Contact: Teri Schacker
Director of Marketing and Communications
608.210.6633, tschacker@the-alliance.org
MADISON, Wis. (April 2, 2009) ─ At a time when business costs are on the incline, one employer group is taking the long view. The Alliance, an employer cooperative, is working to encourage lawmakers to address the root causes of the current health care crisis — poor quality, waste and inefficiency. Doing so, they say will lower the health care cost trend.
The Alliance is made up of employers that self-fund their benefit plan. Their mission is to move health care forward by controlling costs, improving quality, and engaging individuals in their health. An employer-owned, not-for-profit cooperative, the 160 members provide coverage to more than 83,000 individuals in southern Wisconsin and neighboring counties in Iowa and Illinois. Health policy committee members include:
* Lee Bauman, President, Wisconsin Auto & Truck Dealers Insurance Corporation
* Dan Bullock, CFO, Cleary Building Corp.
* Wendy Cuevas, VP Human Resources, Blackhawk Community Credit Union
* Melanie Hirshfeld, Field Operations Manager, WEA Trust Insurance Corp.
* Curtis Larson, Vice President of Finance, Accelerated Genetics
* Mary Ann Reichling, Director, Benefits, Compensation, EIS, Lands’ End
* Jerry Ward, VP of Operations, Seats Incorporated
* Jeff Wick, CEO/President, Wick Building Systems
Defining a Health Policy Platform
The committee has been meeting since this last fall and one of the first tasks they tackled was defining a health policy platform to guide their actions and meet the needs of the greater Alliance membership. The health policy platform includes:
· Plank One: Cost and Quality Transparency – The Prerequisite to Meaningful Change in Health Care
· Plank Two: Aligning Incentives for Providers – Redesigning Payment Mechanisms to Promote Better Value
· Plank Three: Supporting Consumers
· Plank Four: The Health Care Marketplace – Preserve What Works, Fix What Doesn’t and Remain Open to Change
The platform was developed using feedback from a member survey. Now that the health policy platform is approved, the committee will work to bring their knowledge of the system to lawmakers. In doing so, they hope to shed light on the ways lawmakers can improve quality and lower cost for all health care consumers.
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Attached to this release you will find The Alliance’s Health Policy Platform and health policy survey results. You can also read more about the health policy committee and find the platform at
http://www.the-alliance.org/healthpolicy.aspx?ekmensel=c580fa7b_96_0_498_4
