RISE HEDIS Conference 2026

“Getting ghosted by your members?”

That’s what my T-shirt asked at #RISE HEDIS in Baltimore last week. A much better conversation starter than a button-down.

I love these smaller, focused conferences. Quality folks from plans of every size and shape in one room, comparing notes.

AI was everywhere. Some plans have gone all in, others are still dipping a toe in the water. Everyone agrees AI can be a huge unlock for plan efficiency and effectiveness, but the concerns are real.

Here are 3 things I shared from Twig Health’s experience with our health plan partners:

1️⃣ More than just member calls.

Members are perfectly fine with AI voice calls for things like appointment reminders and refill authorizations.

But we’re also placing AI calls to pharmacies and provider offices.

You can’t imagine how thankful plan pharmacy teams are to stop waiting 18 minutes on hold with a pharmacy IVR.

2️⃣ AI can create MORE work for your team, not less.

A care manager might call 20 members a day. With AI voice, that same person can orchestrate outreach to 2,000 members in a day, even in a single hour.

The catch: if only 5% need a human follow-up, that’s 100 calls instead of the 20 originally scheduled.

Before adopting AI, map out which tasks go away and which new ones get created.

3️⃣ Insist on safeguards.

Voice AI has to know when to step aside.

What happens when a member asks for a human? Mentions chest pain or another possible emergency? Asks for clinical advice?

Make sure the solution you choose has a good answer for each.

Where is your plan on the AI curve? All in, or still testing the water?