Event Schedule
Networking Continental Breakfast
Chairperson’s Opening Remarks:
The View from Washington on SDOH and Health Equity in 2025-2026
John Gorman
Founder and Chairman
Nightingale Partners
Maximizing Funding & Reimbursement Strategies to Sustain/Grow Your SDoH Programs
- What type of reimbursement models are working?
- How are health plans paying for these programs?
- What is successful and what isn’t?
- Options for paying for community health workers: What is part of the claims process and what isn’t?.
- What falls under MLR?
- Looking at momentum towards ILOS/1115 Waivers: How can more states implement?
- Which states are making progress and how can plans pursue?
- How are people successfully deploying the 1115 Waivers?
Keshia Bigler,
MPH, Director Social Health
CareOregon
Lora Council, M.D,MPH, MCHM,
Chief Medical Officer
Fallon Health
Panel:
Return on Equity for SDoH Programs: Measuring and Justifying the Cost of Care for SDoH Programs
- Improving population performance to improve quality outcomes
- How do you really under the value SDoH and Health Equity programs bring
- Quantifying your efforts
- Measured and justified programs: SDoH interventions outcomes
- Gaining the trust of the community
- Accessing the systems correctly
- How can you measure it?
- Engagement is key
- Increase in well visits? Decrease in ER visits?
- Making a business case to make money to save money
Moderator:
Panelists
Cesar Armendariz, EML,
Senior Director, Community Health, Community Health Administration
Inland Empire Health Plan
Tammy Hendricks,MBA,
Director of Health Equity & Outreach
Access Health CT
Founder
Hendricks Consulting and Company
Amber Smits,
Quality Revenue and Health Equity Supervisor
Network Health
Additional Speakers TBA
Networking Refreshment Break
Panel:
Leveraging CBO Partnerships to Advance SDoH Programs & Improve Care
- Strategic partnerships and intentional positioning
- Expanding community engagement
- Building capacity through your existing partners
- How do you support CBOs to embrace Value Based Care through meaningful partnerships?
- Contracting with insurance providers
- Look to scan environment
- New and innovative partnerships
- Establishing culturally competent staff
Moderator:
Mohamed Jalloh,
Pharm D, BCPS, Health Equity Director
Partnership HealthPlan of California
Panelists
Cesar Armendariz,EML,
Senior Director, Community Health, Community Health Administration
Inland Empire Health Plan
Tammy Hendricks,MBA,
Director of Health Equity & Outreach
Access Health CT
Founder
Hendricks Consulting and Company
Deanna Grabill,
Population Health
Valleywise Health
Nancy Wongvipat Kalev,MPH,
Senior Director, Systems of Care
Health Net, LLC
Todd Graham,
President,
Highmark Health Options Delaware
Panel:
Workforce Challenges, Social Services, Community Care Hubs, and Social Resources, to Create Whole Person Care
- Continued expansion of community health workers
- Equitable pay and equitable work
- How are Community Care Hubs changing the SDoH landscape?
- How do you navigate workflow issues?
- How are your leveraging existing resources that are available?
- Supporting HUBs/CHWs in the space of sustainability via aging and chronic disease services
- Reimbursement innovations
- Leverage automation and technology for social needs resource hubs
- Community Health Worker supervision, training, and career development
Moderator:
Kanita Bourne, LCSW, MPA
Manager, Social & Community Services,
Inland Empire Health Plan
Panelists:
Tanikka C. Price, JD, EdD,
Chief Education and Equity Officer
Health Impact Ohio
Kelly Nielsen,
Director
Omaha Pathways Community HUB
Keshia Bigler,MPH,
Director Social Health
CareOregon
Seiji Hayashi,MD, MPH, FAAFP,
Interim Chief Medical Officer, Community Health Plan of DC, Lead Medical Director for Government Programs,
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
Ohio Case Study:
Collective Impact Collaboration: Working With the Competition for Real Results
- Taking a close look at how health plans work together for the same mission
- Logistics, communication, meetings
- Pooling funds for a bigger impact
- Decision making power
Kate Tullio,MPH, MS,
Director, Health Equity
CareSource
Additional Speakers TBA
Networking Lunch
Who Helps the Helpers? Strategies to Heal and Protect
- Identify and validate staff health resilience as a social determinant of health--both for the communities that helpers serve, and for helpers themselves
- Ways to sustain staffing in fields burdened by trauma exposure and burnout.
- Ways to address trauma exposure that share responsibility between staff members, their supervisors, and their larger organizational structures
- Ways to incorporate local helper feedback into state policy
Robert Mundy,
Money Follows the Person Demonstration - MAP Specialist Division of Long- Term Care Services
Maryland Department of Health (MDH)
Case Study:
Replicating Partnerships for Growth and Scalability
- What does a scalable CBO partnership look like?
- What worked? What didn’t? And how can you grow the programs?
