Healthcare Political Strategy — live, for your team or conference
Steve Petzinger is the founder of Aperture Health Strategies and author of Healthcare Political Strategy (2025). His 15 years across HHS/ASPR, the White House OMB, Guidehouse, Deloitte, and the NYC Mayor’s Office include direct oversight of over $2 billion in federal public health programs and engagement with all 50 states + DC.
Every keynote is built around the Five-Variable Strategic Model—the analytical framework for understanding why healthcare initiatives win or lose politically. Petzinger combines federal policy depth, consulting field experience, and a practitioner’s directness. Audiences leave with a framework they can apply, not observations they’ve heard before.
What Your Audience Leaves With
A clear definition of healthcare political strategy — as an analytical discipline, not a synonym for lobbying
• The Five-Variable Model and how to apply it to current challenges
• Concrete examples from federal, health system, and consulting contexts
• A diagnostic tool for identifying where their political strategy is weakest
Book Stephen for Your Event or Program
Available for keynotes, leadership retreats, panel appearances, and multi-session executive education programs. Typical booking lead time is 4–8 weeks for conferences and shorter for leadership team sessions.
What Stephen Speaks About
Topic 1: Why healthcare organizations lose policy fights they should win
The analytical anatomy of a preventable political loss—and the five variables that determine the outcome. Built for health system and ACO leadership teams preparing for consequential decisions.
Audience: Health system executives, ACO leadership, provider associations
Topic 2: The Five-Variable Model: A Framework for Healthcare Political Strategy
A structured introduction to the analytical model at the core of Aperture’s work — designed for leadership teams who need a repeatable method, not just situational advice.
Audience: C-suite leadership, strategy and government relations teams
Topic 3: Navigating the federal health policy environment
How federal agencies, CMS contractors, and grantees can think strategically about the political environments their programs operate in — from someone who has worked on both sides.
Audience: Federal agency staff, CMS contractors, federally-funded program leadership
Topic 4: Healthcare political strategy for the next generation of leaders
An academic-oriented session on the analytical discipline of healthcare political strategy — what it is, why it matters, and how early-career health professionals can develop it.
Audience: Graduate health policy programs, MHA students, academic conferences