I have been going to conferences for a long time. Most of them feel like work. You show up, hang at the booth, sit through some lunch presentations, and fly home.
Health Choice Network's Annual Conference is entirely different. It is a phenomenal conference hosted at a truly spectacular venue, bringing together an exceptional community of professionals.
We have been partners with Health Choice Network (HCN) for about 18 months now, bringing coverage management to their network of community health centers. Last year we presented to a room that was over capacity. This year, I was excited to return to deepen relationships with the health centers already working with us, introduce what we have built next, and get to know the broader community better. The health centers in this network do not just show up to conferences; they show up to act. That level of engagement matters more than most people realize.
At the conference, a team from a Florida CHC came by our booth. They have been customers for almost a year. We asked if they would be willing to share a few words on stage, and the contract owner said:
"You can send anybody to me and I will sing your praises. We love the work that you're doing and how it's impacting coverage for our members." And in a follow up email to a prospect, wrote “My guidance is pretty straight forward. Pointcare protects more in Medicaid revenue than they charge in fees (and provide great service in doing it)."
That is not a polished quote we scripted. That is someone who sees the difference we are making and wants other CHCs to know it. I think about that a lot because the reason we do this work is not to hit pipeline numbers. It is so that a health center rep can say that, and mean it.
Here is what I heard at the event that I think matters for everyone in this space.
Most of the centers at the conference are based in Florida. H.R.1 and its work requirements have not hit them the same way yet. However, a growing cohort came from Medicaid-expanded states, and for them, the urgency was no longer theoretical. It was visceral.
These health centers are starting to realize what the data has been telling Pointcare for years: they cannot manage the complexity of redeterminations and coverage management internally. The permutations of how members engage with their states to stay covered represent a challenge that a front-desk team cannot handle alone, and it is not something a grant-funded navigator team can easily scale to meet.
The leaders in that room were acknowledging this reality openly. They need support, and they need a vendor that takes enrollment and retention operations off their plate. They know it, and they are starting to move.
The policy environment will keep shifting. It always does. What does not change is the member caught in the middle: the person who did everything right, checked every box, and still lost coverage because the system did not reach them in time. That is who we built PointCare for.
Coverage management is not just a response to H.R.1. It is a response to a broken cycle that has been repeating for 20 years, where someone shows up to a health center without coverage, gets enrolled, lapses, and shows up again. We stop that cycle. We do it not by managing the crisis after it happens, but by keeping members covered so the crisis does not happen in the first place, ensuring they stay informed every time it is needed.
The leaders at this conference understand this. They are not waiting for a perfect policy environment. They are building the infrastructure to absorb whatever comes next, which is a critical muscle to develop. That is exactly the kind of partner we want to work alongside.
Marco Island is stunning, providing an incredible backdrop for a world-class event, but the beautiful location is only part of why I highly recommend attending.
At the final dinner, families were everywhere and kids were out on the dance floor. The entire event felt less like a standard corporate conference and more like a reunion of people who genuinely care about the same mission.
That culture, rigorous and warm at the same time, is rare. It reflects the high caliber of the health centers that participate, organizations that actually want to solve the problem.
My compliments to Alex Romillo for carrying this culture through year after year.
We will absolutely be back next year.
If you are a health center leader trying to figure out how to keep your members covered through everything coming at you right now, come find us. The conversation is worth having.
Everett Lebherz
Co-Founder and CEO of Pointcare.
P.S. Ready to chat?