WIHI presents stories from employers and employees

February 7, 2013: Employers and Employees Can Improve Quality
and Lower Costs – Stories from the Frontlines, Part One
(2:00 – 3:00 PM Eastern Time)

Featuring:
Trissa Torres, MD, MSPH, Senior Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Xavier Sevilla, MD, MBA, FAAP, Vice President of Clinical Quality for Physician Services, Catholic Health Initiatives
Lindsay A. Martin, MSPH, Executive Director and Improvement Advisor, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Randy Van Straten, Vice President Business Health, Bellin Health; Executive Director Bellin Run

US employers have had a lot to say about health care costs the past several years. Large and small companies alike have openly complained about the apparently inexorable rise in health care spending, skyrocketing insurance rates, and the degree to which both trends have threatened bottom lines, restrained wages, and eroded benefits for employees.

WIHI Host Madge Kaplan hopes you’ll tune into the February 7 WIHI, Employers and Employees Can Improve Quality and Lower Costs – Stories from the Frontlines, Part One, for a discussion of what promises to be the next wave of employer engagement in improving health and controlling health care costs in the US.

As we've seen, some of the most vocal businesses have been determined to remedy the situation by exercising their purchasing clout to get better deals from insurers and by shifting more costs and co-pays onto the workforce. The most enlightened have also ramped up their wellness programs. But these “solutions” are short-term at best, and efforts to encourage employees to get to the gym and adopt healthier lifestyles are proving insufficient. So, what to do instead?

We'll take a deeper dive into the underlying, often chronic health conditions affecting today’s employees. And, in a growing number of cases, partnering and learning from health care delivery organizations working on the very same issues — heavy health care utilization and high costs — with their own staff.

IHI’s Trissa Torres and Lindsay Martin have the big picture of these exciting new developments. The February 7 WIHI will also feature leaders from Bellin Health Care Systems and Catholic Health Initiatives who are at advanced (Bellin) and early stages (CHI) of “walking the talk” with their own employees. Among other things, these providers are committed to redesigning systems to deliver better care and better value to the community and all those paying the bills: employers, public and private insurers, and patients themselves.

Please join us on the February 7 WIHI. Click here to enroll.