# EP503: Smart Collaboration With Direct-to-Employer Specialty Care, With Ryan Wells; Leo Spector, MD, MBA; and Adam Stavisky

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/relentless-health-value-872220/ep503-smart-collaboration-with-direct-to-employer-specialty-care-with-ryan-wells-leo-spector-md-mba-and-adam-stavisky
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/relentless-health-value-872220/ep503-smart-collaboration-with-direct-to-employer-specialty-care-with-ryan-wells-leo-spector-md-mba-and-adam-stavisky.md
Podcast: [Relentless Health Value](https://stenobird.com/podcast/relentless-health-value-872220)
Published: 2026-03-12T10:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://cc-lnk.com/EP503
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/healthvalue/RHV_EP503_Health_Here.mp3?dest-id=197686
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/relentless-health-value-872220/episodes/ep503-smart-collaboration-with-direct-to-employer-specialty-care-with-ryan-wells-leo-spector-md-mba-and-adam-stavisky
Duration seconds: 2776

## Resource

Episode 503 of Relentless Health Value features Stacey Richter with Adam Stavisky, Dr. Leo Spector (OrthoCarolina), and Ryan Wells (Health Here) discussing how self-insured employers and specialists rarely connect directly due to intermediaries and fee-for-service "rails." They outline three common pitfalls when bridging this gap: defining and measuring quality and appropriateness (limits of claims data and missing patient-reported outcomes), achieving scale across geographies and specialties, and ensuring benefit design and incentives so members actually use direct-contracting programs. The conversation frames the evolution of Centers of Excellence from 1.0 (travel to brand-name hospitals) to 2.0 (more local but administratively manual) to 3.0 (new infrastructure enabling direct, efficient contracting). Health Here is described as a digital bridge to support payment and communication pathways and reduce administrative waste. === LINKS === 🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: https://cc-lnk.com/EP503 ✉️ Enjoy this podcast? Subscribe to the free weekly newsletter: https://relentlesshealthvalue.com/join-the-relentless-tribe 🫙 Support the podcast with a small donation to the Tip Jar: https://relentlesshealthvalue.com/join-the-relentless-tribe 🎤 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/feed/id892082003?ls=1 🎤 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/6UjgzI7bScDrWvZEk2f46b 📺 Subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@RelentlessHealthValue === CONNECT WITH THE RHV TEAM === ✭ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/relentless-health-value/ ✭ Threads https://www.threads.net/@relentlesshealthvalue/ ✭ Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/relentleshealth.bsky.social ✭ X https://twitter.com/relentleshealth/ 00:00 Introduction. 00:32 Coll…

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