Health plans unite to expand
CONCORD, Calif. (Sept 19, 2022) — A coalition of health care plan trustees, administrators and other stakeholders expands on successful efforts to lower health care costs and improve outcomes for participants in self-insured health plans.
Called the All Trusts Cooperative (ATC), an America’s Agenda Healthcare Initiative, the coalition is a nonprofit Joint Labor Management Initiative committed to controlling costs, combating abuses perpetrated against self-funded plans and providing a voice of advocacy for the hard-working people who use health care benefits.
Jacques Loveall, Chairman of the UFCW Employee Benefit Fund (UEBT), lead plaintiff in the Sutter Class Action lawsuit, explained the ATC was formed to expand the accomplishments of last year’s settlement of the major anti-trust lawsuit against Sutter Health in Northern and Central California. Under the settlement’s terms, Sutter agreed to:
- Pay $575 million in damages to more than 400 self-insured health care plans;
- Limit the fees Sutter can charge patients for out-of-network services;
- Increase transparency by permitting employers and self-funded plans access to information on pricing, quality and cost;
- End all-or-nothing contracting deals, which required employers and self-funded plans to include all of Sutter’s hospitals and facilities in their networks;
- End anti-competitive bundling of services and products, which forced employers and self-funded plans to purchase more services or products from Sutter than were needed.
In addition to the Sutter Class Action Lawsuit settlement, the ATC’s successes and ongoing projects include:
- Expanding its purchasing coalition to negotiate better terms and conditions from PBMs, PPOs and other service providers;
- Continuing health care infrastructure initiatives to facilitate equity ownership for trust funds in companies providing services to fund participants;
- Identifying best-in-class service providers and cost-saving strategies;
- Revealing abuses in the cost or delivery of health care which may warrant litigation;
- Advocating for and pursuing legislation to lower health care costs;
- Coordinating activities to enhance participant health care benefits.
“The All Trusts Cooperative is harnessing our momentum to elevate affordable health care as a higher priority in our communities. Northern California remains one of the most expensive regions in the country for health care,” Loveall said.
“The sole purpose of self-funded plans is to provide the best, most cost-effective health care benefits to hard-working families,” Loveall continued. “Every dollar saved, earned and recovered translates into improved or added benefits for plan participants and lower costs for contributing employers.”
“The All Trusts Cooperative is uniquely positioned as the health care watch dog for self-funded health care plans,” said Mark Blum, Executive Director of America’s Agenda: Healthcare for All, a national health care alliance bringing together labor unions, businesses, health care providers, and policymakers.
Membership in the ATC is open to all entities committed to affordable health care and improved health care outcomes in our communities.
Please use the button below request a presentation to a self-funded plan Board of Trustees or any other group of decision makers to elaborate on the benefits of joining the ATC.
Healthcare Initiative
America’s Agenda is a national health care alliance that brings together labor unions, businesses, healthcare providers, and policymakers who share a common commitment to our mission of assuring access to affordable, high quality healthcare for every American.
America’s Agenda areas of focus:
One: Next-generation primary care that delivers better health outcomes, significantly greater value and a far better experience for employees and the sponsors of their health plans.
Two: Coordination between next-generation primary care and specialty/hospital care to address the biggest driver of healthcare spending and improve health outcomes.
Three: Affordability of prescription medicines by creating technology-enabled, competitive marketplaces where pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) compete for contracts in transparent, online auctions.
The U.S. spends more than $3 trillion on healthcare every year. Rising costs are consuming ever-larger proportions of private and public resources. While federal reforms have expanded healthcare coverage to tens of millions of Americans, it has done little to constrain hyperinflationary growth in health costs. This erodes patients’ access to high-quality care. Rising health costs are also a direct threat to America’s ability to fund other national priorities.
Our Team
All Trusts Cooperative is an America’s Agenda Healthcare Initiative
The U.S. is the only country in the industrialized world that doesn’t have publicly-financed health insurance, so American companies are burdened with expenses others don’t have, endangering our manufacturing base. For example, Ford Motor Co. spends $3.2 billion a year on health premiums and General Motors spends more on health than on steel.
America’s Agenda is a national healthcare alliance that brings together labor unions, businesses, healthcare providers, and policymakers who share a common commitment to smart policy and effective action to advance our mission of affordable, high-quality, readily accessible healthcare for every American.