Meet the Team

Senior level healthcare physician executive pushing clinical model innovation through a patient-first lens. Senior level operations expert who drives business sustainability with a growth lens.

Together, VCP covers what should be done via care model, value proposition, and alignment & how to accomplish it with effective operations and scalability.  Having both perspectives enables companies to de-risk investments through both clinical trust-building and operational feasibility.

Val Akopov, MD, MBA, MHA

Principal & Chief Clinical Officer

Val Akopov, MD is physician-executive with 30+ years of hands-on experience in healthcare and proven achievements in following areas: strategic and analytical thinking, operational planning, change management, culture management, physician leadership, continuous improvement, and influencing others.

  • After successfully completing residency training in Internal Medicine at Emory University Val continued his career at Emory for the next fifteen years working at various parts of the organization. Notable accomplishments included: co-founded the first in Georgia academic Hospital Medicine program in the public safety-net hospital (Grady Memorial Hospital); founded the Hospital Medicine (HM) program at Emory University Hospital Midtown (EUHM), tripled it in size and made it an integral part of the hospital’s fabric; served as Medical Director of Care Coordination at EUHM; served as associate IM residency program director for EUHM contributing to making the hospital #1 ranked rotation site within Emory.

  • Val then spent the following fourteen years at Wellstar Health System with his tenure marked by the following milestones: served as Wellstar Medical Group Senior Vice President and Co-President, responsible for large swaths of the WMG: Hospital Medicine, Primary Care, Palliative Care & Hospice, Pediatrics, Behavioral Health, Urgent Care, Corporate Medicine, Pathology, Radiation Oncology; as well as Wellstar Academic Affairs that included Graduate Medical Education (GME), Undergraduate Medical Education (UME), Academic Partnerships. Val was instrumental in medical group’s growth from 684 MDs and 385 APPs to >1,100 MDs and >1,000 APPs;340 ambulatory practices, 25 Urgent Care Centers, Five Health Parks, and annual revenue $950M. He also served as the Designated Institutional Official of the Wellstar Health System overseeing the graduate medical education growth from none to almost 300 residents and fellows. From 2012-2019 Val served as inaugural chairman of the Wellstar Health Network ACO - the first in Georgia MSSP ACO convened by a health system; during these years Wellstar Health Network ACO achieved >$120M in Medicare savings, half of which was shared with Wellstar by CMS.

  • Val is a “builder” by nature; his passion lies in creating innovative care models and building the new programs.

Beth Papetti, MBA

Principal & Chief Operating Officer

Beth Hoover Papetti, MBA is a senior healthcare operations executive, who brings more than 20 years of experience in leading complex clinical operations across the healthcare continuum. She partners with health systems, physician groups, and executive leaders to strengthen performance, optimize operations, and design sustainable care delivery models. Beth’s consulting perspective is grounded in deep, hands-on operational leadership.

  • Beth spent six years in senior roles where she deployed and operated over 50 hospital medicine programs across the country through a third-party service model with IN Compass Health, INC and EmCare (now Envision Physician Services), developing expertise in physician practice management, staffing and coverage models, contract performance, and hospital/provider alignment.

  • She then spent fifteen years with Wellstar Health System, a major integrated health system in the Southeast. Ten of those years were at the executive level of the organization where she served as Vice President & Service Line Leader, overseeing strategy and operations. Her experience spans multiple specialties including hospital-based services and ambulatory specialties, but her passion lies in hospital medicine, palliative medicine, urgent care, corporate and employer-based clinics, and primary care. Across these settings, Beth has led initiatives focused on access and throughput optimization, care model design, financial and workforce performance, quality and safety outcomes, and physician engagement - often supporting growth, transformation, and stabilization through periods of change. She managed a portfolio of annual revenue of over $350M, nearly 1M patient visits, and nearly 650 FTEs.

  • She has deep experience in de novo practice development, acquisitions, alignment and optimizations. She works closely with physician leaders and operational teams to deliver meaningful results that align to organizational goals.