The National Business Group on Health

CDC's Partnership with NBGH

The National Business Group on Health (NBGH) is a CDC business cooperative agreement grantee, currently in year 2 of a 5-year agreement started in 2007. NBGH has been a business grantee and CDC partner since 1999.

About NBGH

Since 1974, NBGH has been exclusively devoted to representing large employers' perspectives on national health policy issues and providing practical solutions to its members' most important healthcare problems.

The mission of NBGH is to be the national voice of large employers dedicated to finding innovative and forward-thinking solutions to the nation's most important healthcare issues. Helen Darling serves as NBGH's current president.

NBGH's Key Objectives and Strategies:

• Provide business solutions.
• Be the national voice of large employers.
• Link large employers with Washington.
• Drive enlightened national policy on health and productivity issues.
• Facilitate hands-on member involvement.

NBGH members are primarily Fortune 500 companies and large public sector employers who provide health coverage for more than 50 million U.S. workers, retirees and their families. NBGH fosters the development of a safe, high-quality healthcare delivery system and treatments based on scientific evidence of effectiveness. The organization works to expand the use of effective technologies and make scientific evidence of effectiveness the standard for care.

NBGH and its members are working together to find reasonable solutions to quality, safety and cost challenges, while helping policymakers and legislators understand how these issues impact employer-sponsored care.

As a CDC grantee, NBGH has the following priorities:

NBGH's Board of Directors, in response to changing times in corporate America and the healthcare system, has refined its mission and sharpened its focus on serving corporate members by providing business solutions. NBGH's large-employer strategy provides a mix of short-term tactical tools with long- term strategic initiatives and targets the key issues of healthcare costs, safety and quality.

The Board's leadership has been instrumental in the development of key institutes, leadership committees and centers to achieve NBGH's mission and goals. These groups are comprised of members who have chosen to actively support work in specific areas of interest through time and financial commitment. In addition, the Center for Prevention and Health Services provides members an opportunity to become actively involved in work on public health topics with experts, funded primarily through grants from federal agencies.

NBGH's Accomplishments Specific to its Work with CDC

Employer Case Studies
NBGH developed case studies that highlight innovative approaches to prevention, particularly related to worksite wellness programs and health benefits.

Health Tips
Health Tips goes to all members monthly, addressing a single, well-defined issue that concerns employers and is typically identified by CDC, mainstream media or NBGH.

Purchaser's Guide to Clinical Preventive Services: Moving Science into Coverage
In November 2006, NBGH released A Purchaser's Guide to Clinical Preventive Services: Moving Science into Coverage (Purchaser's Guide), in cooperation with CDC and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The Purchaser's Guide aims to improve the design of employer-sponsored preventive health benefits by translating clinical recommendations into benefits language. The seven-part resource guide provides the tools employers need to shift their focus from providing treatment benefits to providing proactive preventive benefits. NBGH and CDC are committed to sustaining this resource with updates and creating an interactive, user-friendly and searchable Web site of information found in the Purchaser's Guide. To date, the Purchaser's Guide has been downloaded 377,895 times since November 2006.

Tobacco: The Business of Quitting Web site
In 2009, the Business Group launched a new Web site entitled, "Tobacco: The Business of Quitting." The Web site provides information about tobacco and helps employers establish quit policies and practices at the worksite.