Value-Based Care Conferences: An Overview
Ryan T. Mackman, MBA, MHA, CLSSGB
Impacting the future of healthcare in Wisconsin through operations & strategy backed by data.
Please note, this blog is not being posted on our company website as this is my personal opinion and only my personal opinion.
As we kick off 2022 (I feel like I always say this, but wow last year went by fast), my team and I are already focused on putting together our upcoming conference budget. Which conferences do we want to attend? Which conferences do we want to sponsor? Which conferences do we want to speak at? Is it worth bringing a whole booth? Does each conference even attract our target market? These are all questions we try to answer as early as possible because once conference season rolls around, it gets quite hectic.
As the value-based care industry continues to grow, I’m finding that more and more clients, colleagues, vendors, and other industry leaders are asking me (and others) which conferences I enjoy the most. I know there are a lot of options out there, and when you only have so much time available each year to get out of the office for continuing education, you want to make the right choice to avoid wasting time and money.
You can use this to help determine whether you’d like to attend an upcoming conference, and if you have any questions about prior attendance, feel free to e-mail me at rmackman@salient.com. I’m putting this list in alphabetical order for easy organization, and each title should have the appropriate conference link. By no means is this the be-all-end-all in value-based care conferences. In fact, if you have any suggestions that didn’t make my list, please feel free to share those with me. I would love to look into them. I’ve also added a segment pointing to various memberships we’ve engaged in that have been beneficial. Without further ado…
VALUE-BASED CARE-FOCUSED CONFERENCES
AHIP is a conference that was brought to my attention by my colleague Maria Nikol. Part of the reason for that is she’s based in the northeast, and this conference is sometimes held right near her, making it an easy drive. They do have an Annual Conference as well as a National Conference on Medicare, Medicaid, & Dual Eligibles that more recently has been fully virtual (also making for easy access). It’s not really value-based care focused, but it does have a lot on Medicare, which if you’re engaged in Medicare or Medicare Advantage value-based care contracts, you’ll want to keep up on the latest information. Thus, my advice is, while not a great venue if you’re a vendor or business partner, it is a great venue if you’re a subject matter expert looking to learn more about what’s new in your industry.
AMGA is a conference that we’ve not yet attended, but it’s recently popped up on our radar as a possible addition to our schedule. Their agendas appear to be more networking-centric, so I don’t know how much value-based care content is available. However, I suspect that much like MGMA, below, they will eventually add more VBC content as the shift towards APMs and Direct Contracting continues. Stay tuned on this one…
APG is one of the leading associations for physician groups in the United States, and they have two major conferences every year: the APG Annual Conference and the APG Colloquium. They’re each a little different from each other, especially with the Annual Conference always in California and the Colloquium always in Washington, DC, which gives you options depending on your travel requirements. Typically, the Annual Conference is about exchange of ideas, best practices, major changes in policy, and really does a great job of bringing together Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), Clinically Integrated Networks (CINs), Direct Contracting Entities (DCEs), and other large medical groups together by offering a variety of subjects that interest all of them. The APG Colloquium tends to be more policy-focused, and part of that is because it’s always held in Washington, DC they have access to various government speakers from CMS.
FLAACOS is the preeminent value-based care conference for provider organizations that are based in the state of Florida. Held every Fall in Orlando, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), Clinically Integrated Networks (CINs), Direct Contracting Entities (DCEs), and other groups like MSOs, IPAs, etc. all convene to discuss new policy changes, best practices, and network. There are a lot of similarities between NAACOS and FLAACOS (and not just the last five letters in their names), but because a lot of the Florida value-based care organizations prefer to stay within the state, many opt for FLAACOS over NAACOS each year. Given that Florida has the second-highest number of Medicare and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in the United States, it’s absolutely worth heading to this conference every year.
Global Health Care, LLC puts on a series of conferences. Some are value-based care-focused, some are not. The ones that we choose to attend from their “menu” is as follows:
(GHC-I) National ACO Summit
The National ACO Summit is a fully virtual conference. If you’re a subject matter expert or a healthcare executive in value-based care, this is a virtual conference you’ll want to log into. It has great content, excellent speakers, and while there’s not much networking it’s still a conference we try to add to our calendars when we can.
