Michael Kopko

Michael Kopko is co-founder and CEO of Pearl Health[1], a value-based primary care technology company[1]. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University[12] and an MBA in Finance and Law from Columbia Business School[13], where he was a Feldberg Fellow[13]. Kopko has over 14 years of experience in the healthcare industry[3]. Before founding Pearl Health in December 2020[4], he held multiple leadership roles at Oscar Health, including Head of Business Development[8], Vice President Network Contracting[7], and Vice President Market P&L[6]. He also served as Senior Adviser to the CEO at Better.com from 2017 to 2018[9]. Earlier in his career, he was a Research Analytics Manager at Bridgewater Associates[10] and founder of DormAid LLC[11]. Kopko is a member of the Presidential Leadership Scholars Class of 2024[5].

Founded

• Pearl Health

Insights & ideas

Kopko frames Pearl Health's core idea as replacing the adversarial insurance model, where a payer collects money and then throttles what patients receive, with an aligned or accountable care model in which the people delivering care also bear responsibility for its cost and outcomes [1]. He argues this alignment, not just cost control, produces better outcomes, longer life, and avoidance of preventable harm for seniors, and that this is validated by CMS and other observers [1]. A recurring theme is predictability: he contends that for people over 65 most health trajectories are foreseeable given enough data, and that anything predictable is broadly preventable, which justifies Pearl's heavy investment in a proprietary, in-house technology platform (built with AWS and AI, with roughly 70 percent of the company in R&D) to forecast and intervene before bad outcomes occur [1]. He also expresses confidence Medicare will persist, though likely with altered rules around age or cost-sharing due to budget pressures [1].

Experience

1. 
   CEO and co-Founder

   Pearl HealthDec 2020 to Present
2. Class of 2024

   Presidential Leadership ScholarsJan 2024 to Present
3. Vice President Market P&L

   Oscar HealthSep 2019 to Dec 2020
4. Vice President Network Contracting

   Oscar HealthMar 2016 to Dec 2020
5. Head of Business Development

   Oscar HealthSep 2013 to Sep 2019
6. Senior Adviser to the CEO

   Better.comJan 2017 to Dec 2018
7. Research Analytics Manager

   Bridgewater AssociatesAug 2009 to Jul 2013
8. Founder

   DormAid LLCJan 2004 to Jun 2009

Education

• Harvard University · B.A., Economics2003 - 2007
• Columbia Business School · MBA (Feldberg Fellow), Finance & Law2007 - 2009
• Dwight-Englewood School1994 - 2003

Media & appearances

• Why Your Engineering Team's Size Doesn't Matter Anymore w/ Michael ...

  Michael Kopko discusses Pearl Health's technology platform and operating model for managing Medicare patients. He explains how Pearl Health takes responsibility for both costs and outcomes of care, uses a full-stack technology platform built in-house with AWS and AI, and manages over 3.5 billion dollars in Medicare expenses across a quarter million growing to half a million seniors.

• Ep. 148 Striking the Balance: Moving towards Value Based Care w/ Michael KopkoFaisel and Friends: A Primary Care Podcast · Jul 25, 2024
• Ep 182 – Democratizing Access to Value in Healthcare: Primary Care Enablement at Scale, with Michael KopkoThe Race to Value Podcast · Sep 11, 2023
• E182 | Michael Kopko: Grit, Incentives, and the Future of Senior Care

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