Forum Friends, I hope you are having a wonderful summer! I am excited to share that we had 560 attendees at our National Hospital Price Transparency Conference on May 5th, representing 42 states. We are so excited to launch Sage Transparency!
Now, the challenge is for Employers, Benefit Consultants, Insurers, Providers, and Policymakers to USE this information to align payment with value.
Best,
Gloria Sachdev
President and CEO, Employers’ Forum of Indiana
Please join us in welcoming our newest employer member, Weaver Popcorn! Weaver Popcorn Company, a family-owned and operated business, is a global leader in the popcorn industry. Learn more about Weaver Popcorn.
“Weaver Popcorn is thrilled to be a part of the Employers’ Forum of Indiana and excited to contribute to further results in the mission to drive value in the healthcare industry in our great state!” – Tim Ingle and Kari Ponder, Weaver Popcorn
Inside the Forum
National Hospital Price Transparency Conference Videos & Presentation Slides
If you were unable to join us for our conference, or if you would like to rewatch any of the sessions, recordings and downloadable presentation slides are available at the links below:
- Videos: Watch the sessions on-demand
- Download: Presentation slide decks
Sage Transparency
During this year’s conference, the Forum launched our brand new hospital price, quality, and cost tool, Sage Transparency! Sage Transparency is a publicly available, customizable, web based tool which has data for over 4,000 hospital from across the country. As employers, insurers, and policymakers begin to utilize Sage Transparency, we have received some amazing feedback about how Sage Transparency is being used across the United States. A special thank you to Arnold Ventures for their generous support in the development of this tool.
See Sage Transparency in the news:
- Medical bills paid by private insurance vs. Medicare: Comparison by state Health Care Costs (Becker’s Hospital Review)
- Indiana hospital care 7th highest in the nation. Advocates continue to push for more cost transparency (IndyStar)
- Employers’ Forum of Indiana Introduces Sage Transparency, Built Using New RAND Hospital Price Study (PR Newswire)
- National Hospital Price Transparency Conference Showcases Mathematica’s Price and Quality Dashboards (Mathematica)
- New Web Site Aims to Encourage Hospital Transparency (Indiana Chamber)
- Study: Michigan employers pay hospitals twice as much as Medicare for same services (Crain’s Detroit Business)
- Some Houston hospitals are charging private insurers up to 3x what Medicare pays as deductibles rise (Houston Chronicle)
Hospital Price Transparency and Policy
New Forum Resource!
Transparency in Coverage (TiC) and Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA)
- Summary of Requirements (Employers’ Forum of Indiana)
CMS hands out its first fines to hospitals failing on price transparency (Fierce Healthcare)
Eighteen months after CMS’s final rule on price transparency went into effect, they issued their first penalties to a pair of Georgia hospitals for over a million dollars, for not complying with price transparency on their website. Read the full story.
U.S. Senator Mike Braun: Transparency helps curb medical costs (WBIW)
In a June 2022 op-ed, Senator Mike Braun discusses Indiana’s high cost of healthcare noting that, “Indiana hospitals are the fourth most expensive in the country for inpatient services and the sixth for outpatient services. Yet Indiana Physicians are reimbursed at one of the lowest rates in the nation.” Read the full story.
Opioid Use Disorder
According to a recent Axios article, drugs for treating opioid abuse aren’t reaching most high-risk patients, potentially widening gaps in care as overdose deaths hit record highs.
The big picture: The National Center for Health Statistics said at least 107,622 people died from overdoses in 2021 — more than in any other year on record.
Driving the news: Nearly 53% of patients with opioid use disorder were not prescribed buprenorphine, which reduces the risk of future overdoses, according to a new analysis of insurance claims from about 180,000 people.
More Information and Resources for Employers
- NextLevel Recovery Indiana (State of Indiana)
- Indiana Workforce Recovery (Wellness Council of Indiana)
- Opioids in the Workplace (NIOSH)
- Drug-Free Workplace Toolkit (SAMHSA)
- Drugs at Work: What Employers Need to Know (National Safety Council)
Indiana Physicians Alliance
It’s an honor to introduce a new organization to the Indiana healthcare landscape, Indiana Physicians Health Alliance (IPHA), a trailblazing group of Indiana-based independent medical and surgical physician providers who are patient-centric and share a common vision for providing high-quality and low-price healthcare services.
