Admittedly, I won't be found listening to country music in Nashville, but there are many interesting forums and sessions worth exploring.
From the top
For better or worse, the June 3rd CEO Forum at America's Health Insurance Plans' Institute 2015 is closed to the media (as is Bill Clinton's closing speech). The CEO Forum also limited among attendees, but for those can attend, there should be open, honest conversations. As AHIP pitches the forum, this is "healthcare's leadership moment."
Among the speakers are Bill Haslam, Governor of Tennessee and one of several Republicans who've tried to expand Medicaid with a federal waiver; Bill Gracey, CEO BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, which is in the throes of adapting to the new individual market; Bernard Tyson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente; Nancy-Ann DeParle, former policy chief of staff in the Obama Administration and co-founder of Consonance Capital Partner; and Karen Ignagni, the outgoing CEO AHIP and soon-to-be CEO of EmblemHealth.
Keeping it safe
How many health insurers have been hacked in the last year? Three? Those that know they've been hacked, that is.
Also on Wednesday June 3rd is the Cybersecurity, Technology and Infrastructure Advancements Forum. Topics include "Designing an IT Architecture for the Future Health Plan," with advice from professionals at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, UCare and BCBSTN; "Cybersecurity in a Consumer Driven Marketplace," looking at the emerging IT security issues of the new healthcare economy; and sessions on pharmacy benefits management IT, plus security and the silos.
Prevention and wellness
It's been a rough year for the public image of workplace wellness programs, but the broader concept and pursuit of wellness is an important one that transcends the health risk assessment.
At Creating a Culture Focused on Wellness, Prevention, and Health, more than a dozen health advocates, insurance managers and corporate leaders are probing issues related to living a healthy life, for people with illness and chronic disease and those of us who aren't yet frequent users of the healthcare system.
Starting off the morning is Dan Buettner, founder and CEO of the Blue Zones and a National Geographic Fellow. The Blues Zones are places with a culture and environment that, for various reasons, are home to people who live long and happily.
On the Greek island of Ikaria, residents have cancer rates 20 percent below average, heart disease 50 percent below average and almost no dementia. One Ikaria native son, Stamatis Moraitis, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at the age of 65 while living in New Jersey. Instead of treatment, he moved back to the Aegean island, expecting to die soon but at least enjoy his time and rest among his ancestors. He spent his days gardening, growing wine grapes, walking the city's hills and playing dominoes with old friends--and living another three decades, until he died in 2013 at the age of 98.
Closer to home, in Loma Linda, California, some 9,000 Seventh-day Adventists inspire even the non-religious with a plant-based diet and active lifestyle that leaves the population living on average 10 years longer than the average American.
As a "strategic business imperative," issues in wellness and wellbeing will be probed by James Huffman, head of U.S. health benefits at Bank of America, and Allison Klausner, assistant general counsel for benefits corporate law at Honeywell International.
Later on, hear on-the-ground ideas from Kimberly Eberbach, VP of wellness and community health at Independence Blue Cross, Allison Hess, wellness director at Geisinger Health Plan, and Lori Huss, wellness director at Humana. Also of interest will be a presentation of how health insurance exchange plan members are using medicines, by Jennifer Polinski, the director of foundational research at CVS Health.
Disruptive and disruption
On Thursday, June 4th, the full Institute commences with a roundtable that includes a health insurer with a budding health system and a health system with a budding health plan: David Holmberg, CEO of Highmark Health; Rodney Hochman, MD, CEO of Providence Health & Services; Omar Ishrak, CEO of Medtronic; and Bob Zapfel, president of Xerox Services.
Also, look for two entrepreneurs from two generations whose work could either radically change American healthcare or fizzle after so much hype.
On Thursday, the morning general session features Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and CEO of diagnostics startup Theranos. If all goes according to her vision, in the next few years, diabetics will be getting $6.60 A1c tests in Walgreens, and consumers and providers alike will be ditch blood vials for a pinprick worth of blood to test for hundreds of conditions at half the price of Medicare reimbursement.
Friday, another general session is hosted by Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, a surgeon who pioneered insulin cell transplants for Type 1 diabetics and became a billionaire after inventing the cancer drug Abraxane. He's now the CEO of health IT and genomics company NantHealth. Collaborating with NantHealth, Providence Health & Services is aiming to be the first provider system to use Illumina's HiSeq X Ten genome sequencer to process thousands of patients' genomes annually, and the first CLIA-approved facility offering molecular decisions for cancer patients.