(GHC-II) National Bundled Payment Summit
The National Bundled Payment Summit is rebranding as the Virtual Collocated Value-Based Payment Summits where they combine five smaller conferences together (ACO/Direct Contracting Summit, Bundled Payment Summit, Medical Home/Advanced Primary Care Summit, MACRA MIPS/APM Summit, and the Medicare Advantage Summit). If you’re a subject matter expert or a healthcare executive in value-based care, this is a virtual conference you’ll want to log into. It has great content, excellent speakers, and while there’s not much networking it’s still a conference we try to add to our calendars when we can.
(GHC-III) Population Health Colloquium
The Population Health Colloquium is different than the two above conferences which have a somewhat similar theme. The Colloquium is more about business solutions coming from different healthcare walks of life. All of that then gets funneled into population health. So, it’s not just ACOs, CINs, and DCEs. It’s anyone that does anything under the population health umbrella. They really do get a good mix of speakers, and it does offer some excellent networking if you’re willing to reach out and connect to people on your own. Just make sure you introduce yourself as a conference attendee.
HFMA is more of an outside-the-box conference for those who are specifically in the value-based care space. However, for the rest of the healthcare world it’s a major conference. It’s important to note that over the last few years they’ve been getting more value-based care organizations to attend because there’s clearly a financial component to our industry. As Alternative Payment Models (APMs) slowly become more mainstream, I would expect HFMA to continue to add more seminars that are VBC-focused. At the moment, it’s still worth attending, and if you have a financially focused use case, it might be worth speaking at as well.
HiMSS always seems to be one of the first conferences anyone recommends across the entire healthcare industry, and I think part of the reason for that is both the sheer grandeur and for how long they have been around. It’s quite the spectacle, and if you’ve never been, I’d suggest going as an attendee at least once, but prepare to get a little lost. It’s that big. Thankfully, they always have a Fist Timer’s Conference Orientation session on Day 1. The only reason I don’t have HiMSS as a regular must-attend is because it’s not that value-based care focused. As far as interoperability, blockchain, telehealth, new technological advancements, medical devices, wearables, and new policies that directly affect healthcare IT, it’s a wonderful event. It’s worth keeping an eye on their continually evolving agenda, but more recently we’ve replaced HiMSS with some of the other conferences I’ve mentioned in here.
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HLTH is a relative newcomer to, not just value-based care, but to healthcare as a whole as they try to paint broad strokes by bringing in executives across the entire healthcare spectrum. Starting in 2018, HLTH has quickly become one of the go-to conferences for healthcare executives. They routinely bring in some of the brightest minds and industry leaders as speakers, and they offer great networking opportunities. I’m a big fan of their Hosted Buyer Program which is kind of like speed dating for vendors and business partners. HLTH sets up 15-minute meetings with your company and other organizations that are looking for your services. It doubles as a great networking opportunity because I’ve always felt if you don’t make a connection to do business, you may be able to help someone else they (or you) may know later. It’s also worth mentioning that HLTH has a new spin-off conference called ViVE. I haven’t been to it, so I can’t comment on it directly, but it looks like it’s more focused on those in healthcare technology. If you’re in that space, and you’re in value-based care, it might be worth looking into.
The Health Care Payment Learning & Action Network (LAN) Summit is a smaller conference designed to bring healthcare executives together to discuss ideas and policy regarding alternative payment models (APMs). The LAN Summit has been happening since 2015, and it has been fully virtual since 2019. If you’re a subject matter expert looking to gain more knowledge, the LAN Summit is an excellent educational event. Quality reporting, strategies for achieving success with downside-risk, and how to transform clinical practices from fee-for-service to value-based care are a few of the common topics of discussion. I think one of the bright spots of the LAN Summit is that they don’t necessarily stay so high level. Adaptations of workflows and how-to sessions are more common here (like NAACOS Bootcamp). Also, over the last few years there has been more efforts to involve Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) discussions. Overall, it’s an excellent conference if you’re a healthcare executive. Maybe not so much if you’re just looking to sell a product.
MGMA focuses primarily on medical practices, and they do put on a lot of events across the country every year for their members. Our only focus has been their Annual Conference, and while I was an MGMA member in my prior role before Salient Healthcare, there wasn’t a big value-based care movement…until now. As Direct Contracting has become more popular among large medical practices that want to get into value-based care, but don’t want to join an ACO, the seminar topics at MGMA have started to become inclusive of more value-based care. I fully expect this trend to continue, so while at the moment it may not be worth setting a booth up there, I would expect in the next 1-2 years this will change.
