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B U S I N E S S P RO F I L E S 74 B U S I N E S S P R O F I L E S S P E C I A L A D V E R T I S I N G S E C T I O N F or decades, the high cost of health care has spurred noisy, heated and sometimes confusing debate in Maine and throughout the United States. Often lost in the din are the businesses that foot the bill for much of the country's health care. At a time when the debate is only getting louder — and costs are reaching record highs — the Healthcare Purchaser Alliance of Maine is working to give the state's employers a new voice. Formerly known as the Maine Health Management Coalition, the nonprofit organization changed its name in March to reflect a sharpened focus: making quality health care more affordable for businesses and public trusts. Price runs rampant For 20 years, the price of health care has been growing. Right now, health care spending is rising 70% faster than the pace of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. And the disparity is only increasing, with the health care inflation rate expected to soon double the CPI's. As a result, health care costs are eating up more and more of every dollar in the economy. U.S. health care spending will total nearly $3.9 trillion in 2019, or roughly 18% of gross domes- tic product, according to the federal government. In less than a decade, that share is projected to reach 20%. Businesses will pick Healthcare Purchaser Alliance of Maine A voice for business finds strength in numbers Healthcare Purchaser Alliance of Maine 11 Bowdoin Mill Island, Suite 260, Topsham, ME 04086 Healthcare, Nonprofit Peter Hayes, President & CEO Founded: 1993 Maine employees: 8 www.purchaseralliance.org Average Imaging Costs in Maine Source: Healthcare Purchaser Alliance of Maine Book of Business, 2016 At Free-Standing Clinics At Hospital Outpatient Centers CT Scan: Thorax w/ Dye $ 6 7 4 $ 1 , 1 3 3 $ 7 5 9 $ 1 , 8 0 3 CT Scan: Abdominal & Pelvis w/ Contrast $ 7 5 4 $ 1 , 3 2 7 MRI: Neck Spine w/o Dye MRI: Lumbar Spine w/o Dye $ 8 1 6 $ 1 , 2 6 6 up much of the cost. In fact, consulting firm PwC predicts the country's private employers will increase per-employee health care spending by 6% in 2019 alone. All this leads to fewer dollars for vital public services, and fewer dollars for businesses to invest in employee wages and growth. e danger is acute in Maine, which already spends a lot on health care — the 11th-highest among the 50 states in per- resident spending, according to government data. e cost crisis has prompted outcry in Maine and elsewhere from patients, consumer groups and politicians. But noticeably absent is the business community, which pays an estimated 20% of all U.S. health care expenditures. For most businesses, tackling the cost of health care means haggling annually over their insurance plan premiums, not addressing the root causes of the problem. A collective voice e Healthcare Purchaser Alliance does what none of Maine's businesses can achieve alone: It leverages their collective voice and buying power to lower costs and drive improvement in qual- ity, access and, ultimately, value. "Until recently, there hasn't been a place for the many voices of employers in Maine to coalesce," says Peter Hayes, who in 2017 was named HPA president and chief executive officer, after work- ing as a consultant and overseeing health benefits at Hannaford Supermarkets for 14 years. "We believe Maine's health care purchas- ers can be — and need to be — market makers, not market takers." ere's strength in numbers, according to Hayes. More than 640,000 Mainers receive health insurance through their employers — roughly half the state population, and more than the numbers of Medicare and Medicaid recipients combined. What's more, commercial purchasers of health insurance in effect subsidize these public programs, since employer-sponsored plans typically pay health care providers rates and fees that are four to six times higher than those of Medicare or Medicaid. e HPA's membership is comprised of over 50 employers, public trusts, health plans, hospitals, other providers and consumer groups. Ranging from Bowdoin College to e Jackson Laboratory ( JAX) to Rising Tide Brewing Co., member-employers purchase health coverage for a quarter of the state's commercially insured popula- tion. While the organization is for, and led by, purchasers, Hayes says Maine employers know the problems plaguing health care cannot be fixed by a single constituency. All HPA members have a vested interest in making the system more effective, safe and affordable. Combating cost on many fronts Members such as JAX often turn to the HPA as a resource for controlling their own health care costs. "Now more than ever, employers of all sizes need to be the collective voice for their employees and families to ensure they have access to safe, high-quality and affordable health care," says Tom Ellis, chief human resources officer at JAX and former chair of the alliance's board of directors. "e alliance has been a critical resource to JAX and many other Maine employers. ey support us with timely data and analytics that have a Maine lens and help us target effective strategies to improve the population health of our workforce, direct our employees to high-value care, and help influence providers to improve quality and ensure the affordability of health care in our Maine communities." In addition, the HPA is undertaking three initiatives to create more affordable health services for its members — and a more cost-efficient health care system for the state. • Group drug purchasing. Among alliance members, prescrip- tion drugs account for roughly 20% of all health care spending, and a significant portion of that cost goes to middlemen that