LifeScience Alley Joins Buyers Health Care Action Group Summit.

Attendees Learn How To Use Employee's Personal Values To Design Benefits That Increase Job Satisfaction and Retention

DENVER -- LifeScience Alley(TM) today announced its role as a supporting organization and participant of the inaugural Buyers Health Care Action Group (BHCAG) Employer Leadership Summit, Healthy Living Healthy Working Series - Employers Helping Employees to Better Health. The health industry trade association, which comprises more than 500 member organizations, joins the Minnesota Governor's Office, Minnesota Business Partnership, Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, Minnesota Pharmacists Association, Disability Management Employer Coalition, Minnesota Council of Health Plans and others in supporting this educational event, to be held June 21, 2007 from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Park Plaza Hotel Bloomington, Bloomington, Minn.

Don Gerhardt, President and CEO, LifeScience Alley, St. Louis Park, Minn. says, "As new technology, new treatments and cures, and new coverage models expand new expectations from employees, it is vital that employers fully engage their employees in the evolving convergence in health care and health care benefits. Employers who achieve that engagement will be in a much stronger position to succeed."

Summit attendees will learn the "how-to's" of employee health and performance improvement (HPI) from two HPI national experts. Les C. Meyer, MBA, a seasoned health care strategist and president/CEO, HPI Advisors, LLC, Denver, Colo., will present How to Impact Employee Health and Job Satisfaction to Yield Organization-Wide Results. This session on performance improvement processes focus on the things that matter most across each diverse talent pool -- employee health, job satisfaction and a pay-for-performance approach.

Larry A. Kuusisto, PhD, vice president of education, LifeScience Alley and executive director of Alley Institute, St. Louis Park, Minn., will delineate how the MAC-CIM process of determining consumer (employee) health care coverage expectations was designed and implemented with residents of rural and urban Minnesota. His case study, Engaging Employees in an "Anonymous Discussion" on Coverage Decisions explains how an employee-centric, benefits design method can satisfy employee expectations by focusing on personal values.

Summit attendees will also learn what works and what doesn't when developing and implementing HPI programs. Companies that will present their employee-centered strategies and evidence-based best practices include Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Carlson Companies, Employers Association, Inc., Hawaii Business Health Council, HealthPartners, Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, Lincoln Industries, Medica, Mercer Health & Benefits, Minnesota Department of Health and Human Services, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and WellPoint, Inc.

Actionable learning at the Summit will include the fundamentals of HPI -- how to impact employee health and job satisfaction to yield organization-wide results; receive the full benefit of value-based benefit design; advocate for a more accountable, high performance health care delivery system, higher quality of care, enhanced efficiencies and incentives and opportunities for all stakeholders; and identify the critical success factors that drive healthy living, healthy working and healthy performance outcomes resulting in organizational success that increase value for companies and employees.

The HPI Advisors-produced Summit is sponsored in part by Healthways, Inc., Pfizer, Inc., Mercer Health & Benefits and sanofi-aventis.

Learn more about this HPI event and its community-based supporting organizations at: www.bhcag.com, www.HealthAndPerformance.info and www.lifesciencealley.org.