Bringing together public and private purchasers for more effective health care solutions
Recently, I received a phone call from one of the original founders of BHCAG who wanted to talk about something he read in the Star Tribune regarding health care reform. Since this is part of my job as president and CEO of BHCAG, this might not seem unusual or significant, but this particular conversation made me stop and think.
For starters, the person I was talking to was Fred Hamacher, who helped form BHCAG in 1988. Fred was a vice president of human resources at Dayton Hudson Corporation at the time, and he, along with others in similar positions at Honeywell, American Express, Carlson Companies, General Mills and Bemis (just to name a few) decided it was time to establish a coalition of like-minded companies that could influence and improve how health care was purchased and delivered. Fred has since retired but he stays active and interested - I would even go so far as to say, passionate - about high-value health care. Fred has been both a mentor and friend to me through the years, and any opportunity to connect with someone as visionary and influential as him is always a treat. But when that connection takes the form of a real, person-to-person conversation and not an email, all the better. Why? Because through conversations that allow for immediate reaction, disagreement or validation, transformative ideas are born and real problems are solved.
Driving more personal connections and collaboration
As I reflected on my discussion with Fred, I realized that my favorite part of working with BHCAG is the connection I get to have with people who care about the future. As sentimental as it might sound, caring and connecting are core to the BHCAG mission. All BHCAG members share their time and intelligence with one another to make the health care system work better for everyone. People who aren't passionate about this often don't invest the time in meeting with others to collaborate. I have to say, email, texting and social media truly do make daily life much easier in our time-constrained reality. But, as we have found recently, and what was affirmed in my discussion with Fred, nothing can compare to personal conversations and connections, particularly when you have a passion for something.
In January and February, BHCAG held several breakfast meetings with members to talk about health care reform, what’s important to them as employer purchasers, and what they want to see from BHCAG in the future.
We purposefully kept these groups very small and informal so each participant would have a chance to talk and listen and get to know one another. What I learned from these sessions is that our members really enjoyed being able to connect like this! I guess it seems like a luxury we can't afford ourselves because there is always too much to do and too little time to do it. Even our BHCAG programs over the years have become very focused on specific topics deemed critical to our members’ job functions so as not to "waste" people's time. Personal connection a waste of time? How did we get to such a place?
So, stay tuned. I am pretty sure we will be having more breakfasts with members in the months ahead.
Validation of BHCAG’s guiding principles and initiatives
What was also really important from my conversation with Fred was the reinforcement that the current concepts that are driving health care reform and making headlines today are the very same concepts on which BHCAG was founded and that we have been pursuing through our programming and initiatives for more than 20 years. Here are a few examples of how early BHCAG initiatives align with current health reform hot buttons:
- The call for increased oversight of, and accountability for health plans - BHCAG created the eValue8 survey as part of our effort to generate public reporting by health plans that is relevant to what purchasers want and need to know when making a health plan selection.
- The push toward accountable care organizations (ACO) - BHCAG developed what can be considered Minnesota’s first ACO with Choice Plus in the ‘90s. Choice Plus was the first program of its kind in the nation and BHCAG continues to provide counsel to organizations interested in advancing this type of initiative.
- The demand for improved patient safety - BHCAG was one of the founding members of the Leapfrog Group in 2000, and we continue to serve as the regional rollout coordinator for that organization’s annual survey of hospital patient safety outcomes.
- The need for improved patient outcomes - The Minnesota Bridges to Excellence program is managed by BHCAG. Launched in 2005, this program has contributed to an improvement in the delivery of optimal care for patients with diabetes, depression and vascular disease and is considered a national model for provider pay-for-performance programs.
- The need for purchasing principles - BHCAG was a founding member of the Smart Buy Alliance in 2004. The goal of the Smart Buy Alliance was to establish best practice purchasing principles for employer purchasers, and in turn to drive efficiency and improvements in care delivery.
What does this all mean to BHCAG as an organization? Well, for starters, it underscores that there is a market need for BHCAG and it demonstrates that what we do and provide is essential to changing health care in Minnesota. The fact that BHCAG initiatives and guiding principles are being validated at the legislative level means that we’re on the right track and that we can’t let up. The response that we’re hearing from members in our monthly breakfast meetings tells me that we must continue our commitment to these principles and to fostering conversations and collaboration among a wide variety of health care purchasers and stakeholders.
In the spirit of collaboration,
Carolyn Pare
President and CEO
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