Log in/Register

 

INSIDER: December 2023

12/06/2023

Table of contents

What's on members' minds

Here at the Alliance, we are highly tuned to what our member health plans are talking about. We pay close attention to the topics and challenges shared and take these into account as we plan our programming and other initiatives. This observation occurs via the discussion forum, surveys, webinar Q&A, roundtable discussions, one-on-ones, and cocktail conversations. We want to keep you apprised of what we are hearing so that you can support our member health plans.

This November, health plans shared how they are integrating technology to innovate and streamline processes at their plans, and sought guidance on navigating regulatory guidance – a perennial topic of discussion. Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (DSNPs) are picking up steam among Alliance members, as a number of plans consider if entering this line of business is right for them. And, as always, our plans seek partnerships with vendors to provide several services to their members.

Health plans expressed interest in integrating technology to streamline healthcare processes. Plans discussed the use of barcodes on ID cards, providing a potential solution to enhance efficiency in member and billing information retrieval. Some plans are also exploring the concept of a fully virtual health plan, emphasizing the importance of consistent virtual care teams accessible in unique ways. These discussions underscore a growing interest in leveraging technology to enhance patient care and administrative processes.

Navigating the intricate web of healthcare regulations remains a challenge for many. A discussion surrounding the CMS Final Rule sheds light on the complexities health plans face in interpreting CMS guidelines, especially concerning the composition of Utilization Management (UM) committees. Simultaneously, members talked Medicaid redeterminations, reflecting the industry's focus on understanding and implementing policies to engage members effectively during Medicaid redeterminations and showcasing a commitment to compliance and member support.

We’re hearing more and more of our plans thinking about entering the Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (DSNP). Across conversations on the member Discussion Forum, in our strategic meetings, and in Medicare Advantage learning series, plans continue to evaluate if this line of business is the right next move for them and, if so, how to best make this market entry.

As always, our plans are looking for vendor recommendations. Check out some of the areas our members are searching for partnership below:

  • Dental and vision
  • HEDIS vendors, specifically with knowledge of TRICARE line of business
  • Provider network adequacy
  • Calculating broker commissions
  • Market research and analysis
  • Coding edits

Next steps
If these topics align with your organization's capabilities and expertise...

  • Add these keywords to your company profile and ensure your company brochure is current. Our members might be searching our vendor directory for support.
  • Sponsor a 1-hour spotlight webinar to showcase your organization's capabilities and subject matter expertise to Alliance members. Visit our calendar to see the list of available spots and learn more about this opportunity. Details about this opportunity are on pg. 23 of our 2024 Sponsorship Guide.
  • Submit an educational session proposal that addresses our health plans' challenges and highlights your organization's subject matter experts.

Preferred Business Sponsors: Log in to your company dashboard to post a thought leadership piece to the Alliance Knowledge CenterSM and weekly e-digest

TOP 

Farewell 2023! Welcome 2024!

This past year has been a phenomenal one for the Alliance! Through our collaboration with you – our Preferred Business Sponsors and Insiders – we achieved our goals as an organization and assisted our members in achieving their respective goals through the educational programming and resources we provided them throughout 2023.

In considering this past year, we delivered a variety of educational programming to provide our members with greater insights into industry trends and marketplace demands. Some examples of our member-focused programming this past year include the following:

  • Our programming around government programs focused on the state of play in the rapidly changing ACA, Medicaid, SNPs and Medicare markets. At the ACA & Government Program Value Visit this past February, we created a program where our members had the opportunity to work elbow to elbow with Alliance plan leaders in our unique micro-workshop formats and small group discussion sessions that offered case study-driven presentations and offered relationship building and connections with one another and our business sponsors.
  • At our NCQA Health Equity Accreditation Fly-In, we unpacked the essential strategies necessary to develop and achieve a successful health equity program and we discussed strategies for implementing the NCQA HE Accreditation requirements. We secured industry experts to facilitate and lead focused sessions on how to successfully build the capacity and infrastructure to support health equity programs and to achieve the NQCA’s health equity accreditation requirements. The Fly-In also provide our member the opportunity to foster meaningful connections with quality, health equity and accreditation leaders across the footprint of the Alliance.
  • We pivoted the agenda of our Fall Leadership Forum this past October to incorporate the most important strategic topics for the senior leaders of our member plans. We realize we have more work to do in 2024 and beyond, and we’ll continue to infuse these strategic topics and themes of great importance to our C-Suite executives of our member health plans.

