On June 27, Jenny Goins, Kentuckiana Health Collaborative (KHC) President and CEO, and Natalie Middaugh, KHC Director of Programs and Health Strategies, traveled to Nashville, TN to attend the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions’ Leadership Summits. The Leadership Summits are an annual convening of employers, healthcare business coalition leaders, policymakers, and other organizations with an interest in improving health and wellbeing. The two-day event was broken down into three summits: (1) Surviving to Thriving, (2) Architecting for Value, and (3) Innovation and Integration.
The first summit, Surviving to Thriving, focused on employer-implemented wellbeing strategies and the importance of social factors on health. Nick Buettner, Vice President of Blue Zones, LLC, opened the summit with a keynote presentation on the Power 9 – the shared characteristics of pockets around the world where people live measurably longer and better, or Blue Zones. Buettner and his team has used the Power 9 to transform communities across the United States and shared how employers could be a part of similar transformational paths. A panel between employers who have implemented approaches to wellbeing followed the keynote presentation. Jenny moderated this panel, guiding a discussion that highlighted these innovative programs and policies these employers ’implemented that positively impacted on their employees’ overall wellbeing. Other discussion topics in the first summit included aligning benefits with people-first strategies, navigating women’s health across their life cycle, and breaking down barriers to positive health outcomes by meeting people where they are.
The second summit built off these discussions by introducing how employers can architect their healthcare benefits to drive healthcare value. Ford Koles, Vice President, and National Spokesperson of The Advisory Board keynoted the summit with a summary of healthcare reform initiatives and their impact on economic, societal, and healthcare value related outcomes. With a baseline understanding of the political and economic landscape of healthcare value, the summit moved to highlighting how employers have taken charge and been empowered to demand accountability for healthcare value. A standout of these employers was Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS). David Hines, Executive Director of Benefits at MNPS discussed the various initiatives the district has implemented during his tenure, including establishing a network of primary care clinics, opening an integrated health and wellness facility, implementing a data warehouse that combines medical, pharmacy, dental and vision claims, medical records, payroll, health risk assessments, and evaluation data. The summit concluded with panels that highlighted national experts and thought leaders on healthcare policy and Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) transparency.
Finally, the Innovation and Integration Summit introduced opportunities to reimagine how healthcare is delivered. The summit opened with a candid conversation between Michael Thompson, President and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions and Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health on accountability in innovation. In a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape where employers are frequently introduced to new point solutions and partnership opportunities, the two leaders explored how innovators can be held accountable for positive outcomes and employers can drive this accountability. Panels highlighting successful employer partnerships with innovators followed this opening discussion, providing concrete examples of how innovation can be integrated into an employer’s benefits strategy to ensure positive health outcomes for their members as well as support the organizational and strategy needs of the employer. Other conversations focused on utilizing innovative technological approaches to improve access and quality of care and how to implement these approaches in an equitable way that meets the needs of a diverse set of health plan members.
The National Alliance’s Leadership Summits provide an opportunity for the KHC to network with other likeminded coalitions and employers, discover the latest health and wellbeing strategies and solutions, and learn how to influence health reform and policy. The National Alliance is the national convener of employer and purchaser healthcare coalitions. The KHC is a coalition member of the National Alliance, who represents more than 45 million Americans and employers who spend over $400 billion (about $1,200 per person in the US) on healthcare annually. The KHC engages with the National Alliance to contribute to the collective voice of employers working to improve the affordability, quality, and equity of healthcare. The Leadership Summits provide an opportunity for the KHC to further engage with this work and bring learnings back to our membership.
For more information on the National Alliance, visit here. KHC members have access to various resources through the KHC’s membership with the National Alliance. If you are a KHC member organization interested in learning more, contact Natalie Middaugh at nmiddaugh@khcollaborative.org.
