Value-based care isn’t “on the horizon.” It’s here — and it’s reshaping the economics of every health system, payer, provider group, SNF, and home health agency you sell to. CMS’ new TEAM model launching in 2026 isn’t a policy update; it’s a forcing function. By extending financial accountability to 30 days post-discharge, it pulls skilled nursing and home health directly into the risk window and tightens expectations around measurable outcomes. Your buyers feel that pressure every day. And because of that, they’re no longer buying technology. They’re buying proof — proof that you can improve quality, efficiency, documentation integrity, and financial performance. If your solution can’t show that impact in a way executives believe, you will get outsold by someone who can. The health-tech companies gaining momentum right now are doing three things better and faster than everyone else:
- Prove Fit – clarity on who you serve and what executive problem you solve
- Prove Value – show measurable outcomes, not product features
- Scale Outcomes – build a culture where customer value is the only real metric
This isn’t a framework. It’s the new operating system of health tech.
1. Prove Fit: If You Don’t Have Product-Market Fit, Stop Trying to Scale
In this market, “pretty good fit” is the same as “no fit.” Every wasted sales cycle drains your team’s energy, your cash runway, and your brand credibility. Your buyers — CFOs, COOs, CMOs, CMIOs, CQOs, CDIOs, CNOs or Payer Contracting executives, — are under pressure to hit hard performance targets. Unless your product helps them improve risk adjustment, quality scores, utilization, throughput, documentation accuracy, or cost of care, they will not prioritize you. Health Tech CEO reality check:
- Validate ROI claims with actual results, not theoretical spreadsheets
- Strip your messaging down until it speaks directly to value-based metrics
- Make early adopters your strongest advocates with real data and clear outcomes
You’re ready to scale only when your customers can explain your value better than your own sellers.
2. Prove Value: Build a Sales Engine That Speaks the Language of Outcomes
Value-based care buyers don’t want product tours. They want clarity, fluency, and evidence. Your sales organization must be able to articulate how value-based care works — shared savings, HEDIS, MIPS, TEAM, RAF, penalties, bonuses, and care continuum economics. If your reps can’t speak this language, your product will never reach the C-suite. What strong talk tracks look like:
- Every capability ties to a financial or operational metric
- Sellers can explain how value is created — not just how the product works
- Every claim is backed by a measurable proof point or case study
Buyers don’t reward ambition. They reward certainty. Run a process with discipline:
- Don’t chase prospects who fall outside your Ideal Customer Profile
- Don’t rely on “champions” without actual authority
- Use a clear ROI sequence that aligns to the CFO’s financial model
- Maintain a predictable operating rhythm: qualification → validation → proof → executive alignment → close
Pipeline volume isn’t the goal. Pipeline conviction is.
3. Scale Outcomes: Build a Company That Wins Only When Customers Win
Many companies say they are “customer centric.” Value-based care forces you to prove it. In this world, the companies that win consistently are the ones whose organizational incentives align directly to customer outcomes — not just bookings, not just deployments, and not just NPS. High-performing organizations:
- Align compensation across sales, customer success, product, and implementation
- Tie commissions to operational milestones and 90-day outcome metrics
- Recognize teams who move customer metrics, even if they never touch a contract
- Use short-term incentives for strategic pushes and long-term equity for sustained value creation
When your internal measures match your customers’ results, you become impossible to displace. The CEO’s Role: Make Value the Center of Gravity The Health Tech CEOs winning in this landscape don’t think of themselves as software leaders. They think of themselves as value leaders. They build organizations where:
- Product designs for measurable outcomes
- Marketing communicates measurable outcomes
- Sales sells measurable outcomes
- Customer success delivers measurable outcomes
- Finance prices and structures around measurable outcomes
Everything aligns. Everything reinforces the value narrative. Because in this era of value-based care, one truth separates the winners from everyone else: The companies that deliver quantifiable value faster — and with less friction — will dominate the next decade of health tech. Everyone else will be reacquired, recapped, or replaced.