NAACOS has long been a favorite conference for the Salient Healthcare team. They offer everything from best practices and policy updates to innovative solutions and great networking opportunities. Because NAACOS is value-based care specific, they’re an absolute must if you’re in this industry. Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), Clinically Integrated Networks (CINs), Direct Contracting Entities (DCEs), and other groups like MSOs, IPAs, etc. all convene at one of the three big annual conferences put on by NAACOS each year. There’s a Spring conference, typically held in Baltimore, MD each April, a Fall conference, typically held in Washington, DC each September, and Bootcamp, which has variable dates. Keep in mind that the Spring and Fall conferences are designed more for the exchange of ideas and policy updates, while Bootcamps are typically designed for more granular instruction on how to accomplish particular initiatives within your organization.
Rise actually has a series of conferences with Rise National being the largest of the bunch. There’s also a Rise West, designed to bring in more of the West Coast crowd. Rise National has a lot on data analytics, risk adjustment, compliance, post-acute care utilization, and coding which all dance around value-based care. So, it’s not VBC-specific, but if you’re in VBC, it’s worth attending at least once. Even better if you can score a speaking engagement (you’ll want a use case to speak on because they don’t like straight sales pitches). At a minimum, it’s excellent networking, but I know that, alone, isn’t typically worth the price that some of these conferences charge.
Most of these conferences do offer continuing education credits which is great if you’re a part of any of the organizations that put the conferences together, or the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), which I’m a member of. They, too, have an annual conference, but it’s not value-based care focused enough for us to warrant attending just yet.
Also, it’s important to note that many of these conferences were in-person conferences prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. As you click through the links, you’ll see some conferences have returned to full, in-person attendance, some are still fully virtual, and some offer a hybrid option. From my personal experience, virtual conferences are great for subject matter experts who want to gain more knowledge, but they’re awful for vendors or business partners who want to engage with potential clients. If you are a vendor, and you want to attend a virtual conference, make sure they have an app, such as Whova, to help with communication. Unfortunately, without the assistance of a conference app, brand engagement drops significantly, so you’ll want to reach out to the conference organizers to see if they have something like that set up.
MEMBERSHIPS
I have a separate section here dedicated to memberships because they do intertwine with conferences to some degree. In some cases, membership may include a discounted price at some of the above conferences mentioned.
The Accountable Care Learning Collaborative is more of a hub for value-based care organizations. Their thought is that a collaborative approach to VBC will ultimately lead to better innovation and better outcomes. They have their own white papers, podcast, and peer-to-peer events that make membership worthwhile. They also get involved with several conferences because former CMS Administrator Mark McClellan is frequently asked to speak, and he happens to be a co-founder of the ACLC. Past conferences they’ve been involved with include:
ACO Exhibit Hall (recently rebranded as The Exhibit Halls) is a wonderful resource for webinars and virtual exhibit booths of many value-based care vendors and business partners. They also provide a weekly newsletter of curated articles to help their members stay on top of a rapidly evolving industry. Because of their ability to build virtual exhibit booths, they’ve been more involved in conferences since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as many conferences moved to a virtual environment.
KLAS Research is predominantly a third-party research firm that evaluates what different vendors and business partners bring to their respective spaces within the healthcare industry. Think of it as a Consumer Reports of sorts, and the ratings and rankings by KLAS go a long way towards giving prospective clients a leg up on finding the right solution for their need. KLAS also has a series of their own events, and they get involved in HiMSS, mentioned above. Here are some of the VBC-related conferences you can attend by being a KLAS member.
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about the various conferences in our industry. By no means is this the definitive list. In fact, if you have any suggestions, please send them my way. I'm sure that as time passes, even more new conferences will be created, and we'll all want to hear about those as well. I hope to see you at one, or more of, these in the near future.
Seasoned Value Based Care, Population Health, Data Science/Analytics, Health Plan, and Finance Executive | SVP, Value-Based Care, Population Health, and Pricing @ Teladoc Health
2yThanks for sharing
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2yGreat summary. Thanks for sharing this vast knowledge with us.