Testimony
Ohio House Health & Family Services Select Committee
Presented on September 24, 2002
by Sharron M. DiMario, Executive Director
Employer Health Care Alliance
3805 Edwards Road, Suite 546
Cincinnati, OH 45209-1900
513-458-6730, 513-458-6732/fax, sdimario@cintiehca.com

Good afternoon Chairman Jolivette and Representatives of the Select Committee on Quality Health Care. My name is Sharron DiMario and I’m Executive Director of the Employer Health Care Alliance (EHCA) and Chairperson of the Ohio Business Coalitions on Health. EHCA is one of over 80 employer-driven coalitions across the US that are members of the National Business Coalition on Health and one of six active groups in Ohio whose members represent over 1.3 million lives in 47 of Ohio’s 88 counties.

For almost two decades, Ohio’s employer health care purchasers have partnered with other health care stakeholders to pursue value-based purchasing programs that restrain the rate of increase, improve quality and increase accessibility; offer educational forums on health care and other employee benefits topics; monitor and comment on state and federal legislation, and bring together payers, providers and insurers in a collective attempt to solve local and statewide health care marketplace issues.

Today’s business environment is extremely competitive and this requires attracting and retaining a highly productive workforce. To encourage good health and high productivity, employers invest heavily in the health of their employees. Employers voluntarily sponsor health coverage—the largest component of employee benefits—for more than half of all Americans. This benefit is the second greatest expense to business after wages.

You’ve heard all the staggering statistics from my fellow panelists and I want to repeat that the current situation is unsustainable for employers. So, where does that leave us, and what strategies have employers tackled and/or plan to pursue? During tight economic times, the business community has searched for ways to lower expenses and enhance revenue while continuing to provide quality products or services. This has been accomplished through streamlining business processes and continuous quality improvement efforts that we share within our companies and with other organizations. Private sector, state and/or federal initiatives have and must continue to be developed that provide consistent, credible data collection and adopt quality standards of care that include incentives for provider performance and accountability. We will continue to encourage and support the health care delivery system in its efforts to measure and share performance and quality of care information.

Recent strategies for reigning in health care expenses have included increased individual responsibility and financial accountability, which employers support. However, there are limits. Shifting too much of the health care burden will drive away qualified workers and continued premium increases will force low-wage workers out of employer-sponsored programs and into the ranks of the uninsured. The Ohio Chamber Health Care Initiative is reviewing a number of ways to increase the availability and affordability of health care insurance. Discussions of these options have included state mandate-free or “bare-bones” policies, individual and employer tax credits, and health care purchasing alliances.

For example, our group has discussed that health care purchasing alliances would give small and medium sized employers more leverage in the marketplace to join with other similar sized companies, resulting in access to a broader range of plans and greater ability to control costs. One way to encourage the development of such health care purchasing alliances in Ohio would be to broaden the law to allow small businesses to contract as a “group” versus as several individual company policies being “grouped” together.

We have proven in Cincinnati and across the state, that employers can take the initiative and responsibility to improve the system. As part of this Ohio Chamber of Commerce initiative, employers have played and will continue to play an important role in bringing a principled, consensus-based effort, informed by the best practices of management, to ensure the long-term well-being of the state’s health system.