Background

The Employer Forum is composed of the employer members of the National Business Group on Health (formerly the Washington Business Group on Health), Midwest Business Group on Health, Pacific Business Group on Health, National Business Coalition on Health, Institute for Health and Productivity Management, Employers' Managed Health Care Association, other employers, other interested organizations, and CMS. These employer associations represent in the aggregate over 10,000 employers and almost 78 million employees, not to mention retirees and their families. The Forum functions overall as a vehicle for an ongoing dialogue between the employer community and CMS. The Employer Forum Conference Call is held monthly for one hour on the second Thursday of the month. This was an outgrowth of CMS's Employer Union Conference conducted in March 2000 where the major outcome was a strongly expressed desire by the employer community to continue an ongoing dialogue with CMS.

Employer Forum Agenda

CMS staff discusses possible agenda items with the employer associations' staff. The emphasis is on communicating and discussing Medicare issues and Medicare related messages to the employer community for the benefit of their organizations, employees, and retirees, and ultimately with a perspective to the employers' bottom line. Opportunity is also available for presentations and discussions by employers. The Employer Forum has led to employer participation on CMS Task Forces, Workgroups, and Committees needing employer input. Topics that have been discussed in the past have included: Payment of subsidies to sponsors of retiree prescription drug programs under section 1860D-22 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, Medicare as Secondary Payer, Managed Care Non‑renewal updates, HIPAA, new regulations designed to implement appeals rights for Medicare managed care enrollees (Grijalva case), Electronic enrollment in Medicare managed care plans, Long Term Care, CMS Research and Demonstrations, CMS Caregiver Materials, CMS Satellite Broadcast "Building Caregiver Coalitions".

Participation

Participation ranges from about 30 to 130 Human Resources Directors on the call depending on the agenda topics. Participants have included GM, Ford, Marriott, Hewitt and Associates, Calpers, Pitney Bowes, GE, IBM and other Fortune 500 companies and other large employers. We also invite CMS Regional Officers, Quality Improvement Organizations, State Health Insurance Assistance Programs, and other interested parties.

Downloads
"CMS DMEPOS Pilot Program Overview" by Janet L. Miller, CMS Office of External Affairs, July 10, 2008 (Zip. 518 KB) "Promoting Hospital Quality" by Erica Sontag and "Electronic Filing of Medicare Secondary Payer Claims" by James Bailey, June 12, 2008 (Zip. 104 KB) "2009 Employer Group Waiver – Modification of the 2008 Service Area Extension Waiver" by Usree Bandyopadhyay and Deanna Divenanzio, EPOG, May 8, 2008 (Zip. 96 KB)  "E-Prescribing: Overview and Update" by Denise Buenning, CMS Office of E-Health Standards & Services (OESS), April 10, 2008 (Zip, 160 KB)
Related Links Inside CMS
CMS Employer Retiree Drug Subsidy Web site Employer and Union Plan Sponsor Page Medicare Drug Coverage Under Part A, Part B, and Part D Medicare Basics: A Guide for Families and Friends of People with Medicare When Employees Become Caregivers: A Manager's Workbook Provide Feedback on the Employer Forum
Related Links Outside CMS
Employers' Coalition on Medicare Midwest Business Group on Health National Business Coalition on Health National Business Group on Health Pacific Business Group on Health State and Local Government Benefits Association Society for Human Resource Management "The MetLife Caregiver Cost Study: Productivity Losses to U.S. Business" at the National Alliance for Caregiver web site.

Page Last Modified: 07/16/2008 7:27:51 AM
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