Neil Goldfarb Previews Theme, Potential Takeaways of 2022 GPBCH Annual Conference

The 2022 Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health (GPBCH) Annual Conference will overview a broad range of topics centered on how employers can get better value for their health benefits spend and generate enhanced population health for their workforce and community, said Neil Goldfarb, president and chief executive officer of GPBCH.

Transcript

Can you discuss the theme of the 2022 GPBCH Annual Meeting?

The title of the conference this year is, “Pushing Past the Pandemic: Doing Business Differently to Achieve Health & Value.” To shorten that, I would just say the theme is really, "how can we innovate to create better value?"

This is a conference primarily designed for employers, as well as the people who work with employers, like benefits consultants and service vendors, to talk about the most innovative current strategies that employers can implement that will help them get better value for their health benefits spend, as well as generate better population health for their workforce and their community.

What lessons do you hope audience members gain from the in-person meeting?

I hope that everybody in the audience, whether it's an employer or another health care system stakeholder, comes away with at least one good idea of something they could be doing differently to drive health and value. We've got a very broad ranging set of topics and speakers on the agenda. We're covering important issues like health equity, innovation on the health plan side, how do you deal with high cost claimants, what are the implications of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) for employers, where the CAA has major reporting requirements that create a new burden for employers to demonstrate their fiduciary responsibility.

So, I think we have something for everyone here. We also have the winners of this year's health benefits innovation awards, a program we started several years ago. And so employers will be hearing from other coalition members about very innovative strategies that they have undertaken that they believe are delivering better value, and that we believe could be implemented by a broader range of employers throughout our region.

There is a great opportunity at the conference for employers and stakeholders to network with each other. We've built in extra time on the agenda for people to get to know each other, to see old friends, make new friends. And also we have nearly 20 exhibitor vendor sponsors, and these are companies that are doing some very innovative things to support the employer as a customer. So, we have built in a lot of time for attendees to meet with these exhibitors and hopefully learn about some of the new strategies that are being put in to help employers achieve greater value.