Employers, clinicians and healthcare companies have formed the Association for Direct Care, a Washington, D.C.-based coalition that will lobby for policies supporting direct contracting between employers and providers.
The organization plans to work with Congress and the administration on its priorities, according to its Sept. 23 news release. Those priorities include expanding direct contracting in commercial insurance and federal health programs, widening access to healthcare data, and reducing what it describes as regulatory and administrative barriers.
Its members include the American Academy of Family Physicians, the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, The ERISA Industry Committee and the Employers’ Forum of Indiana. No hospitals or health systems are among the named members.
Some health systems have direct arrangements with employers. In April, Indiana published its first review of such contracts, and plans from all five participating systems met the state’s pricing benchmark of 260% of Medicare rates. The systems were Ascension St. Vincent, Community Health Network and Indiana University Health, all in Indianapolis, along with Mishawaka-based Franciscan Health and Fort Wayne-based Parkview Health.
That same month, Mark Cuban described Cost Plus Wellness, a platform that publicly posts contracts between self-insured employers and providers. Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health was the first large health system to take part.
