BHCG offers employer solutions through best in class strategic partners, educational programs, support and vital information to employers who must navigate the ever-changing health care benefits landscape. BHCG has more than 200,000 lives that impact the market and is the only unified employer voice in eastern Wisconsin for health care issues. BHCG membership allows employers, no matter their size, to join forces to effectively face the future together with proven health care solutions.
The Business Health Care Group grew out of the frustration felt by several CEOs of large Milwaukee-based employers concerning health care costs in southeast Wisconsin as compared to their other locations, particularly other areas in the Midwest.
A study commissioned by the Greater Milwaukee Business Foundation on Health found that in 2003, health care costs in southeast Wisconsin were 39 percent above the Midwest average. The founding CEOs realized that something needed to be done to support the economic viability of our area and maintain jobs in our market.
The CEOs also understood that no one employer was large enough to influence the health care market. It would take a number of large employers, speaking with one voice, walking in unison with a common strategy, to impact the costs of health care in southeast Wisconsin. Ultimately, 11 corporations with headquarters in southeast Wisconsin and two other existing coalitions founded BHCG as a member-owned Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) in 2003 to explore alternatives to contain health care costs in the region. They soon established a goal to get costs at or below the Midwest average within five years.
More information about BHCG and its mission is available on this site.
Membership in BHCG is available to employers throughout Wisconsin and on a nationwide basis. Presently employers of all sizes participate in BHCG.
BHCG partnered with Centivo to develop and administer a high-performance health plan to reduce costs through a shared effort by employers and health care provider communities. The way forward is a health plan solution that gives the employer community a more direct voice with providers and features better alignment and accountability for both sides.
Centivo worked with health systems and provider groups to create a health plan, effective January 1, 2022, that identifies high value providers and rewards those providers for value, not volume. Centivo works with employers to direct patients to high value providers and encourages coordinated care through the use of a primary care physician (PCP). The development of strong relationships with PCPs helps plan members navigate the health care system. The result is better health care choices and more predictable costs, key elements of the high-performance health plan solution.
A partial list of BHCG members is available on this site.
Integral to the BHCG value proposition is its ever-growing number of solutions to help employers more effectively manage their benefit programs. Working with best in class strategic partners, BHCG’s diverse portfolio of employer solutions in benefits delivery, advocacy and patient decision-making aligns with BHCG’s mission to improve health care value. Presently BHCG's strategic partners include:
- Centivo – high-performance health plan and claims administration
- Navitus Health Solutions – pharmacy benefit management
- Artemis by Nomi Health – benefits analytics
BHCG is involved in several initiatives at the local and state levels to enhance health care information transparency including:
- Promoting participation in RAND’s Hospital Price Transparency Studies to all self-funded employers and health plans in the state to improve health care value
- Encouraging all medical plan administrators to share their data with the Wisconsin Health Information Organization (WHIO), a partnership of health insurers, hospitals, doctors and employers that analyzes millions of health insurance claims to assess which doctors and hospitals are the most efficient
- Sponsoring the Physician Value Study, in collaboration with Aitia (formerly GNS Healthcare) and WHIO, to evaluate primary care physician and select specialist performance throughout the state
- Encouraging all health systems and provider groups to become members of the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ) to share best practices with other providers and publicly report their quality performance for consumers to access