Meet Our 2026 ESPRIT Award Winner: Jon Fan

As a Lead Data Scientist on the Health Economics team within BI & Analytics, Jon Fan spends his days steeped in data—but he never loses sight of the lives it reflects. He looks closely at what is driving the trends in the data, and how we can use that understanding to better serve our health plan members.

 “We always tie the data back to how it affects the people,” he says. “How can we make that data actionable?”

The Health Economics team is VNS Health’s trusted internal source of advanced analytics on medical expense and utilization. Jon and his colleagues use data to identify cost trends and drivers, assess the impact of health care policy and payment changes, and evaluate opportunities to improve care and clinical outcomes for our members.

In addition to producing regular reports that keep our Health Plan teams apprised of trends in claims and medical expenses, Jon and his team also take on analyses requested by teams across the organization—measuring, for example, how a population health program affects claims outcomes and plan members’ use of medical services.

“One of the most rewarding parts of our job is when the work we’re generating makes a direct impact on members,” Jon says.

This expertise extends to developing new technologies, such as an automated tool Jon and his team built to examine expense categories that have been rising over time. As a result, a deep dive that once took weeks can now be done in hours. Moreover, team members outside Health Economics can use the tool to explore the data themselves. Jon counts this innovation as “one of the great successes” of his team.

Jon traces his compassion for using data to help others to two sources: Both his parents are registered nurses, and growing up, he volunteered at the long-term care facility where his mother worked night shifts. Her experience taught him the importance of accountability and of speaking up when something doesn’t seem right.

“Seeing how hard she worked and how much she cared about her patients has been ingrained in my mind for a long time,” he says. Jon also credits martial arts with adding discipline to his approach, having practiced judo and jiu-jitsu for most of his life.

Trained in epidemiology and public health, Jon came to VNS Health in 2023 following a career in academic research, where he used health care claims data to study patterns of care, health outcomes, and population health. “I was looking for a mission-driven organization that shared my values,” he explains. “It really boils down to good people doing good work.”