Finally, a cornerstone in our approach to supporting our members and to ensure we understand their priorities, strategies, and plans, we conducted onsite visits of almost every plan this past year. These visits helped us to ensure the work we take on in 2024 will be of value to our members and focused on their business objectives and priorities.

As we prepare for 2024 and the comprehensive program we are designing for our members, we invite you to review the variety of events and programs slated for next year. Please check-out our 2024 Sponsorship Guide for details. We welcome your participation in and sponsorship of these events, and we look forward to exploring the various opportunities of our collaboration! We believe that it is through these meaningful connections with you – our collaborating partners – we will help our members achieve their goals in their respective markets!

TOP

Preferred Business Sponsors have first pick of 2024 opportunities through January 15th 

View the 2024 Sponsorship Guide

As a Preferred Business Sponsor of the Alliance, you have first pick of all our 2024 sponsorship opportunities through January 15th. After this date, we open the sponsorship opportunities to all our events to all other interested organizations. So, don’t delay! More than half of the available sponsorship spots for our Leadership Forums are already reserved. If you are a current Preferred Business Sponsor (PBS), please contact Jaime González to schedule time to discuss your 2024 PBS package.

TOP

Why Invest in the Health Plan Alliance in 2024?

The Health Plan Alliance is the only organization that brings provider-sponsored and independently owned health plans that don't compete with one another in their markets together to collaborate, problem-solve and innovate faster. As a sponsor of the Health Plan Alliance, you not only have a seat at the table to listen and collect valuable market intelligence, but you also have incredible opportunities to be a part of the conversation and support our members along the journey.

We have several exciting new opportunities in store for 2024—including even more opportunities for your organization to gain year-round market intelligence. So, if your organization is not already purchased an Insider Subscription, we encourage you to do so today! This past year we launched our Insider Subscription and the program provides you a variety of opportunities in 2024 to connect with the Alliance and our member! You can learn more about our Insider Subscription in the following article

Of course, the best way to maximize the value of your investment in the Alliance is to participate in our Preferred Business Sponsor program (see pp. 11 & 12 of the sponsorship guide for details). With a sponsorship investment of $35K or more through a combination of sponsorship opportunities and GPO admin fees (only applicable to legacy GPO participating companies), you’ll unlock valuable benefits to help keep your company top of mind year-round. In addition, if you enroll as a Preferred Business Sponsor, you will receive a complimentary Insider Subscription (a $1,200 value).

Below is the list of our four (4) anchor event planned for 2024. We hope you will join us as a sponsor and invest in these events that will give you the opportunity to meet our members and collaborate with

2024 Events
Spring Leadership Forum
March 25th – 27th (Dallas, TX)

Sales, Marketing, & Strategy Value Visit
May 6th – 8th (Phoenix, AZ)

Clinical Excellence/Member Experience Value Visit
September 16th – 18th (Nashville, TN)

Fall Leadership Forum
October 23rd – 25th (Napa, CA)

TOP

Insider Subscription ($1,200 a year, prorated by month)
Included in all 2024 Preferred Business Sponsor Packages.

As an Insider, you'll have access to a suite of market intelligence tools and resources to keep your company front-and-center when Alliance members are ready to initiate a new request for information (RFI).

  • Monthly Insider e-newsletter subscription—Maintain a pulse on both strategic and tactical issues regional plans are addressing, plus hear about real-time opportunities for your organization to gain thought leadership recognition through curriculum contributions. Everyone on your company roster is automatically subscribed.
  • Access to four (4) virtual Insider Town Halls—All year long, the Alliance leadership conducts strategic listening sessions with our health plan members’ leadership teams, and collects insights from one-on-one calls, in-person meetings, webinars and our discussion forum. During these one-hour, virtual Insider Town Halls, Alliance leaders share what we are hearing from our members, what’s trending now and how your organization can provide support. Anyone from your organization is welcome to attend.
  • One-year online vendor directory listing—The vast “vendorverse” can be overwhelming for any health plan to navigate. The Alliance is a valued resource for our health plan members to cut through the noise and find vendors that are interested in working with regional health plans. When Alliance members are in search of a new vendor, they start with the Alliance vendor directory. Your listing in our directory lets our members know that you are invested in working with them and that you have solutions that may be of interest to them. We also added six standard RFI questions making it even easier for Alliance members to find and learn about your organization when they are starting an RFI.

