New Initiative to Help Employers Become More Effective Purchasers of Healthcare

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 2017
CONTACT: Jorge Alday, 646-768-4013
jalday@petersonhealthcare.org

Catalyst for Payment Reform and the Peterson Center on Healthcare Team Up to Help Employers Develop, Test and Share Strategies to Purchase High-Quality, Lower-Cost Healthcare

New York, NY—A new initiative, led by Catalyst for Payment Reform (CPR) and funded by the Peterson Center on Healthcare, aims to help employers become more effective purchasers of healthcare in order to improve outcomes for the workforce and reduce the cost of care.

The two-year, $1.6 million initiative includes a robust online destination to help employers develop, test and share strategies to purchase high-quality, lower-cost healthcare. Through a grant from the Peterson Center, CPR will engage directly with employers to support the implementation and evaluation of value-based purchasing strategies, including through education and hands-on tools. These resources will be tailored for both large employers and other healthcare purchasers—including the self-insured and smaller firms—who can enhance their purchasing power through adopting new strategies and partnering with other regional employers.

The project’s goals include supporting the scaling and spread of innovative benefit and provider network designs, as well as incubating provider payment strategies that emphasize patient outcomes and experience instead of the volume of care provided. CPR will bring small work groups of employers and other large healthcare purchasers together, along with subject matter experts, to tackle some of the biggest challenges in healthcare purchasing and identify strategies to leverage their purchasing power toward high-performance, more affordable care. CPR will also develop “how-to” guides, case studies, online courses and other content that will be disseminated to a wider group of employers and other purchasers of healthcare.

“Given their significant role in paying for health insurance, business leaders can have an outsized role in speeding the adoption of high-performance healthcare,” said Jeffrey Selberg, executive director of the Peterson Center on Healthcare. “By ensuring that the coverage they offer their employees rewards healthcare providers for how they perform, they can simultaneously help their employees obtain better healthcare and slow down spending growth.”

“Despite uncertainty and a rapidly changing healthcare environment, there is still plenty that employers can do to improve the healthcare their workforce receives and to keep costs better under control,” said Suzanne Delbanco, executive director of Catalyst for Payment Reform. “If we can help employers adopt best practices, better value will be achieved for their employees and for the economy as a whole.”

For more information about the Peterson Center on Healthcare, visit petersonhealthcare.org. For more information about Catalyst for Payment Reform, visit catalyze.org.

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About the Peterson Center on Healthcare
The Peterson Center on Healthcare is a non-profit organization dedicated to making higher quality, more affordable healthcare a reality for all Americans. The organization is working to transform U.S. healthcare into a high-performance system by finding innovative solutions that improve quality and lower costs, and accelerating their adoption on a national scale. Established by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the Center collaborates with stakeholders across the healthcare system and engages in grant-making, partnerships, and research.

About Catalyst for Payment Reform
Catalyst for Payment Reform (CPR) is an independent, nonprofit corporation working to catalyze employers, public purchasers and others to implement strategies that produce higher-value health care and improve the functioning of the health care marketplace.