Fall 2025 Conference Pre-Conference Activities
October 8 

Workshops

In conjunction with the Fall 2025 Conference, NAACOS is offering workshops that take a deep dive into key issues facing ACOs.  Registration and topics are below.  

NAACOS Pre-conference workshops are held concurrently on Wednesday, October 8 from 1:00 – 5:00 pm ET.  These workshops require separate registration from the main meeting.  There will be three concurrent workshops for the Fall 2025 Conference.

Pre-Conference Workshop #1:
Payer-Provider Partnerships in the Community

Chair: Diwen Chen, NAACOS

In today’s locally driven health care landscape, collaboration between health plans, providers, and community-based organizations is crucial to deliver high-quality, accessible care. NAACOS’ Payer-Provider Forum is a special pre-conference session that will bring together local health plans, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders to explore how partnerships can be strengthened to improve patient outcomes, promote evidence-based preventive care, and optimize resources to engage patients in achieving their health goals.

This dynamic session will delve into evidence-based strategies for fostering partnerships that drive innovation and improve care delivery in communities. Participants will engage in discussions on the challenges and opportunities of collaborating across health plans and providers and implementing value-based care models. This is a unique opportunity to share best practices amongst key stakeholders, explore emerging trends, and develop actionable strategies for addressing the healthcare needs of communities.

Learning Objectives:

• Develop actionable solutions to overcome challenges in communities, identifying barriers and co-creating solutions for local adoption of best practices
• Identify headwinds and understand core issues from different stakeholder perspectives
• Strengthen community payer-provider partnerships through understanding of evidence-based models of collaboration that resulted in community impact
• Understand how health plans and providers can integrate community health centers and local resources to improve care delivery and patient outcomes
• Gain insights on how VBC models address and advance health outcomes through innovative approaches in the community

Pre-Conference Workshop #2:
Compliance & Legal Scuba Session

Chair: Kimberly Busenbark, Wilems Resource Group

Join us for a deep dive into the practical steps your ACO needs to be taking today to ensure there are no surprises in 2026.

Learning Objectives:

• Quality Reporting – options, strategies and practical solutions.
• Lessons learned from previous audits & how to review your processes in response. Detailed review of the material requests, examples of accepted corrective actions, and how to integrate them before CMS comes knocking.
• Compliance & legal document updates for PY26
• Creating an effective monitoring program that won’t make operations hate you. What to include and strategies for when and how to pivot throughout the year.
• Legal strategies for ACO partners, CMS and everyone else.

Pre-Conference Workshop #3:
Connected Care: Aligning Leaders, Providers and Patients for Better Outcomes

Chaired by Michelle Mirkovič, Southwestern Health Resources

Learning Objectives:

• Analyze the strategic role of engagement in advancing value-based care objectives, including quality, cost, and experience metrics
• Identify proven engagement strategies that align leadership vision, provider accountability, and patient activation to drive performance in ACOs
• Evaluate structural and cultural barriers that impede unified engagement across organizational tiers, and propose actionable solutions to address them
• Integrate cross-functional engagement frameworks that support care coordination, reduce provider burnout, and improve patient trust and adherence
• Leverage data and technology tools to enable transparency and shared decision-making at all levels of care