Forum Friends, I hope you are enjoying these first few days of Fall! I am excited to see everyone in person at our upcoming All-Stakeholder Meeting on November 3rd at the Indiana Landmarks Center. In this newsletter, learn about Sage Transparency and how stakeholders are using price, quality, and cost transparency to align payment with value; healthcare policies; and articles I thought you may find of interest.
Best,
Gloria Sachdev
President and CEO, Employers’ Forum of Indiana
Join us in welcoming our newest Forum member VeriVitae!
“VeriVitae is excited to join the Indiana Employers’ Forum and continue to provide greater healthcare transparency and accessibility to Indiana residents. VeriVitae is a 24/7 online Health Marketplace allowing individuals to search, compare, select, and purchase medical services and tests.” – Scott Roberts, Principal
It’s Time for Employers to Bring Healthcare Decisions In-House
Hear from Chris Whaley, Gloria Sachdev, Marilyn Bartlett, and Ge Bai for Health Affairs on three key strategies that employers should pursue to purchase health care more effectively: realigning financial incentives, improving use of quality and financial data, and implementing innovative benefits designs.
Published in Health Affairs on September 22, 2022.
Enroll in RAND 5.0
If you participated in the previous RAND Hospital Price Transparency study or are a new employer, health plan, business coalition, all-payer-claims database, or organization that has employer hospital claims and is interested in enrolling, please complete the form at the link below.
Inside the Forum
An updated version of Sage Transparency will be available October 1, 2022!
This launch includes updates to data from the CMS Hospital Quality Star Ratings, Turquoise Health, and Healthcare Bluebook/Quantros.
Sage Transparency compares price, quality, and cost data for over 4,000 hospitals across the country and has been a massive success. Let us know how you would like to see Sage Transparency improved as we update it quarterly.
- Podcast: Using Data Transparency to Control Hospital Costs (Mathematica)
- New playbook aims to help employers, plan sponsors negotiate hospital prices (Fierce Healthcare)
Resources for Employers
NEW Playbook from the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions
Beyond Hospital Transparency – Getting to a Fair Price
This playbook from the NAHPC offers:
- An understanding of how to use the latest hospital price transparency tools, including Sage Transparency
- Insight into employer fiduciary rights and responsibilities
- Actionable market- and policy-based strategies to drive value-based care
Hospital Price Transparency Initiative National Press Release
Medical Debt in America: An Interactive Map
Did you know that you can research the medical debt of your state or county? This free, interactive tool allows you to:
- View average household income, percent without health insurance, and median debt collected
- Compare your county to the state and national averages
- See how medical debt affects white communities versus communities of color
- Download and print the data for sharing
Policy Updates
United Healthcare Public Forum Meeting
United Healthcare Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky, Ltd., Golden Rule Insurance Company, Freedom Life Insurance Company and All Savers Insurance Company will be holding a Public Forum on Thursday November 3 at 11:00 am. The meeting will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams and the community will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the meeting. Please register at this link.
ANTHEM INDIANA: Watch the August 31st Recording | Download Presentation slides
No Surprises Act
Tensions boil between ER docs, insurers as no-surprises law rolls out (IBJ)
Read the full story.
Indiana Passes Near-Total Abortion Ban
Read the full summary from Ice Miller.
Hear what’s been happening since the announcement:
In the News
EFI in the News
- 2022 Health Care and Benefits Power Breakfast (IBJ)
- In Unhealthy Indiana, Business and Health Leaders Rally around Plan to Boost Public Health Spending (IBJ)
- Using Data Transparency to Control Hospital Costs (Mathematica)
…..find more articles in the News section of the Forum website.
Employers:
- Video: 32BJ Health Fund Fall Conference What Purchasers Can Do Right Now to Lower Hospital Spend FULL (YouTube), PDF Report
- Call to rein in healthcare costs, as Indiana Lawmakers consider stepping in (CBS 4 Indy)
Hospitals
- Mass General Brigham’s cost cutting plan approved by state (Modern Healthcare)
- Hospitals divert primary care patients to health center ‘look-alikes’ to boost finances (Fortune)
- Community Hospital North ending inpatient pediatric, PICU services next month (WTHR)
- State Approves Mass General Brigham’s Plan to Cut Health Care Spending (NBC Boston)
- Attorney General, Parkview reach settlement in Medicaid fraud case (WANE)
Pharmacy
- ASP +8: CMS Releases Biosimilars Information (Biosimilars Forum)
- Inflation reduction act, likely to result in higher drug launch prices (STAT)
- Column: This life-saving drug will cost a record $2.8 million. Who will pay the price? (LA Times)
- The Prescription Drug Cost Problem (Crains Detroit)
- Trends in Prescription Drug Launch Prices, 2008-2021 (JAMA Network)
Other
Do you have a suggestion or contribution for our next newsletter? Contact us.