HBCH Newsletter January 18: 2023 Overview, Podcasts, Employer Activism, Employer Survey

January 18, 2023

HBCH 2023 Overview

The HBCH Board of Directors and its Staff wish you a wonderful healthy 2023! It will be a year full of possibilities for employers and their provider partners to improve the value of healthcare delivery. HBCH will continue to be a catalyst for value-based benefits design by continuing to focus on its key activities.

Hospital Transparency. HBCH will continue to provide tools and the collective employer voice to drive lower costs for services.

Legislative Advocacy through Texas Employers for Affordable Healthcare to pass legislation in 2023 to prohibit anti-competitive contract language.

HBCH will continue to work with local providers and employers to introduce a Smart Network with an advanced primary care foundation and referral to specialists based on price and quality.

Educational Programming will consist of three forums, the annual conference, and webinars on the quickly changing landscape of employer-sponsored benefits.

HBCH will continue its role as the Employer Voice in the Community for local organizations dedicated to health and welfare of all citizens in greater Houston.

Relentless Health Value Podcasts

Relentless Health Value is one of the most listened to weekly healthcare industry podcasts. Two recent episodes were devoted to informing the audience about hospital pricing. What employers do not know but need to know, and what they can do about it. It will open your eyes and help shape the future of benefits design in Texas and around the country.

EP389: The Clapback When Hospitals Cannot Constrain Their Own Prices . It features Mike Thompson, CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. The National Alliance consists of 45 independent coalitions of which HBCH is a member and represents more than 50 million employer-sponsored lives. This podcast provides an overview of the current state of hospital price setting, the market dynamics that led to its current state, what we have learned from four rounds of the RAND hospital price benchmarking, and actions that employers can take to reverse this alarming trend.

EP390: What Legislators Need to Know About Hospital Prices . This episode features Gloria Sachdev, PharmD and CEO of the Employers' Forum of Indiana. It also features Chris Skisak, PhD and Executive Director of HBCH. This episode is devoted to the need for legislative policy at the state and national levels. Vertical and horizontal consolidation by the health plan and hospital industries make regulatory support as the only option to recreate a competitive market.

This is an important message to Texas employers as the 88^th Texas Legislature will be considering legislation, HB711, to prohibit anticompetitive contract language between health plans and hospitals. It will be important for employers to express their support! For more information visit, Texas Employers for Affordable Healthcare.

Growing Employers Activism in Managing Their Health Costs

Paul Keckley is Managing Editor of The Keckley Report, is a healthcare policy analyst and respected industry expert. His January 2 report examines Four major reasons why 2023 is a make or break year for U.S. healthcare:

The U.S. economy will struggle
The federal political landscape will be paralyzed
The increased influence of private capital as private investment in healthcare is fast becoming the industry’s primary source of capital for growth and innovation

AND

Growing employer activism in managing their health costs. Employers’ health costs are expected to increase at least 8. Already, employer-sponsored coverage costs 224% of Medicare coverage for the same services from the same providers. Employers have lost patience with the healthcare system and will take matters into their own hands in 2023.

National Alliance Pulse of the Purchaser 2022 Survey

The National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions conducted a survey of employers in the fall of 2022. The survey gauged concerns and views of employers around workforce environment, hospital price and quality transparency, health and well-being benefit strategies, health equity, pharmacy drug strategies, high-cost claims, and impact of potential health reforms. See button below for the full survey results:

Full Survey Results

Key findings include:

Rising healthcare costs are a significant challenge for employers trying to attract and retain talent
7 out of 10 employers agree that costs directly or indirectly crowd out salary or wage increases and impact ability to remain competitive
Nearly 8 out of 10 employers consider drug prices, high-cost claims, and hospital prices a significant threat to the affordability of employer-provided health coverage for employees and their families
95% of employers agree on their responsibilities as plan sponsor fiduciary

(Note: HBCH’s first program of 2023 will address employer fiduciary responsibility)