St. Louis Area Business Health Coalition

Today, the BHC team kicked off the holiday season in the best way we know—with our members! We started with a delicious lunch from Panera Bread, followed by a fun white elephant gift exchange, and ended with a festive tour of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery Biergarten. And OF COURSE we had to stay for their beautiful Christmas light display! 🎄 Wishing you and yours a joyful and memorable holiday season, The BHC Team

Less than 5% of eligible hospitals earn the honor of being named a #TopHospital by The Leapfrog Group, and we’re thrilled to announce that Mercy Hospital Jefferson, Mercy Hospital South, and Mercy Hospital Springfield have earned this distinction in 2024 for their dedication to quality, safety, and transparency. https://lnkd.in/g-4-YHXG    Only 134 hospitals nationwide earned this award in 2024. Congratulations to these three Mercy hospitals for rising to the top!    #PatientSafety #LeapfrogTopHospital #CareQuality #TopASC 

BHC hosted its very first Innovation Forum this morning at Vue 17! The event brought together employers, health care partners, consultants, and innovators to explore new solutions to today's toughest health benefits challenges.    Attendees heard from several organizations looking to shape the future of employee health and well-being, including:    Apaly Centivo Homethrive PeopleOne Health Rezilient Health and Sober Sidekick by Empathy Health Tech!   A huge thank you to everyone who joined, especially our speakers! Your expertise and innovation made this event a resounding success. We’re already looking forward to the next one—stay tuned! #Innovation #HealthBenefits #EmployerSolutions

🌟 Community Connections Recap: Stopping Chronic Disease Where It Starts 🌟 Last week, with a view of the St. Louis Arch at Vue 17, clinicians, employers, and community leaders gathered to build relationships and exchange perspectives on primary care in St. Louis! Here’s a quick recap of the key moments from Stopping Chronic Disease Where It Starts: Driving Lifestyle Change Through Primary Care. 🔹John Ziegler, Jr. from Arch Resources, Inc. opened the event with comments on the importance of a lifestyle focus in primary care from an employer’s perspective. 🔹 Padmaja Patel, MD, FACLM, DipABLM, CPE President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, illuminated the path to integrating lifestyle medicine into the clinical practice of primary care, shared her collaborative care model and recanted her experience using lifestyle to drive improved patient outcomes and rediscover the joy in medicine. 🔹A panel of local clinicians – Devyani Hunt of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Jordanna Riebel of Family Care Health Centers, and Tom Landholt, MD of SSM Health – highlighted the amazing work by practices in St. Louis to integrate whole person health and emphasize team-based care. 🔹 To top it all off, Eric S Armbrecht, PhD of Saint Louis University led a group discussion identifying common paths forward in advancing lifestyle medicine in St. Louis, and played game show host as attendees competed in a high-stakes battle of Win, Lose, or Draw. Thank you to everyone who came for an engaging discussion and an active exchange of perspectives. Strong community relationships are foundational to creating lasting change, and MHI looks to continue bringing stakeholders together and fostering new connections. #communityconnections #lifestylemedicine #advancingprimarycare #MHICC

🔎 The Midwest Health Initiative reports that 4 health systems hold 70%+ of the commercial inpatient market share in Kansas City and 95%+ in St. Louis. Only 2 of these systems make up 70%+ of the inpatient market in St. Louis. 💲 Healthcare consolidation adds to rising costs that inhibit wage growth, increase out-of-pocket expenses for employees, and more. What can employers do? Monitor market trends via MHI, try to negotiate with insurers, find alternative options, and advocate for policy changes. 🫵 BHC members receive exclusive access to the 2024 reports, Inpatient & Outpatient Facility Services in a Commercially Insured Population. Check them out to see hospital and health system level metrics!  📊 Contact MHI to learn how to access the full reports at [email protected] or learn more at MHI’s website: https://lnkd.in/gPvSH55u.

🚨 New Podcast Episode Alert! 🚨 In this episode of the #BeHealthConnected podcast, we are excited to recap our recent Annual Meeting, where nearly 300 healthcare and benefits leaders from across the nation came together to discuss how employers can drive meaningful change in health care. The energy in the room was palpable, and we left feeling truly inspired by the potential employers have to reshape the healthcare landscape for the better. Joining us are two distinguished members of the BHC Board of Directors: Alison Casler, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Drury Hotels Company, and Misi Holmberg, CEBS, CPSP Holmberg, Director of Benefits at Panera, to share their takeaways from the meeting. 🎧Listen Here: https://lnkd.in/gF_jjQ2K

📣 LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER | BHC Innovation Forum 📣 We are just one week away from the 2024 BHC Innovation Forum. Come hear from innovative solutions that address the toughest challenges in providing health benefits. This will be a dynamic gathering where thought leaders, industry experts, and passionate innovators converge to explore cutting-edge ideas, breakthrough technologies, and emerging trends in health care. Hear from the following innovators in the benefits and well-being space: - Apaly - Centivo - Homethrive - PeopleOne Health - Rezilient Health - Sober Sidekick by Empathy Health Tech Learn more and register today at https://lnkd.in/gPuuW8tM

This holiday season, we’re reminded of just how much we have to be thankful for—starting with YOU! To our members, community partners, and supporters, your dedication and engagement make our work possible, and we couldn’t be more grateful.   From all of us at the BHC, we wish you and your loved ones a joyful and meaningful Thanksgiving! 🦃🍂

Exciting news! 🎉 Recent BHC podcast guest, Marty Makary M.D., M.P.H., has been nominated to lead the Food and Drug Administration! If you missed our September podcast launch, now’s the perfect time to catch up. Tune in to hear Dr. Makary share his inspiring journey—from his residency days to becoming a world-renowned surgeon at Johns Hopkins, a New York Times bestselling author, and nominated leader of the FDA! Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gUVndcHA

We are just over two weeks away from the 2024 BHC Innovation Forum, which will expose employers, consultants, and others to new solutions that address the toughest challenges in providing health benefits. This will be a dynamic gathering where thought leaders, industry experts, and passionate innovators converge to explore cutting-edge ideas, breakthrough technologies, and emerging trends in health care.. Hear from the following innovators in the benefits and well-being space: - Apaly - Centivo - Homethrive - PeopleOne Health - Rezilient Health - Sober Sidekick by Empathy Health Tech Learn more and register today at https://lnkd.in/gPuuW8tM