Making Innovation Stick: A Peer Conversation for Benefits Leaders
Speaker: Fiona Stevenson

Innovation often stalls not because of bad ideas, but because of real-world barriers inside complex organizations. In this highly interactive, peer-driven session, you will share candid experiences about what gets in the way of your innovation, how you support your teams through change, and how you successfully make the case to leadership for new approaches. You will engage in facilitated discussions that surface common challenges and proven solutions from across industries. This session creates space for you to have honest conversations about budget constraints, stakeholder resistance, and the patience required for meaningful transformation. You will leave with practical language for advocating change, shared insights from peers facing similar obstacles, and renewed confidence to move your promising ideas forward.

Health Action Council’s Health Plan Annual Aggregate Assessment Report

Speakers: Health Action Council & Craig Kurtzweil

Join this interactive presentation to learn how stratified Health Action Council data can help you improve your population’s health outcomes and manage their continuum of health. We will narrow your focus to a few key metrics that will assist in mitigating risk and lowering costs within your population to maintain and improve its health status. These metrics are key to achieving and sustaining superior satisfaction as well as preserving the population’s health. As you look ahead to 2027 and review strategies to lower your benefit costs and improve productivity, examine these key performance metrics.

Words to Use and Words to Lose: Using Personas to Build Engagement

Speaker: Anne Blum

Standard healthcare messaging often fails to resonate, leaving a significant portion of your population unengaged. This session explores why your traditional communication may fall short and how you can bridge the gap using the power of psychographics. Rather than focusing on demographics, you will dive into the internal drivers and core motivations that shape how your members view their health and take action. Through interactive exercises, you will discover the six WellBEINGS personas and learn to identify the unique language triggers that move each segment from passive awareness to active participation. You will gain practical tools for transitioning from information-focused messaging to value-based communication that resonates. You will leave with a Translation Desk toolkit and strategies for building communication that speaks directly to the diverse motivations of your entire workforce.

Taking Action: Leveraging our research

Speaker: Jennifer Lahtinen

Through candid discussions, you’ll benchmark your practices against industry peers to discover which actions drive results. We will explore how to translate complex analytics into a compelling business case for change while maintaining superior employee satisfaction. Leave with practical ideas on how to navigate the continuum of health and deliver actionable, data-driven decisions that safeguard your organization’s long-term health and financial stability.

Bridging Culture and Technology: Creating a Modern and Connected Employee Experience

Speaker: Jen Peery

As the workforce evolves, organizations must balance physical and digital solutions to create accessible, engaging experiences that support both employees and organizational culture, while also delivering proven and meaningful ROI on workforce investments. HR leaders face the challenge of meeting diverse employee expectations while leveraging technology in ways that strengthen connection, trust, and participation across the organization. The session will explore the role of personalization, the use of data and AI to tailor experiences, and strategies for addressing adoption barriers, security concerns, and generational differences in technology use. By blending physical and digital approaches, organizations can optimize efficiency, improve employee well-being, and create a benefits experience that meets the needs of a modern workforce.

Direct Access Meets Virtual Needs
Speaker: Elena Gambon

n today’s healthcare environment, high costs and barriers to access prevent many people from reaching the services they need, particularly primary and mental healthcare. Currently, 60% of patients do not have a primary care provider, while 92% do not receive appropriate preventive care. These gaps exacerbate existing health issues, resulting in worse outcomes, more intensive interventions, and higher costs over time.

This presentation will outline how to design innovative primary care solutions that achieve high utilization and patient satisfaction, with a focus on direct, value-based virtual care models. It will explore common barriers to healthcare access, including confusion around navigating the system, long wait times, and hands-off care approaches, and discuss how to overcome them with engaging, direct solutions that put care back in the patient’s hands.

Finding Actionable Savings in Your Claims Data

Speaker: Mary Henderson

Benefits leaders are flooded with decks and dashboards yet still struggle to pinpoint true cost drivers and durable ROI. This session gives HR and benefits leaders a practical “Monday-Morning Data Playbook” for using existing carrier, TPA, and vendor reports to make defensible cost and ROI decisions. Through three real-world analytics stories—a maternity support program, managing obesity care, and a short- versus long-term ROI review—participants will practice simple checks to surface hidden cost drivers, see which members truly benefit, and spot fragile savings stories. Attendees leave with a one-page Monday-ready checklist, concrete prompts to use with brokers and vendors, and greater confidence owning their organization’s data narrative.

Taking Control of the Formulary: How Employers Can Drive Clinical Oversight
Speakers: Josh Bellamy

Historically, employers have left formulary management to PBMs, often resulting in coverage driven by rebates rather than clinical value. As pharmacy costs outpace medical trends and fiduciary scrutiny increases, employers must take an active role in oversight. This session explores the benefits of therapeutic optimization and responsible strategies for evaluating new market entries. By combining systematic drug class reviews with forward-looking evaluations, employers can strengthen clinical governance and anticipate cost drivers.

Empowering Employers: Driving Employee Health Through Food Is Medicine
Speaker: Hilary Seligman, MD, MAS

This presentation outlines how employers can play a transformative role in improving workforce health through food is medicine (FIM) strategies. With chronic diseases driving most of the healthcare spending and many rooted in poor nutrition, employers face rising costs, reduced productivity, and widening disparities. The evidence shows that medically tailored meals, medically tailored groceries, and produce prescriptions can improve health outcomes, reduce hospitalizations, and lower costs—benefiting both employees and organizations.

Public demand for nutrition-based solutions is strong, and emerging trends are shaping how individuals approach health. FIM initiatives align closely with employer priorities including employee well-being, productivity, retention, and cost management. Learn about resources and tools to help you scale effective evidence-based FIM programs that support a healthier, more resilient workforce.

Beyond Time Off: Strategies to Navigating Modern Approaches to Leave
Speaker: Melanie Payton

The leave and absence landscape has seen significant transformation in the last five years, driven by legislative changes and shifting employee expectations. Employers, particularly those with multi-state footprints, are navigating increasing complexity as they work to ensure compliance, support their workforce, and balance operational needs. This session will explore the most impactful developments, including Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) programs, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), refreshed views on paid time off design, and the resulting implications for employers across various regions.

Location Matters: The power of Site of Care Strategies to Drive Down Costs and Improve Oucomes

Speaker:Erin Tatar

Shifting the site of care for high-cost procedures like musculoskeletal surgeries and specialty infusions significantly reduces unnecessary spending while improving patient outcomes. Organizations often waste healthcare dollars by lacking a site of care strategy, but a modern Centers of Excellence approach allows for direct contracting with high-quality local providers. By optimizing these locations, companies achieve superior clinical value without compromising quality. Success requires effective communication strategies to guide employees toward these lower-cost options with minimal disruption. This proactive model enhances the patient experience, drives measurable savings, and fosters a culture of informed healthcare decision-making.

The Hidden Risks in Your Health Plan

Speaker: Health Action Council

Rising medical and pharmacy costs aren’t driven only by clinical risk—they’re shaped by social drivers that influence care access and outcomes. In this session, we connect the dots between social determinants of health (SDoH) and employer risk, showing how disparities quietly erode plan performance and productivity. Using research-backed insights, we’ll highlight where gaps surface across common conditions and what employers can do to reduce avoidable costs. You’ll learn to identify risk signals in your data, remove access barriers, and optimize community-based supports. Move from intent to implementation by strengthening preventive care and equity. Ideal for leaders ready to transform their health strategy.