Our coverage from America’s Health Insurance Plans Institute 2012.

Sarah Thomas, Vice President, Public Policy and Communications, NCQA, states that there are 3 significant pieces of quality improvement strategies for health insurance exchanges.

A focus at the America’s Health Insurance Plans Institute 2012 is health insurance exchanges (HIX). With 30 million newly insured lives entering HIX in 2014, insurers face considerable risk. To assist insurers with managing this risk, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have developed 3 methods—reinsurance, risk adjustment, and risk corridors.

One of the featured workshops at the America's Health Insurance Plans Institute 2012 on Wednesday was the Health Reform Advanced Studies Workshop, which was an interactive session that touched on a number of healthcare issues. Here are some of the highlights.

Karen Ignagni, President and CEO, America's Health Insurance Plans, spoke on Wednesday about the looming Supreme Court decision and how it will impact insurers.

Robert Margolis, MD, Managing Partner and CEO, HealthCare Partners, states that physicians and hospitals need to understand how to assess health and insurance risks in order to provide better care.

In a heavily regulated market, it is becoming increasingly important for health plans to rely on innovative ideas. In order to do so, health insurers must create an organizational culture that places emphasis on flexibility and new ideas. In this session, presenters discuss some of the ways their organizations continue to break the mold in order to stay ahead of the curve.

"The problem is that incentives are still not aligned. Health plans need to align incentives so that hospitals are not losing and not being counterproductive of the goals they are striving for,” says Jan Berger, MD, MJ, President & CEO, Health Intelligence Partners and Editor-in-Chief, The American Journal of Pharmacy Benefits.

The lunchtime general session at AHIP Institute 2012 on Thursday featured a couple of big name speakers: Paul Begala and Ari Fleischer, both of whom are political analysts for CNN. They spoke to a packed ballroom about the hot topics in healthcare reform and how they see the 2012 Presidential election shaping up.

Much of the focus at AHIP Institute 2012 has naturally been on the issues that affect health plans and payers. However, one session in particular focused on some of the barriers and issues that providers face in today's complex healthcare environment.

Barry Kinzbrunner, MD, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, VITAS Corporation, states that hospice and palliative care programs are important in the coordination of care for patients.

Many organizations would like to get consumers more engaged in their health. However, many programs miss the mark by lacking key features that have the potential to improve participation rates.

Innovation in healthcare is becoming more important as the environment continues to evolve. There are a couple key components to increasing the adoption rate of new technologies and ideas in healthcare, according to Burns.