MBGH Connections
Volume 5, Issue 2
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In this Issue:
MBGH 31st Annual Conference
New Officers Elected to MBGH Board
National Initiative - Partnership for Patients
MBGH Receives Grant from United Health Foundation
| New MBGH Members |
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| Benecard, PBF |
Prime Therapeutics |
| In House Physicians |
Wiser Together
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| Mayo Clinic |
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MBGH 31st Annual Conference
Midwest Business Group on Health hosted its 31st Annual Conference for employers, health benefits professionals and other health care stakeholders on May 5-6, 2011 in Chicago. This year’s theme was Health Benefits MEGATrends: Tranformations in Health care, Health Benefits & Health Improvement. With over 400 in attendance, the conference addressed many of the major changes taking place in the health care system and approaches to improving our nation’s health status.
Keynote speakers for the 2011 conference include:
- Jeffrey C. Bauer, PhD, health futurist and medical economist
- Dan Buettner, Jr., author, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest & Thrive - Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way
- Kenneth Thorpe, PhD, Executive Director, Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease
To view a clip of the Conference, click here.
New Officers Elected to MBGH Board
The Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH), one of the nation's leading business groups of private and public employers, announced the officers for its Board of Directors. “As employers navigate the impact of the economy and health reform on their health benefits and covered populations, MBGH’s new leadership team will continue to focus on the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead,” said Larry Boress, MBGH president and CEO.. “We appreciate the participation and support of our members and board of directors.” The newly elected officers to MBGH’s board:
- Chairman – Dan Pikelny, director, Health & Productivity, Navistar, Inc.
- Vice Chairman – Nate Solomon, director of benefits, Wolters Kluwer U.S. Corporation
- Secretary – Cynthia Bik, director, Health Benefit Operations, Rush System for Health
- Treasurer – Matt LaRocco, vice president, Human Resources & Internal Communications, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
“Through membership in MBGH employers can take advantage of collaboration and learning opportunities as they work to lower costs and improve outcomes in this new time of health care reform,” said Dan Pikelny. “We look forward to working with MBGH staff and members to help employers and employees get more value from their health care benefit dollars.”
National Initiative - Partnership for Patients
Midwest Business Group on Health has pledged its support for the Partnership for Patients initiative focused on decreasing hospital-acquired conditions and preventable hospital readmissions, estimated to cost more than $50 billion each year. The Partnership for Patients brings together leaders of major hospitals, employers, physicians, nurses, and patient advocates along with State and Federal governments in a shared commitment to make hospital care safer, more reliable and less costly. NBCH will be urging its coalition members to also sign a pledge to support the Partnership.
“Key to the success of an undertaking as noteworthy as the Partnership for Patients is the collaboration of the public and private sectors to leverage purchasing dollars through performance-based contracting with hospitals to improve quality and safety while reducing costs,” said Andrew Webber, president and CEO of NBCH. “Purchaser-led coalitions have made great strides in advancing value based purchasing but recognize that more progress is needed to link provider payments to performance. By aligning private sector payment strategies with Medicare as the largest public sector purchaser, we will be able to accelerate improvements in hospital quality and safety.”
Partnership for Patients seeks to reduce harm to patients in hospitals and to reduce the rate of readmissions by tying a portion of Medicare's hospital payments to performance on key metrics related to quality, readmissions, hospital-acquired conditions, meaningful use of health information technology and other value based purchasing strategies. In 2013, six percent of Medicare hospital payments will be tied to performance in these areas and, by 2015, this number will increase to nine percent.
For more information regarding this initiative, contact Larry Boress, President & CEO
MBGH Receives Grant from United Health Foundation
The
non-profit Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH), one of the nation's
leading business groups of private and public employers, has been
selected as one of six organizations across the U.S. to receive a
community planning grant from the United Health Foundation and the
National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH), through the Community
Coalitions Health Institute. The planning grant will enable MBGH to convene stakeholders, including
employers, hospitals, physicians, health plans and patients in a
“community summit” to better understand why non-medically elective
deliveries exist and address how these deliveries can be reduced. MBGH
will join with Quality Quest for Health, a Peoria-based regional health
improvement organization, in addressing this problem on a statewide
basis. The stakeholders will work to determine policy and program
interventions, identify resources at the community level and produce a
plan with specific health improvement goals and accountability.
Interested participants should contact Larry Boress at lboress@mbgh.org
Employer Resources in Value-Based Benefit Design (VBD)
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NBCH Value-Based Purchasing Guide - A new website providing resources for health-care purchasers implementing value-based strategies to improve health and health care.
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IBI Health & Productivity Cost Estimator - A tool to assist employers in understanding the cost of health and productivity as they implement benefit programs post health reform.
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Center for Health Value Innovation - An organization that offers tools and resources that accelerate engagement, build accountability, and create predictable cost trends through value-based benefit design strategies.
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Upcoming MBGH Educational Programs
May 17 - What Employers Can Do to Reduce the Impact of COPD in the Workplace
May 23 - High Tech Diagnostic Imaging
June 22 - Preventing Early Deliveries Summit
July 15 - Trends in Health Care Payment Models
August 24 & 25 - 5th Annual Pharmacy Benefits Academy
Click for full calendar
Need to contact us? Please click on MBGH Staff