Latest news with #ElizabethMitchell
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
PBGH Announces Jumbo Employers' Top 5 Health Care Priorities
Learn what tops the health care agenda for PBGH members, the nation's largest employers that collectively spend $350 billion annually purchasing health care services for more than 21 million Americans and their families Oakland, California, May 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH), a nonprofit coalition representing 40 private employers and public entities across the U.S., announced today the results of its member survey on top health care priorities. Cost control and affordability continue to top the list, with health insurance premiums climbing year after year and expected to increase by an average of 7% in 2025, outpacing inflation. Affordability is front and center for employers seeking to purchase care on behalf of their workforce. Rounding out the top five health care priorities are access to care; quality of care and appropriate utilization; RFPs/procurement of partners; and member experience and communications. 'These priorities should be a wake-up call for many health care stakeholders who think the status quo is acceptable,' explained Elizabeth Mitchell, President & CEO of PBGH. "We are not seeing serious efforts to contend with cost and affordability from the industry. But employers and families are paying the bills. Employers bear sole fiduciary responsibility for the health coverage they provide for employees and their families yet even getting access to price and quality data to effectively evaluate whether they are paying a fair price for health care services is still too hard.' After affordability, members cite access to care, and quality of care as top concerns. Employers are using innovative strategies such as direct contracting, centers of excellence, integrated mental health in primary care, and using the PBGH Care Excellence Program to identify high-quality, affordable advanced primary care with high value specialty referrals. Employers are driving innovation absent industry solutions. Many PBGH members planning RFPs during the coming year expressed heightened scrutiny on procurement processes to eliminate barriers to innovation and select aligned consultants and vendor partners. Member experience and communications continue to remain a top five priority as benefits directors strive to provide employees with the best possible health benefits that meet employees' needs, keep employees and their families healthy, and make it easy to use health care services when they need it. 'The survey results affirm our strategic roadmap,' continued Mitchell. 'PBGH's strategic initiatives include programs that focus on affordable, high-quality, whole-person health, such as our Advanced Primary Care program and transparent data to establish fair pricing, ensure accountability and enable fiduciary success.' Other priorities of interest cited in the survey include Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) compliance and legislative updates; data optimization for measuring benefits success; strategies for GLP-1 management; and continued interest in health equity, comprehensive cancer care, and employee well-being. 'While this survey marks the annual checkpoint with our members, we are in close contact throughout the year to ensure the resources, programs, services and education we develop are valuable to them,' explained Randa Deaton, PBGH's Vice President, Purchaser Engagement. 'It gratifying to gain deeper insights into their priorities and challenges and know we are helping to address them. There is power in collective action, and we expect to see more of that from employers in the future.' About Purchaser Business Group on Health PBGH is a nonprofit coalition representing nearly 40 private employers and public entities across the U.S. that collectively spend $350 billion annually purchasing healthcare services for more than 21 million Americans and their families. In partnership with its members, PBGH initiatives are designed to test innovative operational programs and scale successful approaches that lower healthcare costs and increase quality across the U.S. ### CONTACT: Janet Cabibbo Purchaser Business Group on Health 9177510232 jcabibbo@
RNZ News
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Two decades on from bro'Town: Oscar Kightley with new gen comedians Joe Daymond and Bubbah
The mid 2000s were groundbreaking times for New Zealand stage and screen works from artists of Pacific Island descent. The Naked Samoans, with Elizabeth Mitchell brought us hit animated TV comedy series bro'Town in primetime. Film Sione's Wedding and its sequel followed, and were huge, while Toa Fraser's drama No.2 debuted at Sundance. Back in the theatre, groups like the Laughing Samoans and Kila Kokonut Krew were breaking barriers and taking their work overseas. All this before social media even existed - and when being on primetime television was a really big deal At the NZ International Comedy Festival in May the Naked Samoans will reunite for the first time in seven years. They join a new generation of makers and comedians. So on Culture 101 we thought it a good time to talk about what's changed, with a panel. Sieni Leo'o Olo (best known as Bubbah) is a Samoan comedian who started in theatre with Massive Company and, by the Covid years was performing her own show My Ode to South Auckland for gold-coin entry in her backyard (it went on to the Basement Theatre). She's become more widely familiar on screens from Comedy Central's Sis , Taskmaster , the Tiktok friendly I Got You and as the delightful Tina from Turners in the car auction ads. Hailing from Wainuiomata and of Fijian and Māori descent, Joe Daymond is no longer - as he's often been called- a rising star in our standup comedy scene. He's played the Sydney Opera House and Hollywood Comedy Store and has just finished a massive national tour ahead of a 10 date five state tour of Australia in May. And finally, one of the six Naked Samoans: Oscar Kightley. Born in Apia, raised in Tāmaki Makaurau, Kightley is a journalist, presenter, director and actor who was made a member of New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009.
Associated Press
31-01-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
PBGH Publishes Purchaser Policy Priorities for the New Congress and Administration
Oakland, California, Jan. 31, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the newly-elected 119th Congress readies to tackle a list of legislative priorities, Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH), a nonprofit coalition representing 40 private employers and public entities across the U.S., shares a new Brief detailing its health care policy priorities. PBGH members share bi-partisan goals to reduce health care costs while improving quality and access of health care services. PBGH members lead innovative purchasing strategies but need policy change to enable a functional health care market. 'We welcome the new Congress and Administration's willingness to disrupt an industry that has become increasingly consolidated, unresponsive and dysfunctional,' said Elizabeth Mitchell, President and CEO of PBGH. 'The current system does not work for employers, families or most health care providers and the industry has demonstrated it will not reform itself to deliver high quality care at lower costs. Legislative action is needed to curb anticompetitive practices and enable accountability.' To improve affordability, the Brief identifies specific policy actions for Congress and the Administration, including: Lower Health Care Costs by addressing hospital and drug pricing, limiting consolidation, and prohibiting anti-competitive practices. Improve Data Access and Transparency by enforcing hospital price transparency and transparency in coverage regulations and enhancing penalties for non-compliance. Enact Service Provider Reforms by ensuring PBM and TPA transparency, including reporting drug pricing data and prohibiting gag clauses, and extending fiduciary obligations to service providers. Support Direct Contracting and Joint Purchasing by clarifying antitrust guidance allowing multiple employers to join together, and ensuring direct contracts are covered by ERISA's preemption law. Many of these policy recommendations are important to enable employers' ability to meet their fiduciary responsibilities on behalf of employees and families. In addition to affordability, the Brief offers recommendations on improving access to needed high-quality care. PBGH supports efforts to: Improve Maternal and Child Health ensuring access to safe and high quality maternal and post-partum care – especially in rural areas – through a whole person approach and expanding access to care teams including midwives and doulas. Improve Primary Care and Mental Health by removing barriers to advanced primary care, investing in the primary care workforce, and integrating mental health care into primary care. 'The health care market is broken. These common-sense reforms will go a long way toward establishing fair competition and greater transparency will allow the marketplace to work to better control costs and improve access to high quality care,' Mitchell said. About Purchaser Business Group on Health PBGH is a nonprofit coalition representing nearly 40 private employers and public entities across the U.S. that collectively spend $350 billion annually purchasing healthcare services for more than 21 million Americans and their families. In partnership with its members, PBGH initiatives are designed to test innovative operational programs and scale successful approaches that lower healthcare costs and increase quality across the U.S.
