Well-being tied to productivity and cost savings: Highlighting the afternoon was a panel discussion with private sector innovators who spoke about how employers can facilitate employee engagement and advance a culture of well-being. The panel, which included David Levy, CEO of Engaging Healthy Employees, and Ray Fabius, Co-Founder of HealthNEXT, explored how to measure the well-being of an employee population and the benefits that a healthy workforce can have on productivity and stock market value.
Public policy spotlight on drug policy and the “single-payer spectrum”: Following the private-sector innovation panel, the meeting featured a deep dive on two public policy issues. Katy Talento, White House Special Assistant to the President on Health Care Policy, was interviewed by the Institute’s Mark Wilson about the Trump administration’s drug pricing initiatives and received feedback from our members on how they are handling the opioid crisis in the workplace. Institute CEO Shelly Carlin then followed with an interview of Topher Spiro, author of the Center for American Progress’s “Medicare Extra for All” plan, who talked about the plan’s key provisions and its implications for employers.
The agenda also included briefings from:
- Sarah Thomas, Managing Director at Deloitte’s Center for Health Solutions, who gave a strategic breakdown of competition and consolidation in the health sector; and
- The Honorable Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who spoke about the movement of the bipartisan Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act 2.0 and how employers can prevent and treat opioid abuse in the workforce.
