Empowering
Health Plan
Administrators

If McKinsey’s 2024 Employer Health Benefits Survey is correct, health plans are going to be increasingly challenged

After nearly 40 years of helping health plans build a better healthcare system in America, NASCO has announced a strategic evolution in its business with a new visual identity and a sharpened focus on empowering health plans to innovate, grow, and provide better healthcare experiences.

Let me start with my view: I hope health plans will significantly expand their value-based care arrangements in the coming year while simultaneously ensuring their models are viable and a win-win for their providers and effective in helping members and their care circles navigate appropriate care.

In June, at NASCO’s 2024 Conference, I had the wonderful opportunity to partner with Kirk Barnes to organize a panel of healthcare thought leaders to discuss the impacts and implications of artificial intelligence (AI) on our industry.

There is a widely held belief among healthcare experts that value-based care can reduce healthcare costs, improve healthcare coordination and quality of care, and help to alleviate physician burnout. Increasing evidence supports this belief.

Most employers choose to self-fund health benefits for their employees. In 2023, for example, 65 percent of covered workers were in a self-funded or administrative services only (ASO) health plan, up from 52 percent 20 years ago. At large firms, the number climbed to 83 percent last year.