Commercial prices for health services are expensive, highly varying, yet opaque, leaving patients and employers plans uninformed and disadvantaged when purchasing care. Price transparency policies are seen as an approach to empower patients and employers to compare prices, stimulate competition, and contain healthcare costs. In this panel, we’re bringing together experts in this field to explore key questions around the policy regulation, data, and practical implications for employer health plans.
Panelists
Dr. Whaley is an associate professor in the Department of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health. His research focuses on health care price transparency and market structure and has been published in clinical, health policy, and economics journals. His research has been widely covered in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and CNN. He has presented research results to policymakers, including the US Congress, Executive Office of the President, Congressional Budget Office, and the Federal Trade Commission. Dr. Whaley received his PhD in Health Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Ms. Elizabeth Mitchell, CEO of Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH), a nonprofit coalition representing large, self-insured employers that collectively spend $350 billion purchasing health services for more than 21 million Americans. Ms. Mitchell leads PBGH in mobilizing health care purchasers, elevating the role and impact of primary care, and creating functional health care markets to support high-quality affordable care, achieving measurable impacts on outcomes and affordability. She brings extensive experience from previous leadership positions at Blue Shield of California, the Maine Health Management Coalition, and health policy committees under the Department of Health and Human Services, National Quality Forum, and National Academy of Medicine.
Mr. Joeseph Wisniewski, associated director from Turquoise Health, a health IT and data company that specializes in the price transparency data products and helps payers and providers navigate new federal price transparency regulations. At Turquoise health, he is the head of Platform Growth and leads the channel partnerships and government affairs. Before Turquoise, Joe spent his career in the technology industry tackling public policy problems through software from supply chains during the pandemic to government affairs.
Moderator
Dr. Yang Wang is a health economist in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Bloomberg School of Public Health.
This event is part of a larger series on the 'Conversations on the Business of Health,' which will be one-hour webinars that will engage leaders in business and academia. We will explore questions such as: Should companies invest in their employees’ health? Will artificial intelligence actually advance health? How can business offer healthcare in novel settings?