NBCH Selects Five Coalitions for New Value Based Benefit Pilots

American Health Strategy Project to help employers improve the health of employees and their families, promote wellness and prevention, and manage health care costs

WASHINGTON, May 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Furthering efforts to bring value based benefits to communities throughout the U.S. to improve workforce health, the non-profit National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH) announced that five member coalitions have been selected for the American Health Strategy Project, a program to assist employers in taking a strategic approach to value based health benefits.

The American Health Strategy Project, launched in cooperation with Pfizer Inc, provides both hands-on technical and financial support to NBCH member coalitions and their employer members interested in improving the health of their employees and their dependents through the implementation of a range of value based benefits. Value based benefits refer to an approach used by employers that focuses on ensuring that employees have access to high quality, evidence-based, and cost-effective health care by reducing barriers to essential services. American Health Strategy Project employers will each introduce a complementary array of employee health offerings and incentives that better align health promotion and prevention strategies with medical and pharmaceutical plans, and other benefits such as disability, and workers' compensation.

"Employers fund almost 60 percent of health care in the United States, often without understanding how to fully measure the value of their health investments," said Andrew Webber, President and CEO, NBCH. "As health care costs continue to rise, more employers are recognizing the value of tailoring benefits to the health risks within their employee populations. Employers often lack the tools and models needed to collect and interpret data across a broad range of activities to make better and more informed health benefit decisions for their workforce and we hope to help overcome those barriers with this project."

The following NBCH-member coalitions have been selected:

• Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health
• Midwest Business Group on Health
• Oregon Coalition of Health Care Purchasers
• Pittsburgh Business Group on Health
• Virginia Business Coalition on Health

The initiative originated through the Mid-America Coalition on Health Care in Kansas City, an NBCH member coalition working with Pfizer and 16 regional and national employers in a three year program, called the Kansas City Collaborative (KC2). The KC2 initiative has now developed a replicable model that helps employers to identify programs that offer high value, promote employee wellness and prevention, manage long-term health care costs and improve the health of employees and their families through benefit design strategies and health improvement programs. The American Health Strategy Project leverages and expands on the tools and methods originally developed as part of the Kansas City Collaborative.

"Even as an employer with a strong culture of health and high levels of employee engagement, we have benefited greatly from the opportunity to learn from peers and national experts about strategies to manage our population's health risks," said Melissa Campbell, Benefits Manager for American Century Investments, a KC2 participant from its inception. "This model provided us a strong framework to pull our interventions together and break down both internal and external silos around data and information."

Tim Henning, Senior Director at Pfizer Inc noted, "This has been one of the most impactful approaches to helping employers improve health in the work place we've seen in recent years. Moving forward with the American Health Strategy Project we intend to actively support additional regions across the country as they apply the lessons learned and tools developed in KC2 to their own corporate community. We hope to expand the project to many other communities in subsequent years."

About Pfizer Inc

Pfizer applies its science and global resources to improve health and well-being at every stage of life. Consistent with Pfizer's responsibility as the world's leading biopharmaceutical company, Pfizer also collaborates with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, Pfizer has worked to make a difference for all who rely on the company. For additional information visit: http://www.pfizer.com/home.

About the National Business Coalition on Health

NBCH is a national, non-profit, membership organization of 60 business and health coalitions, representing over 7,000 employers and 25 million employees and their dependents across the United States. NBCH and its members are dedicated to value-based purchasing of health care services through the collective action of public and private purchasers. For additional information visit: www.nbch.org.

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Andrew Webber

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SOURCE National Business Coalition on Health