TOP

Spotlight Your Company

Showcase your company’s capabilities and expertise to Alliance members by hosting a one-hour webinar. During the webinar, you may highlight your products and services, present a case study, share your industry best practices and knowledge! These webinars are held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 CT, and the sponsorship investment is $5,000 per webinar. We’re already sold-out through March 2024, and we have available time slots through December 15, 2024. Check-out our Spotlight Webinar Calendar for available dates now if you wish to host and sponsor one with us next year! Check-out our Spotlight Webinar for available dates now if you wish to host and sponsor one with us next year! Check-out p.20 of our 2024 Sponsorship Guide for more details.

TOP

Mark Your Calendars: 2024 Insider Town Halls

Mark your calendars and plan to join us for our 2024 quarterly Insider Town Hall webinars. All the Town Halls will be held virtually and customarily for 90-minutes. Below is the schedule of Town Halls for your reference:

TOP

The Time is Now! 

We can't wait to work with you and your team in 2024! Please review the 2024 Sponsorship Guide and consider how your organization would like to engage with the Alliance next year. Please note, Alliance 2023 Preferred Business Sponsors (PBS) get first priority for 2024 opportunities. If your organization is not a 2023 PBS, please complete the form above the 2024 Sponsorship Guide to receive an alert when you are eligible to apply for 2024 sponsorships. Your organization must hold an active Alliance Insider Subscription to qualify for the 2023 Preferred Business Sponsorship Program, Meeting Sponsorships, or a Spotlight Webinar. You can log in and navigate to your company profile to view when your current membership expires. If your membership expires on December 31, 2023, we will email you when you are eligible to purchase an Insider Subscription for 2024.

TOP

Tips of the month

2023 Preferred Business Sponsor Benefits Expire on December 31, 2023

Now is the time to check to see if you have unused benefits and develop a plan to use them before they expire. Head to the activity summary section of your company dashboard to view your benefit balance for the year.

If you have unused thought leadership document uploads, you can use this benefit to highlight recently released press releases, articles published in industry trade publications or other news sources. Head to the "Submit a document" form in your company dashboard. When uploading your document, select the document type, "article."

Review and update your vendor directory listing

  • Check your completeness gauge
  • Service categories and six standard RFI questions
  • How to see what your profile looks like in the directory
  • Only company profile managers can update your listing

Want email alerts about meetings you are sponsoring?
There's a new email subscription option for that! Head to your subscription center and opt in "Meeting updates." Individuals opted in to meeting updates will receive email reminders and instructions for pass redemption, shipping your collateral and giveaways to the venue, one-time email list use of the registration list and more.

Need support? Have a question? Email howdy@healthplanalliance.org
The quickest way to get your sponsorship benefit and fulfillment questions answered is to email howdy@healthplanalliance.org. This inbox is monitored by the entire business development team, ensuring that your question gets answered as quickly as possible. 

TOP  

Alliance members in the news

Read the latest news about Alliance members making a difference in the communities they serve. 

 

Read more 

 

Quick links

Alliance Business Development Team

Need support? Email howdy@healthplanalliance.org

Jaime G. González,
DrPH, MSSW, MSHA
Chief Business Development Officer

 

Nicole Fultz
Director, CX and Communications 

 

Yuri Sung
Operations Specialist
(Meeting & Spotlight Webinar Support)

Thank you to our
2023 Preferred Business Sponsors

Alliance members sincerely appreciate the generous support of our Preferred Business Sponsor organizations. By uniting more than 45+ regional health plans that don't compete with one another in their markets, we have created a space where leading provider-sponsored health plans can freely and openly work together. Your support helps these organizations deliver better healthcare in the communities where they serve and live.