Employers increasingly are recognizing that financial concerns including managing debt, paying for tuition, and retirement planning are a source of anxiety for many employees; this stress impacts physical and mental health, and lead to reduced workplace productivity and employee engagement, as well as higher health service utilization and direct medical cost.

Join us for a program exploring these issues and how employers are addressing them through financial wellness programs and benefits.

Our speaker panel includes:

• Heather Coughlin, Director of Financial Wellness, Mercer

• Kevin Crain, Head of Workplace Financial Solutions, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

• Soneyet Muhammed, Director of Education, Clarifi

• Emeka Oguh, Chief Executive Officer, PeopleJoy

Free to GPBCH members through the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, this webinar will address: 1) current and expected future growth in HSA-eligible high deductible health plans, 2) how overall spending and healthcare usage is being impacted both positively and negatively related to office visits, preventive services, emergency departments and medication adherence among individuals with chronic conditions, 3) how demographics and finances are highly impacting outcomes under HDHPs, and 4) implications for value based design for distinct populations. Featured speakers: Tom Parry, President, Integrated Benefits Institute, Paul Fronstin, PhD, Director of Health Research, Employee Benefits Research Institute, Bruce Sherman, MD, FCCP, FACOEM, Medical Director, Population Health Management, Exchange Solutions, Buck Consultants, Xerox.

Melissa Gonzalez, Associate Director of the Payer Value Team at Genentech will share information on national

trends in oncology care, as reported in the 2016 Oncology Trend Report. The presentation will

emphasize findings of relevance to employers, including how health plans are managing

oncology, trends in use and management of specialty pharmaceuticals, and survey findings on

how a national sample of employers are redesigning benefits and services to improve oncology

care management.

Genentech Oncology Report

8am – 12 pm, Virtua Barry Brown Health Education Center, 106 Carnie Blvd., Voorhees, NJ

Presented by Virtua, this forum brings together thought leaders from the telehealth industry, state policy makers, healthcare providers and business leaders to discuss innovations in telemedicine and opportunities moving forward. To register, email Maribel Maldonado at MMaldonado@virtua.org. Click here for more event details.

Maximizing value in healthcare purchasing requires a thoughtful and sometimes innovative approach to both supply-side and demand-side tactics. This presentation will provide an overview of employer benefits trends, and also present new ways employers can more meaningfully and effectively direct their investments to improve workforce health and performance. In this session, you’ll learn about differences in healthcare use between low and higher wage workers, and how benefit designs can be tailored to address the different utilization and cost patterns. You’ll also hear a clear – and perhaps a bit different – business rationale for employers to address well-being.

About the speaker:

Bruce Sherman, MD, FCCP, FACOEM, is the Medical Director, Population Health Management for the RightOpt private exchange offering for Buck Consultants at Xerox. In this role, he provides strategic client support for development, implementation and ongoing management of integrated, value-based health and performance management strategies for exchange clients. Additionally, Dr. Sherman is the Medical Director for the Ohio-based Employers Health Coalition, Inc. Previously he was the consulting corporate medical director for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Whirlpool Corporation, and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Dr. Sherman has particular interests in the areas of the business value of workforce health and evaluation of quality and efficiency in health care delivery. Dr. Sherman is a member of the leadership board for the Integrated Benefits Institute, and also has committee leadership roles with the National Committee for Quality Assurance and the Population Health Alliance. A speaker at both local and national levels, he has presented workforce health and performance management strategies to diverse audiences, and has published numerous related articles. Dr. Sherman received his MD from New York University School of Medicine, his MA from Harvard University and his bachelor's degree from Brown University. He is board-certified in internal medicine. Dr. Sherman continues as a member of the clinical faculty in the Department of Medicine at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

This program is made possible through a sponsorship from Merck.

Full Presentation

The 21st Annual Conference of the National Business Coalition on Health (the coalition of regional coalitions, including GPBCH) will take place September 26 - 28, 2016 in Orlando, FL. The conference theme is 'High-Value Health Care: Making the Dream a Reality - What's the Magic Formula?’ Conference topics include:

National and Local Initiatives to Promote High-Value Care

The Employer’s Role in Promoting Community-based Population Health

Accelerating the Performance of Health Plans and their Stakeholders

Delivering Advanced Primary Care

The Purchaser Value Network and Direct Contracting Strategies

The Mental Health System We Need

Appropriate Obesity Treatment through Value-based Benefit Designs

Employer Initiatives on Managing Cancer in the Workplace

Employer Role in Specialty Pharmacy Management

Navigating and Leveraging the Political and Regulatory Landscape

Launching Next Generation Opportunities in Well-being

To view the entire agenda CLICK HERE, and to view the list of speakers CLICK HERE. Employer members of GPBCH will again be eligible for a FREE registration. For registration instructions, contact Rick Adams at radams@gpbch.org.

