Thank You for Attending the 2nd Annual Health Insurance Exchange Congress

Timed just after the 2012 presidential elections, the second annual Health Insurance Exchange Congress was the place to be as state government officials shared their plans for exchange implementation and speakers in the know shared their first-hand experience building and running different aspects of an exchange. Some of their expertise was as follows:

• Jon Kingsdale, founding Executive Director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, eloquently shared that when it comes to building a health insurance exchange, it's best to K.I.S.S., or keep it simple, stupid!
• Kevin Yang, CIO of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange discussed best practices for building the IT infrastructure needed to support an exchange and highlighted how working with vendors has simplified the process
• Norm Thurston, the Health Reform Implementation Coordinator for the Governor's Office of Utah simplified the process by saying that exchanges need to do three things: provide consumers with a place to purchase insurance, inform them if they're eligible for a subsidy, and tell them if they're eligible for Medicaid.
• Kevin J. Counihan, CEO of Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange shared the importance of working with advisory groups to move the process forward.
• Jonathan Seib, Executive Policy Advisor to Governor Chris Gregoire in Washington shared insight into Washington's Basic Health Plan Option, which many think inspired the federal government's BHP Option.

As the federal government continues to release guidance on exchanges, we're looking forward to the Health Insurance Exchange Congress 2013, where hopefully we'll have more answers than ever before.

If you're interested in learning about other IIR Healthcare events we invite you to visit the website for the Medicare Congress, D.U.A.L.S. Forum and Medicaid Managed Care Congress.