The featured guest on this week's program is Dr. Christopher Whaley, an adjunct professor of health policy at UC Berkley and RAND Corporaton researcher, who also works with Castlight Health on research studies. In today's interview, Dr. Whaley will discuss how reference-based pricing helps employers and patients lower costs of care.  

Reference-based pricing is a type of benefit design that enables an employer to establish the maximum amount it will cover for a specific service. This maximum amount is the reference price. If their employee should choose to receive care for that service at a location that charges more than the reference price, the employee will be responsible for paying the amount above the reference price.

The first guest today will be Linda Heuer, founder of 121 Benefits. Earlier this year, Linda purchased Eide Bailly Employee Benefits Services from the well-known CPA firm and introduced a new TPA to the Midwest. The company is called 121 Benefits. Heuer, a former Eide Bailly principal, had noticed that the benefits industry was becoming increasingly self-service, which runs counter to the increasing complexity that employers and individuals face when dealing with health benefits. As a result, her focus with 121 Benefits is to provide a more responsive, personal, face-to-face service experience and a high level of benefits expertise. Using her team’s first-hand knowledge of employer preferences for one-to-one service and their proven compliance leadership, the 121 Benefits team offers a fresh approach for private and public employers.

The second guest on this week's show will be Bill Haber, senior director, business development for PokitDok, an API platform built to power the business of health. In this segment, Bill will discuss how PokitDok’s APIs power interoperable transactions and how that relates to health care consumerism. He will also talk about how hospital systems, digital health companies and systems integrators, to name a few, can utilize PokitDok’s platform to improve workflows, cut costs and put power in the hands of the patient.

On the first segment of today's show, Dr. Dee Edington and Jack Bastable, co-founders of the Edington CBIZ Next Practice Awards, tell us how the award program came to be, how companies earn the award and what the value of this special achievement is. Doug and the guests will also talk about some highlights from the well-being track at 2016 IHC FORUM West in Las Vegas. Collaborating with expert consultants at CBIZ, we have designed five workshop sessions that cover the range of wellness in today's workplace. Tune in at 11:10 a.m. (ET) to learn more about the Edington CBIZ Next Practice Awards and what we have planned for November's conference.

For the second segment, Doug will talk with Jen Arnold, owner of Redesigning Wellness, a consulting and training company that creates engaging and effective health and wellness strategies for forward thinking organizations. Worksite wellness should be treated just like any other business initiative in your company. Unfortunately, it rarely gets the attention it deserves. Often the responsibilities are thrown on an overworked HR person who already has too much on their plate. And these activities usually stay in HR with little exposure to the CEO. Wellness turns into haphazard activities, the same people participating and maybe the occasional Biggest Loser contest. Then you pray you’ll find something in your annual health care claims that shows a positive ROI. That’s not the way results happen! In this interview, Jen will talk about ways to redesign the common worksite wellness program in order to gain better traction and results.

The first guest on this week's program will be Jessica Grossmeier, vice president of research, HERO. The concept that good health is good business has been validated over the years by research linking health risk factors to higher employee health care costs, reduced on-the-job productivity and higher absenteeism. More recently, research has expanded its focus to overall well-being, with some studies showing a correlation between low employee well-being, higher turnover, lower employee engagement and lower employee performance. Now, the latest emerging body of research, including a new study from HERO, demonstrates that improved stock performance may be yet another reason to invest in a healthy workforce. In this interview, Jessica will share the findings and discuss the applications of this new research. 

For the second segment, we'll continue the wellness theme as we welcome Jeff Brizzolara, PhD, MPH, chief clinical officer, Viverae, to the show. Analyzing the true impact of a corporate wellness program can be tricky, as companies have learned that compiling individual health improvements across an entire population to form one standard of measurement is difficult. To formulate program effectiveness, more employers are embracing value of investment or return on investment, but oftentimes they can’t make the direct connection from seeing a significant difference in their health care costs. The traditional framework for health care ROI needs to change in order to portray a more accurate figure, which includes critical factors that sustain a healthy lifestyle or contribute to improvements in productivity.

The first guest is Sean McManamy, SVP, strategy and product, HealthFitness, who discusses elusive drivers of wellness program participation. Sean will share new research that shows that to drive participation in wellness programs employers must address both the emotional and functional needs of employees and include personalized, customized communications. The research survey – conducted by HealthFitness in 2015 and 2016 – shows that wellness program participants have greater satisfaction with programs offered, perceived themselves as healthier and have a more positive attitude toward their employer. Yet, despite the myriad of available tools, tech and programs that are attractive to employees, a significant number – nearly 60 percent – remain outside of the program.: They are those who indicate they are likely to start participating, but for some reason do not. Fortunately, research findings point to ways employers can maximize the significant potential of their wellness programs by focusing on some of the elusive drivers that move employees to take action.

For the second segment, Dr. Adrian Rawlinson, chief medical officer and co-founder at Obeo Health, joins the show to discuss how to use health care data for the benefit of both employees and employers. Obeo Health is a health care technology leader changing how employees engage with their health care decisions. Their platform combines advanced prescriptive analytics and personal health data to give more transparency and control. By helping employees objectively evaluate, manage and understand their health care needs, Obeo Health's solutions drive down costs and increase satisfaction for everyone.

