What you missed: Three key insights from the AHIP Institute & Expo

The America's Health Insurance Plans' (AHIP) Institute & Expo provides a snapshot of the major influences driving healthcare today, as well as the emerging issues that the healthcare industry will be facing in the years to come — both for health plan leaders and other industry stakeholders.

"This year's AHIP Institute showed that healthcare industry players are coming together to tackle big issues for patients," said Cindy Pigg, vice president of Managed Care and Business Development at Cardinal Health.

So what learnings came out of this year’s event? Here are three key insights from #AHIPInstitute.

The same technologies that are causing a revolution in patient care are also transforming the way consumers engage with their health insurance.

One emerging technology that's poised to make a splash in health insurance: blockchain. When discussing a blockchain network set up by several healthcare companies earlier this year, speakers noted that the technology is particularly well-suited to curing some of health insurance's biggest ailments, including securing data, improving transparency, and allowing for increased data interoperability.

Both consumers and payers want insurance that's more personalized and more accessible, and the experts agreed that technology can help make that happen.

(Related: Blockchain in healthcare: Three important take-aways from a recent ACHE panel)

Conference experts emphasized the need to not only meet the day-to-day needs of consumers, but also address the social determinants that impact health outcomes outside of clinical settings.

That makes make it a top priority for payers and providers in the quest to reduce disparities and improve outcomes for broader patient populations.

Experts agreed that addressing social determinants — like income, employment and neighborhood/environment — involves forward-thinking organizational changes and using data to more accurately capture the true impact that social determinants have had over time.

AHIP also announced a new initiative called Project Link that it said is meant to build on the social determinants-related work that health plans have been doing independently for the last several years.

(Related: Keeping populations healthy: How health systems can address social determinants)

Michael Chernew, PhD, director of Harvard Medical School's Healthcare Markets and Regulations Lab, led a session titled “Value-Based Insurance Landscape in 2021" that provided a broad look at various alternative payment model (APM) efforts put forth by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and how they both do and do not support a system that quantifies value over volume. In another session, panelists talked about the need for payers and providers to hold each other accountable as the transition to value-based care continues. 

A major takeaway: we haven't found the perfect APM yet, and there's not going to be just one payment solution that works for all. But it's important to work together to come up with new ways of making sure that improving the value of care doesn't come at such a high cost, and that providers can continue supporting a system that puts patients first.

(Related: Value-based care often begins with the supply chain)