Center for Health Value Innovation aligns with ACOEM and IBI to launch HPM Clinics

The Center for Health Value Innovation (www.vbhealth.org), the nation’s premier information exchange for value-based design, today announced an alignment with the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM; www.acoem.org) and the Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI; www.ibiweb.org), creating a powerful triumvirate to better articulate the value of health and productivity management (HPM). Working together, these leading organizations will create standardized data and result metrics for value-based HPM and launch HPM Clinics designed to educate and inform insurance brokers and industry consultants on the opportunities to enhance employer competitiveness and health in the community, and concurrently bend cost trends.

“Now more than ever, we need to amplify the message that poor health adversely impacts the physical and financial health of a community, and identify options for improvement,” says Cyndy Nayer, president and CEO of the Center. “We anticipate that program participants will begin utilizing key value-based strategies for designing healthcare programs, including HPM modeling and finely honed measurement tools. As a result, compromised communities will begin to see improved health and a reduction in health cost trends.”

These organizational relationships further position the Center as a proving ground for innovative thinking, providing all stakeholders in the health care continuum a platform for fertilizing and implementing fresh ideas that advance individual health and contain costs.

Nayer points to the synergies of these affiliations, noting that the ACOEM is the preeminent organization of 5,000 physicians and other health care professionals who specialize in the field of occupational and environmental medicine and champion the health and safety of workers, workplaces and the environment. In 2008, ACOEM launched its on-line HPM Toolkit which provides the most comprehensive source of HPM materials including tutorials, data, bibliographies and links to an extensive array of resources. ACOEM has been a leader in the field of HPM since 1999.

“IBI completes the circle, providing employers and their supplier partners with resources for proving the business value of health,” adds Nayer. “The Institute is also regarded as a pioneer, leader and nonprofit supplier of health and productivity research, measurement and benchmarking, bringing to this relationship a trusted source for benefits performance research and analysis, and practical solutions.”

According to Ronald Loeppke, M.D., a Fellow at ACOEM and Chair of IBI’s board of directors, “The inroads made by the Center and IBI are aligned with ACOEM members who are passionate about improving worker health through preventive services, clinical care, research, and education. We look forward to developing and implementing programs that are relevant to the practice of preventive medicine both within and outside of the workplace.”

Thomas Parry, president of IBI, adds, “We bring a well-developed research agenda into this strategic alliance, with an eye toward improving health-related productivity by improving health and measuring results. This partnership advances our dedication to leading businesses from concept to reality in integrating health, absence and disability management as an investment in a productive workforce and corporate America’s bottom line.”