High-cost claims remain one of the toughest challenges for employer health plans. In this episode, Dr. Christine Hale, a nationally recognized physician leader with a track record of helping employers tackle their toughest healthcare challenges, reveals key takeaways from our employer workshop to help decode the data, manage complex cases, and drive smarter health spend.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been a full year since Laurel Pickering stepped into her role leading the Gateway Business Health Coalition and our sister organization, the Midwest Health Initiative. Over the past 12 months, Laurel has brought fresh energy and strategic vision to the coalition, guiding our work in new and exciting directions while remaining deeply committed to our mission of improving health, well-being, and value in health care.
In this episode, we reflect on what’s been accomplished, what we’ve learned, and what lies ahead.

During a recent tour of our membership, we asked employers about the top health conditions impacting their workforce. Every employer cited cancer among their top three concerns. With cancer affecting more people each year and treatment costs continuing to rise, the need for effective employer solutions has never been more urgent.
In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Rebecca Miksad, Chief Medical Officer at Color. Color is the first 50-state Virtual Cancer Clinic led by oncologists, delivering high-quality, patient-centered, and technology-enhanced care across the entire cancer care continuum—from screening, risk assessment, and prevention to diagnosis, treatment support, and survivorship.

The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. Leapfrog collects and transparently reports hospital performance, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections. In this episode, we are joined by Jill Berger, Senior Advisor for Employer & Payor Engagement at The Leapfrog Group to discuss the recent Leapfrog Safety grade release and the many ways The Leapfrog Group is improving hospital and patient safety.

BHC actively monitors and testifies on bills that could potentially impact employer-sponsored benefits. We are dedicated to advocating on behalf of our employer members to lower health care costs while ensuring quality and access for members. In this episode, we discuss current policy topics at the state and federal levels that have the potential to impact employer sponsored benefits. To provide insight on this topic, we are joined by two experts in the policy space, Shawn Gremminger, President and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, and Mark Dalton, Political Director for the Carpenters Union of Missouri.

In this episode we are joined by Dr. Bob Chestnut, who serves as the Chief Medical Executive Director at Cummins Inc. Dr. Chestnut leads the clinical operations strategy for over 70,000 employees in more than 190 countries and oversees the delivery of occupational health, primary care, and telemedicine. Through his work, Dr. Chestnut drives improved health care experiences for thousands of Cummins employees by prioritizing patient-centered and advanced primary care in Cummins worksite clinics.

In this episode, we discuss chronic kidney disease, or CKD, the impact that CKD has on the American workforce, and how employers are uniquely positioned to help prevent late-stage CKD by increasing employee awareness and education and encouraging their employees to seek appropriate care for early identification. CKD occurs when the kidneys have been damaged over time, impairing their important functions in our bodies, such as removing waste and regulating blood pressure. More than 1 in 7 adults in the U.S. are estimated to have CKD and about 9 in 10 people that have CKD but do not know they have it. Kidney disease can significantly affect quality of life, lead to other serious comorbidities, and can be incredibly costly to treat, making it an important issue for employers to tackle.
To provide insight on this topic, we are joined by Elizabeth Montgomery, the National Vice President of Clinical Practice Innovation and Population Health Programs with the National Kidney Foundation.

In this episode, 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 in this episode 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, Director of Benefits at Panera, to share their takeaways from the meeting.