Providence Health Plan CEO sees perfect storm | HLTH 2025

Las Vegas – Don Antonucci says the high costs of health care are his top concern.

Antonucci is the CEO of Providence Health Plan, the insurance plan that’s part of the Providence health system. The health plan is based in Oregon but also has members in California and Washington.

Antonucci tells Chief Healthcare Executive that he sees “a perfect storm” with higher costs, insufficient federal reimbursements, and the potential expiration of tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, which may make health insurance too costly for some Americans.

In a conversation at the HLTH conference, he discussed affordability, access, and the need to focus on keeping people healthier before they face complex and costly conditions. He also outlined how the health plan is incorporating AI to help members and employers.

Here’s a portion of the conversation. See excerpts below the video.

Q: Talk about your concerns on the cost of health care.

A: “There's significant concerns with affordability. We know that in the U.S., we spend more than many developed countries, and we don't always get the outcomes that we need.

“And we look at the point that we're at today in the U.S., where you take segments like Medicaid, where in Oregon, as an example, where our health plan is based, 53 cents on the dollar is what's paid for every dollar of care, 80 cents on the dollar for Medicare. And there's a shift to the employer marketplace. But also, more importantly, right now we're facing, in this moment, the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits. A lot of Americans in the Affordable Care marketplace rely on those to be able to get the coverage that they need, which is really concerning.

“So I think there's a real perfect storm here that we're looking at, and it's the number one area of focus, I think that we need to have is around affordability, along with other areas as well that we can't lose sight of: access, quality and really the experience for members and patients, but also importantly, more and more of doctors and nurses in the care that they provide you.”

Q: How important is it to focus on keeping people healthier.

A: “We know a lot of the information today, right in terms of how to keep people healthier, but we've got an aging population, we've got a higher prevalence of certain diseases that are out there. The U.S. tops the list on some of those categories.

“So especially, there are areas of technology that can assist and help with that. I think about some of the wearables and the remote, moderate monitoring services that we can start to put in place to actually help people and help them not only improve their experience, but help them have a much more integrated care experience that has better outcomes. I think we're just now on the cusp of seeing more and more of that start to happen.”

“So yes, the health of the population is really number one that we need to begin to start focusing on if we really want to get to a place where health care can be more affordable.”

Q: Can you talk about how Providence Health Plan is using AI?

“Yeah, I'm a big believer in the Navy SEAL term: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Especially as it relates to AI.

“And from a health plan perspective, we've started to use AI in places like underwriting for large employers for their premium when we don't have all the information and the experience.”

“We have fantastic customer services at Providence Health Plan. However, we're starting to use tools through our RingCentral platform that actually helps to surface information, to help customer service, help members as they call in. It helps us do call summaries and documentation, and it also helps with our interactive voice response system to make sure that we're surfacing the right options for people to get the information and care that they need. Those are just areas that are starting to scratch the surface.

‘The last thing I'll say is that we've also put a big effort this year and have achieved getting really clean data. I'm a big believer in garbage in, garbage out. But if you can get the right data set, you can really start to take advantage of some of this AI that moves the needle in terms of back to affordability, access, quality and experience.”