ICYMI HLTH: Top Insights from NASCO

By Lori Logan, President and CEO

Attending the recent HLTH conference underscored two important truths:

• The healthcare affordability crisis demands we work collectively to solve it.
• The optimal way to better manage the total cost of healthcare, improve outcomes, and address affordability is through greater adoption of value-based care and the necessary and aligned product innovations.

Commentary and context about the high costs of healthcare were evident throughout the conference. For example, on day one, we heard entrepreneur Mark Cuban, founder of Cost Plus Drugs, speaking out against the forces that prevent too many Americans from being able to afford prescription drugs, and healthcare more generally, voicing bluntly how he believes the current system is failing Americans.

At the show, many of us had the opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and friends made throughout the decades we’ve worked in healthcare. Above all, our team was energized by the opportunity to discuss healthcare affordability, product innovation, and value-based care, and how NASCO can enable healthcare organizations to meet these challenges.

NASCO at HLTH: Our Top Insights

In case you missed HLTH 2025 or your perfect journey did not intersect with ours, here are a few of NASCO’s observations and takeaways from the show.

1. Affordability isn’t an option. It’s the key to survival.

It was an honor to participate in the show’s kickoff session, explore the barriers and obstacles that must be removed to achieve healthcare affordability, and explain why we at NASCO are all-in on value-based care. I was joined by Lori Aronson, VP, Care Delivery Solutions for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to discuss how health plans can lower administrative costs, achieve better medical cost management, and drive affordability. In our session, we unpacked obstacles payers face—especially in the context of value-based care—and explored strategies to streamline operations, manage risk, and ultimately deliver on the promise of affordability.

Some key points from our session were:

• The shift toward non-claim-based models—shared savings, bundled payments, employer health programs—and the introduction of innovative point solutions are challenging health plans. Legacy systems weren’t built to measure performance, settle, or manage these arrangements. What used to live in the claim now lives across fragmented systems. If a health plan can’t see the full picture, it can’t manage the total cost of care nor drive affordability.

• Health plans often treat product innovation and cost containment as separate strategies, but they are reciprocal forces. Medical cost innovation enables more flexible, competitive product offerings. It’s difficult to operationalize products like variable copay models, bundled procedures, and alternative health plans if the foundation isn’t in place. Plans that align these strategies can unlock greater value for members and employers.

• Medical cost innovation and risk-sharing require payer-provider collaboration, trust and transparency, and the willingness to evolve the relationship health plans have with their providers and members.

2. Many eyes were on NASCO Evolve

To refresh your memory, we introduced NASCO Evolve a few weeks ago. It’s the first purpose-built, claims system agnostic solution for alternative payment model (APM) management that can help accelerate expansion of value-based care and non-claim-based programs focused on the appropriate cost of care, risk, and quality. And I am pleased to report that our newest product is creating quite a buzz among health plans, thought leaders, and industry media.

For example, Heath Naquin shared in his LinkedIn recap of the HLTH session featuring NASCO and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan: “Blue Cross Blue Shield companies now have over 81 million members accessing care through value-based programs across all 50 states, with 654,000+ providers participating. This isn’t pilot-stage anymore. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s value-based settlements through platform tools like NASCO Evolve demonstrate the scalability that platforms enable.”

The most validating thing I heard at HLTH about NASCO Evolve was, “It seems like we’ve been waiting for forever for a solution to give us an accurate, real-time answer to the question: Are we driving down the total cost of care?”

3. Lots of HLTH attendees were talking about value-based care, and likely even more about the near-term impact of artificial intelligence (AI) to lower administrative costs for health plans.

The payer-provider dynamic is being rebuilt around AI and data interoperability. Conversations at HLTH pinpointed a strategic pivot toward ROI-driven technologies that simultaneously address workforce burnout and escalating cost. The overarching theme we saw conference-wide is that AI is now core to healthcare solutions. At the same time, ensuring AI is used responsibly is emerging as a critical concern for both payers and providers.

At NASCO, we take our work—helping customers manage the total cost of care—very seriously. But at HLTH, we also had a blast catching up with familiar faces, meeting new ones, and swapping stories. The energy reminded me of a college reunion—familiar faces, shared memories, and renewed hope for what comes next.

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