- Workforce challenges and setbacks
- Design and patient referrals
- Building capacity through your existing partners
Erin Brigham-Gray,MPH, CPHQ,
Senior Director, Quality & Population Health
CareSource
Topic TBA
Networking Refreshment Break
Case Study:
Innovative, Actionable, and Scalable Strategies to Combat Food Insecurities
- Evidence-driven solutions
- Creative funding options and offsetting short-term financial burden
- Building sustainable solutions
- Where does the administration stan on food, nutrition, and health?
- What works locally but doesn’t work nationally (and vice versa)
- How many member touch points is enough?
Allison Hess,
Vice President Health Innovations
Geisinger
Tara M. Davis,
SVP/Chief Programs Officer
Central Pennsylvania Food Bank
Panel:
Building a Better Infrastructure to Improve Housing Insecurities and Create Sustainable Change
- Recognizing the magnitude and ripple affect of housing insecurities on health outcomes
- Evidence-based solutions
- Securing more resources and funding for members
- How is the administration prioritizing housing insecurities?
- National partnerships
- Grassroot initiatives
- Justice system reform
How Are Plans Resolving the Problems that Still Contribute to Transportation Insecurities
- What are the latest innovations health plans are using to improve transportation insecurities?
- Improving accessibility, timeliness, and communication
- Partnerships that work
Moderator:
Panel:
Craig W. Fisher,
Director, Product Development & Growth Initiatives
Jefferson Health Plans
Winnie Grim,
Supplemental Benefits Manager
Zing Health
Aditya Tyagi,
Founder
Connect2Health
Scholars Researcher
HonorHealth
Networking Cocktail Reception
Networking Continental Breakfast
Chairperson’s Opening Remarks:
Recognizing & Adequately Responding to the Alarming Disparity in Infant/Maternal Mortality & Morbidity
- Acknowledging the differences and prioritizing the necessary changes
- How are plans tackling the problem and making actual headway
- Tactical and actionable engagement strategies
- From pregnancy to post-partum and everything in between: What is working?
- Examining the effectiveness of doulas initiatives
- Examining the intersection of housing and maternal mortality
- Targeted initiatives and results
Rosemond Sarpong Owens,MPH/CDM,
Director- Racial & Health Equity
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota
Wendy Milligan,
Vice President, Strategic Sales and Enablement
ProgenyHealth, LLC
Lauryn M. Davin,MPH,
Health Equity Specialist
UCare
Panel:
Using Meaningful Data for Predictive Analytics and Improved SDoH Health Outcomes
- Driving outcomes through meaningful and useful data
- How to measure impact of interventions
- Data and the intersection of Health Information Exchanges
- What can you measure? Challenges or dependency of that data
- Transitioning from a scattered shot to a more clearly defined and more strategic data driven approach
- How do you get there with dashboard, statewide data, community health needs assessment, and screening data?
- How are plans leveraging information to understand and target population better?
- Are physicians able to understand what interventions have taken place?
- How are health plans collecting SDoH data? Member vs provider?
Moderator:
Keslie Crichton,
Chief Sales Officer
Benelynk
Panelists:
Pleasant A. Radford
Jr., Health Equity Officer
UCare
Jill Alessi,RN, BSN, MHA,
Chief Executive Officer
Mountain-Pacific Quality Health
DeLorean Ruffin,DrPH, MPH,
Director of Population Health Management
Partnership HealthPlan of California
Leveraging AI, Technology, & Automation to Improve SDoH Initiatives
- How are plans using technology in hard-to-reach populations?
- Strategies and solutions for traditional patients traditionally doesn’t apply so how are plans tackling/accomplishing their SDoH goals?
- Predictive modeling innovations in the SDoH space
- How are plans effectively identifying member needs and demographics?
- Interoperability solutions for plans, provider, CBOs, and vendors
- Touch point advancements using technology and AI
- Looking at the growing role of AI in SDoH
- Maintaining the human touch
Navid Amini,
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
Additional Speaker TBA
Networking Refreshment Break
TBA
Panel:
The Intersection Between Behavioral Health, SUD, and SDoH
- How is SDoH and health equity affecting people’s mental health in today’s climate?
- How are plans to responding to the mounting pressure of behavioral health and SDoH initiatives?
- Tactical steps to reduce suicide rates among groups of disproportional risk
- How does substance abuse play a role within these markets?
Moderator:
Panelists:
Nicki Venem,CPC, MSML,
Director, Network Innovation
Independent Doctors of Idaho
Katrina Roebuck,
Senior Director of Systems Integration
Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services City of Philadelphia
Salma Sparklin,MPH,
Business Strategy and Transformation Manager, Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
Measuring Health Equity Index Scores and It’s Impact on Stars
- Where should plans begin?
- What is the expect HEI impact?
- Projected scores
- Prioritizing your HEI roadmap
Co-Presenters:
Amber Smits,
Quality Revenue and Health Equity Supervisor
Network Health
Additional Speaker TBA