Quick Q&A: Christopher Stanley, M.D., MBA, on population health and healthcare affordability

Affordability remains at the center of population health work at Henry Ford Health, but the goal has broadened to value, according to Christopher Stanley, M.D., MBA. Stanley is president of Populance, the population health subsidiary of Henry Ford Health, a health system headquartered in Detroit. He recently joined the Managed Healthcare Executive editorial advisory board.

In Stanley's views, value takes in more than the price of care. It includes how individuals perceive their own health, whether the care they receive is good and whether the experience is good, including whether they can get in to see a doctor when they need to. "So not just cheap care, but are they getting good value out of that?" Stanley said. He describes everything Populance does as built on affordability within that larger equation, which he likens to the triple aim.

That emphasis is part of the reason Populance tracks and publishes results from programs such as its musculoskeletal and diabetes programs, Stanley said. Those programs save money at the level of the individual and, more broadly, help bend the cost curve and bring down health premiums, he said.

Stanley also offers a look at a number from inside Henry Ford Health. The organization had planned for what he called a moderate single-digit increase in healthcare benefit costs for its own employees from 2026 to 2027. The current projection, he said, is about half of what was expected and the lower increase is partly because of the work Populance and the health system are doing.

In this video, Stanley explains how Populance defines value for the people it serves and how programs such as its musculoskeletal and diabetes programs are showing up in the health system's own benefit costs.