Shawn Gremminger and Courtney Tyne
When it comes to providing high-value care, employers face a difficult challenge: balancing the needs and desires of their employees with the business interest in containing costs, while meeting the mandates of regulatory authorities. However, despite literally “paying the bills” for the health care of over 180 million people, employer voices are not always front and center in the health care discussion.
On November 17, 2022, Reservoir hosted a webinar, “Employer Perspectives on Health Care Value,” with guest panelists Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health, and Rob Paczkowski, eBay Senior Director of Global Benefits.
Key areas of discussion included providing value across the health care system and understanding employee-centered value. Below are three takeaways from the discussion:
- Employers need more value-based models of care.
Employer HR and benefits offices tend to be small, even among large employers, and often lack the ability to design and implement value-based payment systems. While employers seek to drive value-based care through accountable care organizations and similar models, they are interested in partnering with other employers and federal purchasers to test and implement multi-payer programs.
- Employers need better data to drive their decision making.
Understanding employee utilization trends enables employers to track which benefits their employees utilize most. Working with their carriers, eBay was able to track a 77% increase in mental health service utilization during the pandemic, which helped drive benefit coverage decisions moving forward. Meanwhile, Morgan Health has been looking to improve basic outcome measures like cholesterol, high blood pressure, and mental health, while decreasing costs through its innovative partnerships. When employers better understand employee health outcomes, they can also understand where care disparities may currently exist. All of this data can be later used to inform future benefit structures and improve employee health.
- Transparency is a must.
Along with employee utilization data, employers also need access to select data from payers, providers, and other vendors on price, access, patient experience and quality of care. However, while some data may be available through public reporting – via recently-implemented hospital and health plan transparency rules – significant barriers continue to exist for employers trying to access this data in full. For example, employers often face considerable difficulty in gaining access to price transparency in the drug supply chain. Panelists also noted that transparency and consistency are needed in contracts between employers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).
If you were not able to attend this webinar, a full recording can be found here.
If you have questions about Reservoir’s value communications offering or want to learn more about how to engage with employer stakeholders, please reach out to Courtney Tyne (ctyne@reservoircg.com) or Shawn Gremminger (sgremminger@reservoircg.com).