Institute 2008, the annual June conference of America's Health Insurance Plans, is in full swing Thursday with a focus on best practices and applications, putting health plans in the role of agents of change, said AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignagni.
Thursday's agenda also makes room for keynote talks from political figures. Speakers include former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, former Senate Majority Leader William Frist and former Sen. John Breaux from Louisiana.
Also slated to speak Thursday - from 2-3 p.m. - are Dan Bartlett, former counselor to President George W. Bush, and Terry McAuliffe, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and more recently chairman of Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign for the presidency.
Deeming 2009 the "healthcare year," Ignagni said health plans need to bring real-world solutions to the national discussion so that policymakers can learn from their experience and successes.
She noted that a new generation of health plan-developed tools is holding down healthcare premiums.
Likewise, she said, collaborative work being done by health plans in reimbursement, quality measurement, rewarding quality and outcomes, coordination of care and disease management, quality and performance transparency and information delivery to consumers, among others, speaks to the leadership role health plans can play in shaping healthcare reform.
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has been piloting the patient-centered medical home concept. Richard Popiel, MD, vice president and CMO of Horizon, who will be co-presenting on the topic, said testing the PCMH may help establish a mechanism to offer financial incentives to primary care physicians to coordinate care and link incentives to outcomes.
Popiel said it's just one initiative that Horizon is doing to positively impact the standard and cost of care.
Ignagni said AHIP's mission will be to share these stories and successes.
Carl Doty, senior analyst at Forrester Research and a session speaker, expects a continuation of the discussion on how to expand coverage to the uninsured. Missing from today's discussion, he said, is "reining in" the skyrocketing cost of healthcare.
"The industry needs to find solutions to both sides of the equation," he said.