AHIP Meeting Starts Tomorrow | 2024 AHIP

Health insurance executives are gathering in Las Vegas this week to network and learn about the topics that nearly U.S. healthcare sector is grappling with: artificial intelligence (AI), the surge in prescriptions for glucagon-like peptide 1s (GLP-1s) and cybersecurity.

This will be first annual meeting of the political advocacy and trade organization with Mike Tuffin at the helm. Tuffin became the president and CEO of AHIP on Jan. 8, 2024.

Mandy K. Cohen, M.D., M.P.H.

The meeting, which is being Wynn Las Vegas hotel, starts tomorrow with a keynote session on modernizing the U.S. public health infrastructure that features Mandy K. Cohen, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as a speaker.

When AHIP surveyed a sample of about 20 healthcare leaders about the meeting, nearly 80% indicated that they hoped to learn more about artificial intelligence (AI). Six of the meeting’s smaller “concurrent” sessions are focused on the AI, and first keynote session Wednesday morning is titled “The Promise of AI in Healthcare.” The scheduled speakers are Shawn Wang, chief AI officer, Elevance Health; David C. Rhew, global chief medical officer and vice president, Microsoft; and Miriam Vogel, president and CEO of EqualAI and chair of the National AI Advisory Committee.

The cybersecurity attack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, has heightened concerns about such attacks on insurers. The scheduled speakers at the “influencer” session on cybersecurity are Clark Harshbarger, director response, Crowdstrike; Steve Roberts, CEO of Eclipz Cybersecurity; and Ari Scwartz, managing director, cybersecurity services, Venable LLP.

GLP-1s are also casting a large shadow on U.S. healthcare these days, and many insurer have taken steps to control prescriptions andThe meeting’s second day is scheduled to start with a keynote session titled “GLP-1 Drugs: A Paradigm Shift in Obesity Prevention and Treatment.” On the panel of scheduled speakers are Melanie R. Jay, M.D., M.S., director of the NYU Langone Comprehensive Program on Obesity Research; Timothy Law, D.O., chief medical officer of Highmark Inc.; and Amy Meister, D.O., chief medical officer of WeightWatchers.

AHIP’s members include many of the large, publicly traded insurers, such as Cigna, CVS Health and Humana (but not UnitedHealth Group), and more than dozen large Blue plans, including Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia, Blue Shield of California and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.

Mike Tuffin

Medicare Advantage has become a major line of business for health insurers, and AHIP, like many payer organizations, has pushed for higher rates. When the Biden administration announced 2025 rates in early April, Tuffin put out a critical statement, saying “these policies will put even more pressure on the benefits and the premiums of 33 million Medicare Advantage beneficiaries.”