The first guest is Robin Gelburd, president of FAIR Health. The U.S. is in the midst of an epidemic of abuse of opioids, including both prescription painkillers and heroin. Unlike previous opioid abuse epidemics, this one is disproportionately affecting white, middle-class people in non-urban settings, including those with private health insurance. Drawing on its database of over 21 billion privately billed health care claims, FAIR Health has recently released two white papers on the crisis. The first examines the scope of the epidemic among the privately insured; the second reveals the specifics of services and costs associated with opioid abuse and dependence diagnoses, including both professional charges and allowed amounts. FAIR Health’s investigation demonstrates the growing impact of the opioid crisis not only on patients but on insurers, employers, providers and all other health care stakeholders.

The second guest on the program is Denise Winston, financial wellness specialist and founder of Money Starts Here, who will be discussing why financial wellness is the next big focus for employers. Most of us are no strangers to financial worries, especially in today's economy. In the workplace, however, there's a growing concern that needs addressing: the impact of financially stressed employees on the workplace. The harsh reality is that the majority of working Americans are already living paycheck to paycheck, and it's getting worse. Unfortunately, due to the ACA, many employers have seen huge increases in their health care premiums and have no other option except to shift more of those health care costs onto their already financially stressed employees. In this interview, Denise and Doug will take a look what monetary worries will do to an employee's quality of life and how it impacts a company's bottom line.

The first guest on this week's show will be Michelle Snyder, chief marketing officer for Welltok, who will reveal insights into what employees really think about wellness. Welltok and the National Business Group on Health issued a survey of over 1,000 full-time employees of large employers on their thoughts on employee wellness programs. The survey reveals how employers can drive greater program participation. Key factors uncovered include the importance of personalization, impact of rewards and need for multi-channel communication. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work for employers that want to maximize their program investments. This deep dive exposes where opinions differ by gender, income and age.

The second guest on the program will be George Bennett, co-founder, chairman and CEO for Good Measures. Good Measures has developed a breakthrough approach related to measuring and improving health by helping people change their eating habits that combines the human touch and caring of a Registered Dietitian with the computational power of an extraordinarily powerful digital app. The digital app (and the extensive cloud based analytical tools that underpin it) simplifies the complex task of helping an individual meet his/her multiple nutritional needs simultaneously (right number of calories; enough fiber; right amounts of protein, carbs, and fat; enough calcium; enough Vitamin D; not too much sodium, etc.) using a food/meal library that only contains foods that the individual likes and will eat. The implications of the new, patented approach are extensive and powerful.

On this week's show, host Doug Field talks with guests from Fifth Third Bank and Fidelity Health Marketplace.

The first guest is Mark Robich, vice president and consumer-directed health care lead at Fifth Third Bank. In this interview, Mark will talk about Fifth Third Bank's recently introduced Consumer-Directed Health Care Solution and how this new solution makes it easier for business customers to administer high deductible health plans paired with tax-advantaged financial accounts, such as HSAs, FSAs and HRAs. Fifth Third joined Chard Snyder along with technology platform provider WEX Health to deliver a seamless experience and create one-stop shopping for employers.

The second guest on the program is Joe Laurin, president of Fidelity Health Marketplace. In today's interview, starting at 30 minutes, Joe will talk about trends around private health exchanges and give his thoughts on the funding models used by some of these exchanges. He will also touch on the news about some national insurance companies pulling out of the public exchanges and on how that impacts people’s perception of private health exchanges.

The first guest on this week's program is Tibi Zohar, CEO of DoctorGlobe, the first and only U.S. domestic online hospital-shopping platform utilizing big data and crowd wisdom to exploit price inefficiency and identify quality of inpatient care. Everyone agrees that inpatient care is expensive in America. Transparency has become a common buzzword in every health care-related conversation, especially since the implementation of the ACA. The two common methods to overcome rising non-transparent costs have been either to negotiate prices (carriers) or to invent prices (RBP). But maybe there’s a better, more modern way to solve this puzzle? Catch this interview to find out how DoctorGlobe can help employers overcome non-transparency and identify quality in health care.

The second guest on this week's program is Laurie Brednich, CEO and founder of HR Company Store, the premier website to help HR professionals find, rate and review vendor partners. Laurie began her career in the insurance industry working for Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield, MetLife and Hartford Steam Boiler. She then decided to take her unique skill set and apply it to the HR sector where she had a lengthy career helping employers maximize their benefit plan offerings. She has held employee benefit leadership positions at American Standard, the NBA, Pinnacle Foods Group, GoDaddy and most recently Sprouts Farmers Market. In this interview, Laurie will discuss why it's important for HR professionals to have an objective resource when selecting vendors and why mastering the art of the RFP is an essential skill for almost all HR professionals.

The first guest on this week's show will be Marcia Otto, vice president of pricing and transparency applications, Health Advocate. As consumer-driven health care continues to grow, more employees are taking an increasing role in managing the costs of their health care. To address this, a plethora of pricing transparency tools and similar resources have emerged to help them identify cost-effective, high-quality care that can lower health care spending. Despite the availability and value of these tools, utilization is still lacking. However, there are a number of strategies organizations can implement to motivate engagement and utilization of pricing transparency tools and realize their many benefits. In this interview, Marcia will talk about strategies for improving engagement in pricing transparency tools.

For the second segment, starting at 11:30 a.m. (ET), Pam Mortenson, executive vice president, wellness solutions, Health Advocate, will join the program. Workplace wellness programs are now widespread at companies across the U.S.; yet, while these programs are intended to improve employee health and reduce overall health care costs, many employers still struggle to engage their workforce. In order to motivate employees to take action, organizations are beginning to adopt a holistic approach and shift from wellness to well-being. By creating a flexible, diverse program that goes beyond physical wellness to consider employees’ emotional, financial and social health, well-being programs more effectively address employees’ unique needs and drive engagement.