“While independent providers account for approximately 15% of providers in Indiana, we are committed to offering high-value services that will reduce employer healthcare costs. We are ready to be innovative in establishing direct employer partnerships and in-network arrangements with insurers. We are open to considering novel payment models, i.e. Percent of Medicare, value-based arrangements, etc.”
For more information visit indianaphysicianshealthalliance.com.
Member Spotlight
Jeffrey Caesar
VP of Strategic Projects at Lutheran Health Network
Why did you become a member of the Forum? Working for a large hospital network in Indiana, I am genuinely interested in how we can better deliver value-added healthcare to our patients. I firmly believe this is accomplished by upholding the same values that the Employer’s Forum of Indiana embodies; transparency, collaboration, and engaging with our communities. Ultimately, we want to continuously improve on the great work we have already done, and this is one great avenue in which to do that.
What do you think is the most challenging aspect of our healthcare system today? Healthcare across our country has traditionally been siloed into very large and complex entities that naturally do not work well with one another. Although we all play a part in improving our healthcare system in some way, there is a variance in how we accomplish that goal across the continuum which creates misalignment.
What is on your travel bucket list? I have traveled to and or lived in many places around the world, but I would say next on my bucket list would be to visit my brother who lives in Japan!
In the News
EFI in the News
- Gloria Sachdev: Study shows it’s time to act on health care prices (Indiana Business Journal)
- Tackling High Health Care Prices: A Look at Four Purchaser-Led Efforts (The Commonwealth Find)
- ‘Make money off of anything’: Debate continues over who (and what) is responsible for Indiana’s healthcare costs (WTIU)
…..find more articles in the News section of the Forum website.
COVID-19
Employers and Insurers
- Value-Based Payment Models In The Commercial Insurance Sector: A Systematic Review (Health Affairs)
- Businesses face major benefits questions amid Roe uncertainty (Axios)
- New laws blocking surprise medical bills are already preventing unexpected bills — here’s how many so far (Market Watch)
- The 18 health systems Walmart sends its employees to for care in 2022 (Becker’s Hospital Review)
- Private Insurers Expect to Pay $1 Billion in Rebates to Consumers This Year for Setting Premiums Too High Relative to Medical Costs (KFF)
- How a Colorado Supreme Court Opinion on Hospital Pricing Empowers Employers and Working Americans (Allen Health Academy)
Healthcare
- Deciphering Sutter Health’s State-Court Settlement And Federal-Court Win In Parallel Antitrust Cases (Health Affairs)
- New Surgeon General Advisory Sounds Alarm on Health Worker Burnout and Resignation (HHS)
- Advocate Aurora faces lawsuit over all-or-nothing contracting (Healthcare Dive)
- Betting on ‘Golden Age’ of Colonoscopies, Private Equity Invests in Gastro Docs (KHN)
- Seeking a primary-care doctor in Bloomington? Few taking new patients and the wait is long (HeraldTimes)
- The “psychiatrist’s bible” is suddenly a surprise bestseller (Axios)
Hospitals
- Hospitals, insurers must team to ensure cost savings for public (The Journal Gazette)
- Kaiser Permanente to establish gun violence research center (Becker’s Hospital Review)
- Price Effects Of Vertical Integration And Joint Contracting Between Physicians And Hospitals In Massachusetts (Health Affairs)
- Pulse on the Nation’s Nurses Survey Series: COVID-19 Two-Year Impact Assessment Survey (American Nurses Foundation)
- Goodman Campbell computer network attacked by hackers (IBJ)
Pharmacy
- Video: Cost of Medication Non-Adherence: 33 – 69% of Hospitalizations (AHealthcareZ)
- How low can you go? Newly launched dashboard explores 340B’s deeply discounted drug prices (46brooklyn)
- U.S. Consumers Overpay for Generic Drugs (USC Schaeffer)
- FTC Launches Inquiry Into Prescription Drug Middlemen Industry (FTC)
- 5 things to understand about pharmaceutical R&D (Brookings)
Do you have a suggestion or contribution for our next newsletter? Contact us.