At the KHC 2018 Annual Conference, “Connecting Mental and Physical Health,” our organization pledged to continue to focus on the what many would say is Kentucky’s most important healthcare priority – behavioral healthcare. In addition to the many projects and grants related to behavioral health that we’ve had in the last year, our KHC 2019 Annual Conference continued the conversation started in 2018, titled “High Value Behavioral Healthcare.”
Featuring a day jam-packed with engaging presentations and panels, the KHC 2019 Annual Conference was a success in highlighting the changes needed to help community members get access to timely, appropriate mental health services and treatment, through the latest advancements in value-based behavioral healthcare.
Details about the conference agenda and speakers can be found here, but some of the highlights included:
- A motivating opening speech by Mental Health America President and CEO Paul Gionfriddo, which got a standing ovation – a first ever for the KHC Annual Conference. If you are unfamiliar with Gionfriddo’s story or work, take few minutes to read his essay for “Health Affairs.”
- An employer roadmap for achieving high value behavioral healthcare, developed by the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, to ensure that organizations’ health plans drive high value care.
- Panels on the unaddressed drivers and contributors of behavioral health and new bundled payments to incent addiction recovery. Stay tuned for follow-ups with more discussion from these panelists on our blog!
- A story of successful implementation of behavioral telehealth medical services by the Kentucky Employees’ Health Plan, presented by Commissioner Jenny Goins.
New Strategies Improve Interaction, Engagement
A record 212 individuals attended this year’s conference, and 75 of those individuals attended the pre-conference reception the evening before the conference, where they were able to meet with other attendees, conference speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors. Although always a challenging endeavor because of people’s demanding schedules, there was an increase of more the 40% in attendance and more food had to be ordered to accommodate. A fantastic problem to have!
The KHC also implemented a new system of commenting and asking questions, through Slido.com, which allowed more questions to be asked more efficiently. Compared to the previous app that we had used, this got a lot more engagement. We were able to archive additional questions that weren’t addressed and followed up with our speakers on them – stay tuned for those answers, coming soon!
The comments received from participants were overall very positive and educational. We are reviewing the feedback now and will use it to guide our future conference planning.
KHC conference achieved directive and financial objectives
The KHC staff, Executive Committee, and members appreciate our community coming together for another outstanding conference examining how to create a high value behavioral healthcare system. The conference met attendee’s expectations and provided finances to further the work of the KHC. The success of the conference would not have been possible without the support of our sponsors and exhibitors. A huge thank you to our Gold sponsors Pacira Pharmaceutical and Artemis Health, who each presented a showcase. An immense thank you to our partner Norton Healthcare, who has been a Silver sponsor for the fifth year. We also want to thank our partners Kentucky Primary Care Association and LG&E-KU for being Bronze sponsors. This year many of our partners and community organizations sponsored tables, allowing many of their employees and associates to attend the conference. A big thank you to table sponsors Norton Healthcare, Baptist Health, CHI Saint Joseph Health Partners/Our Lady of Peace, Anthem, Novo Nordisk, Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental, and Intellectual Disabilities, Trager Institute, Blue and Co. CPA, Commonwealth of Kentucky Personnel Cabinet, and Louisville Society of Human Resource Management. A pre-conference reception allowed attendees, exhibitors, and speakers to network. Thank you to Humana for sponsoring the reception. Finally, we want to say thank you to all of the exhibitors and attendees who participated in this year’s conference.
There is no rest when it comes to the KHC Annual Conference, so we’ve already begun planning the KHC 2020 Annual Conference, our sixth. Save the date for March 11, 2020, and stay tuned for the conference title!