The program honors companies that have demonstrated a commitment to their employee populations through health and wellness programs.

The theme of this year’s Wellness Summit is “Preventing The Big Three – Diabetes, Cancer, and Heart Disease.” Naturally, that means there will be a major focus on effective employer strategies to support smoking cessation and healthy weight. The agenda, planned with input from the GPBCH Employee Health and Wellness Work Group, includes speakers, panel discussions, employer case studies, an overview of national and local resources available to employers at no charge, and an energizing round robin discussion with attendees.

-Introduction: The national and local pictures for “The Big Three”

Neil Goldfarb, President and CEO, GPBCH

-Promoting Smoking Cessation in the Workforce: What Every Employer Needs to Know

Frank T. Leone, MD, MS, Director, Comprehensive Smoking Treatment Program, University of Pennsylvania/Penn Lung Center

-Employer Case Studies: Prevention in the Workforce

Kay L. Coup, RN, COHN-S/CM, Wellness Coordinator, SEPTA

Mark Mulray, MBA, MEd, Wellness Program Manager, Nemours

Jennifer Yakey-Ault, Lead Wellness Consultant, Aetna Inc., and Jeff Ruby, Founder and CEO, Newtopia

-Prevention Resources for Employers

Alesia Mitchell-Bailey, MPH, CHES, Health Systems Manager, American Cancer Society

Kevin J. Kelly, Ed.D., Area Executive Director, Eastern PA and DE, American Diabetes Association

Cheryl Bettigole, MD, MPH, Director, Division of Chronic Disease Prevention, Philadelphia Department of Public Health

-Employer Case Study: Putting it all Together

Marsha Greene-Jones, Deputy HR Director, City of Philadelphia

-Promoting Healthy Food Choices for the City of Philadelphia Work Force

Niraj Jetly, CIO/COO, NutriSavings

-Employee Engagement in Wellness Programs: Results of a Pilot GPBCH/PHMC Survey of Employees for Three Member Organizations

Livia Greenbacker, MS, Project Manager, Research and Evaluation Group, Public Health Management Corporation

-Results of the GPBCH Employer Survey on Weight Management Benefit Design, followed by Participant Round Robin Discussion on Best Practices for Engaging Employees and Preventing Chronic Disease in the Workforce

Brian Po-Han Chen, Outcomes Research Fellow, Jefferson College of Population Health

Martha Romney, JD, RN, MPH, Assistant Professor, Jefferson College of Population Health

Because many of our employer members are focused on transparency and incentives to engage employees in making informed healthcare decisions, we thought you would be interested in this case study. In this webinar presented by Vitals, you will learn about innovative strategies to empower employees to use transparency services to become better consumers of healthcare, and view an employer case study that used a comprehensive employee engagement strategy, cost and quality transparency, and cash incentives that resulted in lower costs for the health plan, self-insured employer, and employees. An Outlook invite has been sent to members. For more information, contact Rick Adams at

In an informal setting, get together with other employer members and GPBCH staff to discuss challenges, best practices, and trends on topics of your choice. The July 12th program will take place in central Philadelphia, and the July 14th program in the western suburbs. Outlook invitations including meeting locations will be issued shortly, but mark your calendars now.

In an informal setting, get together with other employer members and GPBCH staff to discuss challenges, best practices, and trends on topics of your choice. The July 12th program will take place in central Philadelphia, and the July 14th program in the western suburbs. Outlook invitations including meeting locations will be issued shortly, but mark your calendars now.

The GPBCH 2016 Annual Conference will be held on Tuesday, June 14th, at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott. A stellar line-up of national speakers will discuss strategies for improving employee health and well-being and improving the healthcare system, and how these efforts could positively impact corporate performance while improving population health.

The speaker list includes:

- Neil Goldfarb, President and CEO, GPBCH

- Tom Parry, PhD., President of the Integrated Benefits Institute

- Casey Chosewood, MD, MPH, Director, Office for Total Worker Health, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

- Larry Boress, Executive Director of the National Association of Worksite Health Centers

- Denise Moyer, Corporate Benefits Manager, B. Braun Medical

- Ann Greiner, Vice President for Public Affairs, National Quality Forum

The program will include a panel discussion on “High-Quality Provider Networks – What’s Next?”

On May 26th, our educational program will focus on the significant issue of polypharmacy, unsafe prescribing, and impact on health service utilization and cost. Our guest speaker is Cal Knowlton, BS Pharm, MDiv, PhD, CEO of Tabula Rasa Healthcare. Dr. Knowlton has won numerous awards for his leadership in pharmacy, business, and philanthropy in his career of over 30 years, including the 2003 and the 2013 Ernest and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Greater Philadelphia Region, and the 2004 Walter M. Aikman Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He was selected as the Most Influential U.S. Pharmacist in 1997. He has been elected and served as the national President for the American College of Apothecaries, President of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) for two terms, and President of the American Pharmacists Association Foundation. Cal will provide an overview of medication safety as a national epidemic, the impact of unsafe prescribing on medical utilization and health outcomes, and employer strategies for examining data to improve health and safety and lower costs. We’ll also be presenting results from a pilot study conducted by Tabula Rasa with a GPBCH employer member, examining prevalence of potentially unsafe drug combinations. Outlook invitations will be e-mailed shortly for this morning program.

