Lili Brillstein’s Masterclass on How to Be Collaborative

When Lili Brillstein was studying business in college, value-based care models weren’t even a blip on the radar. And though we still pay for units of care in some cases, she believes we can build a system focused on patient outcomes, with reimbursement to match.

“The idea is to address variability in care and costs of care to get consistent outcomes,” says Brillstein, who runs BCollaborative, and provides strategic advisory services for payers, providers, and other healthcare stakeholders. Brillstein has spent over two decades building collaborative care and payment models.

Ask who’s done as much as anyone to drive the transition from fee-for-service to value-based care, and you’re likely to hear Brillstein’s name.

But to explain how she got here means starting with HIV/AIDS.

“We lived a very secret life,” Brillstein says of her relationship with an HIV-positive man in the late 1980s, at the height of the AIDS epidemic. “And because he also had hemophilia, it was the first time I had seen any kind of collaboration in healthcare.”

That was the spark for young Brillstein.

Having studied business at the University of Albany, and on her way to a master’s degree in public health, Brillstein knew she wanted to go into healthcare. But not as a clinician or hospital administrator. Why not address healthcare at the big-picture level?

Hear why working on value-based care was a natural fit for Brillstein on our podcast.