Forum Friends, I hope you are enjoying all of the Fall colors! 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 how to enroll in the RAND 5.0 Hospital Price Transparency Study, how stakeholders are using Sage Transparency to align payment with value, healthcare policy updates, and articles I thought you may find of interest.
Best,
Gloria Sachdev
President and CEO, Employers’ Forum of Indiana
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 was released on October 1, 2022!
This launch included 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.
EFI All – Stakeholder Meeting on Nov 3
We are excited to invite all Forum members to our end of year All-Stakeholder meeting on November 3, 2022 at the Indiana Landmarks Center. Our agenda will include discussions on mental and primary care access, followed by a fun networking cocktail hour. During this meeting we will announce our Forum Leadership and Healthcare Innovation awards!
Date: November 3, 2022
Time: 11:30am – 3:00pm ET (Cocktail hour from 3:00 – 4:00pm ET)
Location: Indiana Landmarks Center, 1201 Central Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46202
Calendar invites were sent out earlier this month to Forum members. If you did not receive one, contact sara@employersforumindiana.org.
Resources for Employers
VIDEO: Behind the Science – Employer Strategies to get Fair Pricing for Hospital Services
Hear strategies from employer coalitions across the US including:
- Michael Thompson, NAHPC
- Peter Hayes, Healthcare Purchaser Alliance of Maine
- Chris Skisak, PhD, Houston Business Coalition on Health
- Gloria Sachdev, PharmD, EFI
Policy Updates
United Healthcare Public Forum Meeting
United Healthcare Insurance Company will be holding a Public Forum on Thursday November 3 at 11:00 am as required under Indiana law. The purpose of the meeting will be to provide members of the community with an opportunity to provide feedback on United Healthcare’s performance in the previous year, and to discuss the premiums charged. Register here.
Hospital Price Transparency
On September 29, 2022, U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz (IN-05) introduced the Non-Profit Hospital Tax Exemption Transparency Act as part of her package to increase competition in health care. Read the act.
Interim Study Committee on Public Health, Behavioral Health, and Human Services Meeting
On October 20th, the Interim Study Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance meet to discuss Indiana healthcare market concentration. Forum President and CEO, Gloria Sachdev, testified along with other stakeholders. The 4 hour meeting presentations and video recordings can be found here.
This meeting was covered in multiple news outlets including quotes from Gloria in the Indiana Capital Chronicle, IBJ, Inside Indiana Business, and the IndyStar.
Picture: Lawmakers, lobbyists, insurance agents and healthcare providers opined whether the consolidation of hospitals and insurers drives Indiana’s high healthcare costs. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
North Carolina State Health Plan
An analysis by the North Carolina State Health Plan and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy found that the majority of North Carolina hospitals did not lose money on Medicare — they profited. Read the report and watch the press conference.
Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC)
Over 155 million Americans receive health coverage through their employer. High and rising health care costs make employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) harder to sustain for both employers and employees. What can we do to address the cost drivers and help employers provide competitive coverage to their employees?
Watch the BPC recording and read the report.
Forum Recognition
Healthcare Transformation
On October 25th, Gloria Sachdev, on behalf of the Employers’ Forum of Indiana, was honored to receive the Healthcare Transformation Award from The Alliance, a sister coalition, for progress in hospital price and quality transparency.
Three Recipients win the Alliance 2022 Healthcare Transformation Awards and Lifetime Achievement Award (Wisconsin Health News)
2022 Employer Health Benefits Survey
Kaiser Family Foundation: 2022 Employer Health Benefits Survey
This 24th annual survey of employers provides a detailed look at trends in employer-sponsored health coverage, including premiums, employee contributions, cost-sharing provisions, offer rates, wellness programs, and employer practices. The 2022 survey included 2,188 interviews with non-federal public and private firms.
Read the full report here.
In the News
EFI in the News
…..find more articles in the Media Coverage section of the Forum website.
Employers & Insurers:
- Anthem must face Medicare Advantage fraud lawsuit, judge rules (Modern Healthcare)
- Workers strike for higher wages at Elkhart piping manufacturer (WVPE)
- Tiered cost sharing and health care demand (Science Direct)
- Companies lure hourly workers with college tuition perks (IBJ)
- Lawyers ask court to accelerate Blue Cross Blue Shield antitrust settlement appeals (Modern Healthcare)
- Uncharted Waters: Inflation and Open Enrollment (ALM Benefits Pro)
Hospitals
- Health system Ascension to close hospital, 9 medical practices in Indiana (IBJ)
- Texas Health hospitals charge over three times Medicare rates — and want a big increase (Dallas News)
- Growth of Catholic hospitals has implications for U.S. reproductive care (IBJ)
Pharma
- HHS: Price of more than 1,200 drugs outpaced inflation (The Hill)
- Pharma-Funded FDA Gets Drugs Out Faster, But Some Work Only ‘Marginally’ and Most Are Pricey (KHN)
- Capital Blue Cross Teams with Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company to Help Members and Their Communities Save on Medications (Capital Blue Cross)
Other
- Indiana’s dismal maternal mortality rate increases (Indiana Capital Chronicle)
- Walmart launches healthcare research institute (Becker’s)
- TIME100 Next 2022 List: Dr. Caitlin Bernard (TIME)
- Attorney General Todd Rokita and team achieve $2.9 million settlement in Medicaid fraud case (IN.Gov)
Do you have a suggestion or contribution for our next newsletter? Contact us.