Approximately 90% of total U.S. healthcare costs are associated with chronic and mental health conditions. According to Peter Kallestrup, co-founder and CEO of i-Function, when care arrives late, outcomes narrow and opportunities shrink. Emergency rooms may see increased demand, disease complexity may replace prevention simplicity, and clinicians may spend more time managing escalation than enabling stability.
Value-based care is a healthcare payment and delivery model that focuses on improving patient outcomes and reducing costs. It shifts the focus from the volume of services provided to the quality and value of care delivered. Kallestrup says, “When intervention starts too late, costs climb, pathways shrink, and outcomes suffer.”
This situation, Kallestrup explains, is exactly where value-based care can find room to grow. Unlike volume-based care, it rewards earlier engagement, prevention, measurable improvement in patient well-being, and reduced costs.
Value-based care can also align incentives across the system. “It’s one of the rare constructs where the model can align incentives across stakeholders,” Kallestrup notes. “Patients can stay healthier for longer, clinicians can intervene with purpose, and systems can reduce the spiral of avoidable late-stage care with associated growing costs.”
But value is only real if it is practical. According to Kallestrup, clinicians don’t need more traditional dashboards or parallel platforms. They need tools that quietly embed into existing workflows, preserving time and cognitive bandwidth. Early insight also has to reach people where they live their everyday lives, not only in clinical settings.
“Even the most advanced innovations may fall short if they don’t integrate into well-established clinical routines,” Kallestrup says. “Adoption scales when it fits naturally into their day, not when they are asked to step outside it.”
Two tools designed around this constraint are LASSI-D™ and FUNSAT™. LASSI-D, a cognitive assessment built to be delivered through existing clinical systems, supports early identification of potential signals of Alzheimer's disease that might otherwise surface much later. FUNSAT focuses on real-world functional skills such as medication organization, label comprehension, navigating digital tasks, and other daily living components that predict the individual’s ability to navigate important activities of daily living.
“The treatment plan can be perfect on paper,” Kallestrup notes. “But if someone can’t understand the medication label, organize a week's worth of medication, or feel confident about managing important daily tasks, care delivery breaks down before it even begins. These are the human inflection points that value-based models are designed to notice earlier.”
In LASSI-D, an AI-enabled facilitator supports portions of the experience, widening access while maintaining quality. The design intent, however, remains firmly human. “The use of AI is about delivering non-judgmental, broad, and affordable access as well as timely insight sooner rather than later,” he emphasizes.
According to Kallestrup, early engagement also carries compounding public value. Every month gained before escalation into complex care pathways can translate into meaningful preservation of independence, reduced caregiver strain, and fewer avoidable transitions into higher-cost support settings. “Six months of stable condition is not just a calendar win,” Kallestrup explains. “It’s six months of preserved quality of life and reduced system load, all at once.”
This cumulative impact, Kallestrup explains, is why value-based care continues to grow, not because it promises perfection, but because it rewards earlier progress. It shifts the question from ‘How do we treat the problem later?’ to ‘How do we support the person now?’ That subtle change reframes the entire care conversation.
“When prevention works, it looks like nothing happened,” Kallestrup says. “That’s the paradox of early care. Success in early care often goes unnoticed, yet its impact is significant.” The healthcare models that gain the most traction in the next decade might have one trait in common: they make early support easier than late rescue.
“We tend to celebrate the rescue,” Kallestrup says, “but the real breakthrough is when the rescue never becomes necessary in the first place.”
Media Contact
Peter Kallestrup
pkallestrup@i-function.com
