Biomaterial Database

Memphis Business Group on Health: a model for health care reform and cost containment. 1994

D Miller

Memphis Business Group on Health, TN.

A market-driven, community-based, competitive health care model has effectively assisted Memphis employers to achieve their cost containment and health care reform objectives. Members of the Memphis Business Group on Health joined forces and successfully implemented a variety of programs and services that resulted in dramatic cost savings and reform of health care delivery systems. Programs included development of a purchasing alliance for negotiating contracts for hospital, medical, workers' compensation, psychiatric, and substance abuse care and other service and product options. Utilization management programs focused on appropriate consumption of resources and intensive management of critical cases. While increases in per employee costs averaged 14.7 percent per year for five years nationally, members of the Memphis Business Group on Health held their increases to an average of 6 percent per year.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008329	Managed Care Programs	Health insurance plans intended to reduce unnecessary health care costs through a variety of mechanisms, including: economic incentives for physicians and patients to select less costly forms of care; programs for reviewing the medical necessity of specific services; increased beneficiary cost sharing; controls on inpatient admissions and lengths of stay; the establishment of cost-sharing incentives for outpatient surgery; selective contracting with health care providers; and the intensive management of high-cost health care cases. The programs may be provided in a variety of settings, such as HEALTH MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATIONS and PREFERRED PROVIDER ORGANIZATIONS.	Case Management, Insurance,Insurance Case Management,Managed Health Care Insurance Plans,Managed Care,Care, Managed,Managed Care Program,Management, Insurance Case,Program, Managed Care,Programs, Managed Care
D003363	Cost Control	The containment, regulation, or restraint of costs. Costs are said to be contained when the value of resources committed to an activity is not considered excessive. This determination is frequently subjective and dependent upon the specific geographic area of the activity being measured. (From Dictionary of Health Services Management, 2d ed)	Cost Containment,Containment, Cost,Containments, Cost,Control, Cost,Controls, Cost,Cost Containments,Cost Controls
D006264	Health Benefit Plans, Employee	Health insurance plans for employees, and generally including their dependents, usually on a cost-sharing basis with the employer paying a percentage of the premium.	CHAMPUS,Employee Health Benefit Plans
D006265	Health Care Coalitions	Voluntary groups of people representing diverse interests in the community such as hospitals, businesses, physicians, and insurers, with the principal objective to improve health care cost effectiveness.	Business Coalitions (Health Care),Business Coalitions (Healthcare),Healthcare Coalitions,Business Coalition (Health Care),Business Coalition (Healthcare),Coalition, Business (Health Care),Coalition, Business (Healthcare),Coalition, Health Care,Coalition, Healthcare,Coalitions, Business (Health Care),Coalitions, Business (Healthcare),Coalitions, Health Care,Coalitions, Healthcare,Health Care Coalition,Healthcare Coalition
D013714	Tennessee	State bounded on the north by Kentucky and Virginia, on the east by North Carolina, on the south by Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and on the west by Arkansas and Missouri.
D015271	Insurance Pools	An organization of insurers or reinsurers through which particular types of risk are shared or pooled. The risk of high loss by a particular insurance company is transferred to the group as a whole (the insurance pool) with premiums, losses, and expenses shared in agreed amounts.	Health Alliances,Alliance, Health,Alliances, Health,Health Alliance,Insurance Pool,Pool, Insurance,Pools, Insurance
D015397	Program Evaluation	Studies designed to assess the efficacy of programs. They may include the evaluation of cost-effectiveness, the extent to which objectives are met, or impact.	Evaluation, Program,Family Planning Program Evaluation,Program Appropriateness,Program Effectiveness,Program Sustainability,Appropriateness, Program,Effectiveness, Program,Evaluations, Program,Program Evaluations,Program Sustainabilities,Sustainabilities, Program,Sustainability, Program
D017049	Employer Health Costs	That portion of total HEALTH CARE COSTS borne by an individual's or group's employing organization.	Health Costs, Employer,Employer Health Cost,Health Cost, Employer
D018166	Health Care Reform	Innovation and improvement of the health care system by reappraisal, amendment of services, and removal of faults and abuses in providing and distributing health services to patients. It includes a re-alignment of health services and health insurance to maximum demographic elements (the unemployed, indigent, uninsured, elderly, inner cities, rural areas) with reference to coverage, hospitalization, pricing and cost containment, insurers' and employers' costs, pre-existing medical conditions, prescribed drugs, equipment, and services.	Healthcare Reform,Health Care Reforms,Healthcare Reforms,Reform, Health Care,Reform, Healthcare,Reforms, Health Care,Reforms, Healthcare