St. Louis Area Business Health Coalition

🌟 Community Connections Recap: Stopping Chronic Disease Where It Starts 🌟 Last week, with a view of the St. Louis Arch at Vue 17, clinicians, employers, and community leaders gathered to build relationships and exchange perspectives on primary care in St. Louis! Here’s a quick recap of the key moments from Stopping Chronic Disease Where It Starts: Driving Lifestyle Change Through Primary Care. 🔹John Ziegler, Jr. from Arch Resources, Inc. opened the event with comments on the importance of a lifestyle focus in primary care from an employer’s perspective. 🔹 Padmaja Patel, MD, FACLM, DipABLM, CPE President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, illuminated the path to integrating lifestyle medicine into the clinical practice of primary care, shared her collaborative care model and recanted her experience using lifestyle to drive improved patient outcomes and rediscover the joy in medicine. 🔹A panel of local clinicians – Devyani Hunt of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Jordanna Riebel of Family Care Health Centers, and Tom Landholt, MD of SSM Health – highlighted the amazing work by practices in St. Louis to integrate whole person health and emphasize team-based care. 🔹 To top it all off, Eric S Armbrecht, PhD of Saint Louis University led a group discussion identifying common paths forward in advancing lifestyle medicine in St. Louis, and played game show host as attendees competed in a high-stakes battle of Win, Lose, or Draw. Thank you to everyone who came for an engaging discussion and an active exchange of perspectives. Strong community relationships are foundational to creating lasting change, and MHI looks to continue bringing stakeholders together and fostering new connections. #communityconnections #lifestylemedicine #advancingprimarycare #MHICC

🔎 The Midwest Health Initiative reports that 4 health systems hold 70%+ of the commercial inpatient market share in Kansas City and 95%+ in St. Louis. Only 2 of these systems make up 70%+ of the inpatient market in St. Louis. 💲 Healthcare consolidation adds to rising costs that inhibit wage growth, increase out-of-pocket expenses for employees, and more. What can employers do? Monitor market trends via MHI, try to negotiate with insurers, find alternative options, and advocate for policy changes. 🫵 BHC members receive exclusive access to the 2024 reports, Inpatient & Outpatient Facility Services in a Commercially Insured Population. Check them out to see hospital and health system level metrics!  📊 Contact MHI to learn how to access the full reports at info@midwesthealthinitiative.org or learn more at MHI’s website: https://lnkd.in/gPvSH55u.

🚨 New Podcast Episode Alert! 🚨 In this episode of the #BeHealthConnected podcast, we are excited to recap our recent Annual Meeting, where nearly 300 healthcare and benefits leaders from across the nation came together to discuss how employers can drive meaningful change in health care. The energy in the room was palpable, and we left feeling truly inspired by the potential employers have to reshape the healthcare landscape for the better. Joining us are two distinguished members of the BHC Board of Directors: Alison Casler, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Drury Hotels Company, and Misi Holmberg, CEBS, CPSP Holmberg, Director of Benefits at Panera, to share their takeaways from the meeting. 🎧Listen Here: https://lnkd.in/gF_jjQ2K

📣 LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER | BHC Innovation Forum 📣 We are just one week away from the 2024 BHC Innovation Forum. Come hear from innovative solutions that address the toughest challenges in providing health benefits. This will be a dynamic gathering where thought leaders, industry experts, and passionate innovators converge to explore cutting-edge ideas, breakthrough technologies, and emerging trends in health care. Hear from the following innovators in the benefits and well-being space: - Apaly - Centivo - Homethrive - PeopleOne Health - Rezilient Health - Sober Sidekick by Empathy Health Tech Learn more and register today at https://lnkd.in/gPuuW8tM

This holiday season, we’re reminded of just how much we have to be thankful for—starting with YOU! To our members, community partners, and supporters, your dedication and engagement make our work possible, and we couldn’t be more grateful.   From all of us at the BHC, we wish you and your loved ones a joyful and meaningful Thanksgiving! 🦃🍂

Exciting news! 🎉 Recent BHC podcast guest, Marty Makary M.D., M.P.H., has been nominated to lead the Food and Drug Administration! If you missed our September podcast launch, now’s the perfect time to catch up. Tune in to hear Dr. Makary share his inspiring journey—from his residency days to becoming a world-renowned surgeon at Johns Hopkins, a New York Times bestselling author, and nominated leader of the FDA! Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gUVndcHA

We are just over two weeks away from the 2024 BHC Innovation Forum, which will expose employers, consultants, and others to new solutions that address the toughest challenges in providing health benefits. This will be a dynamic gathering where thought leaders, industry experts, and passionate innovators converge to explore cutting-edge ideas, breakthrough technologies, and emerging trends in health care.. Hear from the following innovators in the benefits and well-being space: - Apaly - Centivo - Homethrive - PeopleOne Health - Rezilient Health - Sober Sidekick by Empathy Health Tech Learn more and register today at https://lnkd.in/gPuuW8tM

Last week, BHC brought together our valued consultants and broker partners at the new Chicken N Pickle in St. Charles to explore our Pharmacy Management Initiative—a game-changing PBM group purchasing solution for employers.   The night was filled with great food, networking, and, of course, a little pickleball fun! Who knew so many benefits pros double as "picklers" after hours? 🏓   Curious about how BHC’s solutions can benefit your clients? Contact our Director of Pharmacy Management, David Heaton, at dheaton@stlbhc.org, or check out our program overview here: https://lnkd.in/gddGzZWQ

At the close of our Annual Forum each year, we bring a contingency of employers, coalition leaders and other healthcare stakeholders to Capitol Hill to share with legislators the concerns of employers and America's working families to address unsustainable and rising healthcare and drug costs. Participants include: Washington Health Alliance's Drew Oliveira MD, MHA, Florida Alliance for Healthcare Value's Karen van Caulil, Ph.D., Alabama Employer Health Consortium's Michael Howard, St. Louis Area Business Health Coalition's Laurel Pickering, Economic Alliance for Michigan's Bret Jackson, The Alliance's Melissa Duffy, and Lockton's Christine Mohrhaus Hale, MD, MBA #NatAllForum #employers #healthcareprices #drugprices #transparency

As we conclude an insightful three-day agenda at the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions Conference, BHC staff and employer members from Drury Hotels and Ameren are engaged in valuable workshops on Fiduciary Responsibility and PBM Contracting. We are incredibly grateful for our ongoing partnership with the National Alliance and look forward to sharing the key takeaways and best practices with the rest of our membership. Excited to put these learnings into action! #NatAllForum