make decisions, then translates that into commercial implications for health tech vendors, investors, provider organizations, and management consultancies.
What you'll hear: breakdowns of what's moving in the health plan market, CMS regulatory shifts translated into go-to-market implications, earnings call analysis through a health plan buying lens, structural shifts changing who's buying what and why, and occasional conversations with operators, investors, and builders working on what we cover.
If you're making bets on the health plan market, this show is built for you.
Learn more about Upward Growth at: www.upwardgrowth.com
Subscribe to the newsletter at: upwardgrowth.substack.com
Episodes
5 episodes
ACCESS-Aligned: What Health Plans Will Start Asking Vendors
On July 5th, CMS launched the ACCESS Model, a 10-year voluntary Medicare payment test paying for outcomes across four chronic care tracks. Alongside it, CMS shipped a full replication kit for the private payer market, and 14 of the largest heal...
.png)
MedPAC's June Report: How Health Plans Are Buying Differently in 2026
MedPAC's June 2026 report to Congress dropped on June 15 and attached $22 billion in higher-than-justified Medicare Advantage payments in 2026 to coding intensity alone. The same report documented $23.7 billion in improper MA payments for fisca...
.png)
Member Memory: The New Vendor Lens on Medicare Advantage Star Ratings
On April 2, CMS published the CY 2027 Final Rule and tripled the weight of two Health Outcomes Survey measures inside the Medicare Advantage Star Ratings. By 2029, HOS and CAHPS will drive close to 40 percent of the total Star Ratings calculati...
.png)
Why Clover v. HHS Matters Even If You're Not in Stars
On May 27, a federal judge in Georgia threw out 20 Medicare Advantage Star Ratings measures from Clover Health's 2026 rating and ordered CMS to recalculate. The order is narrow. The reasoning is not. In this first episode of the Upw...
Welcome to the Upward Growth Podcast
The Upward Growth Podcast is the new audio channel from Upward Growth, a health plan market advisory firm. Host Ryan Peterson breaks down what's actually moving in the health plan market and what it means for the people selling into it, investi...
