Special guests include Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney, Comcast Senior Executive VP David L. Cohen and Leapfrog Group CEO Leah Binder

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PHILADELPHIA, PA—(March 22, 2017)—The Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health (GPBCH) is proud to announce its Fifth Anniversary Celebration to be held on April 6th at the Comcast Center in Philadelphia. The Coalition will commemorate its first five years of working with employers and other healthcare system stakeholders to improve population health and healthcare quality, safety, and value in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and Southern New Jersey. GPBCH will recognize founding employer members -- AstraZeneca, Comcast Corporation, Day & Zimmermann, Merck, Public Health Management Corporation, Stradley Ronon, Vanguard Group, and Wawa -- and founding affiliate members – Boehringer Ingelheim, Healthcare Improvement Foundation, Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices, Kistler Tiffany Benefits, Mercer, Pfizer, Trion Group, and United Healthcare.

Welcome remarks will be offered by David L. Cohen, Senior Executive Vice President of Comcast Corporation, and The Honorable James Francis Kenney, Mayor of Philadelphia. The guest of honor is Leah Binder, President and CEO of the Leapfrog Group, a national organization promoting safer healthcare. Ms. Binder has been repeatedly recognized in Modern Healthcare's listings of the 100 most influential people in health care and top 25 women in healthcare. GPBCH serves as the Leapfrog Regional Leader for Southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware, and through its efforts nearly two-thirds of the region's hospitals are now publicly disclosing important information on patient safety, over a ten-fold increase since 2011.

“We are excited to honor our founding members, and celebrate with all of our members, who support the need for healthcare system reform, and are willing to use their collective market power to make a difference in driving higher value health care,” says GPBCH President and CEO Neil Goldfarb. The Coalition currently includes 43 employer members, representing over 750,000 lives in the local market and 1.5 million lives nationally.

GPBCH is a member of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions (National Alliance) that represents over 50 regional employer coalitions throughout the United States. GPBCH not only focuses on the local healthcare market for its employer members, but also leverages and shares advocacy and best practices nationally for its members through the National Alliance.

“As a global company with a diversified workforce, our team is focused on the connection between physical, financial and emotional wellbeing in our approach to population health, and how we can deliver a healthcare experience that supports our employees and their families at the local level and from a national scope,” states Shawn Leavitt, Senior Vice President of Total Rewards at Comcast. “As a founding member, Comcast has been able to directly contribute to the Coalition’s mission through innovation in our approach and by sharing best practices with other employers to help promote health improvement for individuals, their families and their communities.”

Since its inception in 2012, GPBCH has focused on initiatives to improve healthcare quality, safety and transparency and population health. In additional to the strides made in reporting to the Annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey, GPBCH offers twenty annual educational programs and webinars, and leads initiatives and research on value-based insurance design, health and wellness program engagement, obesity/diabetes prevention and management, and employer/community healthcare engagement.

“Our entire team of wellness and benefits professionals is involved with GPBCH. As the first founding employer member to join the Coalition, Wawa was looking for something in the Philadelphia region that spoke to the local employer environment, and also wanted to contribute to the national conversation,” says Stephanie Capaccio, Director of Associate Relations and Benefits at Wawa. “All types of employers are trying to change the paradigm and we’re pleased to be at the table to contribute to better solutions. It’s both an opportunity and a responsibility for a company, like Wawa.”

Details about the GPBCH Fifth Anniversary Celebration can be found at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gpbch-5th-anniversary-celebration-tickets-29485276255.
Media should contact GPBCH directly for passes to the event.
Access press release PDF here.

GPBCH Media Contact
Neil I. Goldfarb, President and CEO
Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health
123 South Broad Street, Suite 1235
Philadelphia, PA 19109
215.731.2472
ngoldfarb@gpbch.org