View Full Presentation Here.

Please join GPBCH for an interactive session as we take a look at Weight Watchers - Beyond the Scale! This lunch and learn webinar will take place at 12:30 pm on Thursday, May 19th, and feature Dr. Gary Foster, Chief Science Officer for Weight Watchers. Learn about Weight Watchers’ approach to healthy and long lasting weight loss, the role activity and behavior change, and the rationale behind their new SmartPoints™ food plan. We hope everyone can join us!

View Full Presentation Here.

“CDHPs: Options, Choices and Key Considerations.” We’ll explore the rapid evolution of consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) including structure, design, and the often undiscussed implications for employee medical outcomes and healthcare system utilization. We’ll then discuss best practices for CDHP design and implementation, the issue of ‘benefit illiteracy’ and key considerations employers should make as they evaluate the CDHP option for their employees. Attendees will receive a monograph summarizing the key messages and content from the speaker deck.

Our speaker for this program is Sandra G. Morris, RN, MSN, CHC, Senior Manager of U.S. Benefits Design for Procter & Gamble. Ms. Morris, has 24 years of experience with P&G in a variety of lead HR roles, including responsibility for the strategic design, development, deployment and administration of total benefits for P&G's U.S. employees and retirees.

We hope that you will be able to join us for this important and informative program.

View Full Presentation Here.

Join us for our February event, when our topic will be the Population Health Revolution. Learn more about how thinking about health from a population health perspective can change the approach to employer-sponsored health and disease management programs. We’ll also discuss how provider organizations are retooling their missions and programs, moving from individual patient management to population health management, and what this means for employee health and productivity management. The presentation will include presentation of specific tactics and interventions for improving population health, as well as case studies.

Our speaker is Ray Fabius, MD, Consulting Medical Director to GPBCH, and Co-founder and President of HealthNEXT – the emerging leader in building Cultures of Health. Dr. Fabius spent the better part of two years researching benchmark employer, organizational, and governmental efforts to shape HealthNEXT’s products and services. Previous positions include serving as Chief Medical Officer of Truven Health Analytics (Thomson Reuters), and President and CMO of CHD Meridian/i-TRAX Healthcare. Dr. Fabius was global medical leader at General Electric, responsible for the health and safety of over 330,000 employees. He also served as medical director of utilization, disease and quality management for Aetna/US Healthcare. Dr. Fabius is a faculty member of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the Jefferson College of Population Health, and the American College of Physician Executives, where he is recognized as a Distinguished Fellow. He is author and editor of three books on population health – the latest being a graduate school textbook, Population Health: Creating Cultures of Wellness.

Support for this GPBCH member education program is being provided by Merck.

View Full Presentation Here.

**Please note: While these are NOT the original slides Dr. Fabius presented (copyright of Merck), the content does reflect what was covered in the session.**

Novo Nordisk, a GPBCH affiliate member, has been expanding its web-based resources to support employers’ efforts to improve diabetes care education and management and control utilization and cost. We invite you to attend a session to see a demo of these tools, and to offer feedback to Novo Nordisk on how the tools could be improved to best serve your needs. Lunch will be provided.

Join us on Wednesday, January 27th as we kick off our programming schedule for the year with a presentation spotlighting unique opportunities open to GPBCH employer and affiliate members.

You’ll learn more about:

• Group purchasing opportunities for PBM, EAP, and other services, available through our affiliation with Employers Health (an Ohio based Coalition). One of our affiliate benefit consultants recently reviewed the PBM offering from Employers Health and judged it one of the best deals she had ever seen, in terms of price and level of service. Learn more from Mike Stull, Vice President of Employers Health.

• Discounted member access to NutriSavings’ program that promotes healthy food choices at the supermarket. GPBCH members now have access to best available pricing for NutriSavings through the Coalition. Dave Dintenfass, Vice President of NutriSavings, will present an overview of the program, and evidence to date of its effectiveness.

• Discounted member access to the Call a Doctor Plus telemedicine program – a unique product offering combining the Teladoc platform with member engagement strategies and performance guarantees. Learn more from Hank Christiansen, Senior Vice President.

• Finally, Jill Hutt, GPBCH Director of Member Services, and Neil Goldfarb, CEO, will present an overview of other special offers and opportunities for GPBCH members.

Help the Coalition help you, by planning to have at least one representative at this important and informative program.

View Full Presentation Here.