Health Alliance Benefits Indiana Employers

Does the rising cost of health care make you feel nauseated? Does it make you feel like you have the flu, been punched in the gut, or just had to sit through a reality television marathon featuring "Keeping Up with the Kardashians?" The Indiana Chamber is involved with a coalition,  Indiana Employers Quality Health Alliance, designed to help employers deal with this pain. 

Below are just some of the components of the program, which is designed to improve the health care system while striving to control costs:

Leapfrog: The Alliance, working with the sponsorship of 155 Indiana companies, continues to lead the rollout of Leapfrog in Indiana. Leapfrog  is a national survey program designed to encourage progress by hospitals to reduce patient errors and better comply with quality measures. It does this by inviting hospitals to complete an online survey regarding their progress in these areas.

Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE): IHIE  is nationally recognized as the leader in applying information technology to health care. The number of clinical messages delivered to physicians continues to soar, with a cumulative volume reaching nearly 30 million by the end of 2007. IHIE continues to develop its physician performance evaluation tool known as Quality Health First.

Cooperation and Collaboration: The Alliance invited presentations from two successful coalitions regarding their structure and programs. Indiana employers were then surveyed about their health care goals.  These responses were evaluated by a task force, and a plan for future coalition activities developed.

Recruitment and Expansion: Initial discussions have taken place regarding a membership recruitment drive for the Alliance that, if successful, will enable it to become more directly effective in reducing health costs and improving quality for member employers. The Alliance plans to do this by recruiting, statewide, employers of between 25 and 3,000 employees, with a goal of new employers representing a total of at least 50,000 employees.