Disrupting Healthcare Costs: Empowering Rhode Island Businesses
Are skyrocketing hospital costs eating into your bottom line? Join us for a transformative discussion designed to empower employers with actionable strategies to tackle one of the biggest challenges in healthcare today: hospital pricing.

This summit will dive deep into the AHEAD (Advancing All-Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development) Program, a groundbreaking initiative designed to control rising healthcare costs, promote fair hospital pricing, and improve health equity. Discover how your business can lead the charge for change while benefiting your employees and your bottom line.

Why Attend?

Learn how hospital expenses directly impact your business and community:

  1. Understand the Premium Connection
    Discover how rising hospital costs inflate your insurance premiums, creating financial pressure for employers and employees alike.
  2. See the Economic Ripple Effect
    Uncover how healthcare expenses hinder job growth, workforce retention, and overall economic competitiveness in Rhode Island.
  3. Drive Change in Your Community
    Explore the broader effects of hospital pricing on employee well-being and access to quality care.

Your Role in the Solution

This event is your chance to:

  • Master the AHEAD Program
    Learn how this innovative model unites payers to promote hospital fair pricing, ensuring employers get a better return on their healthcare investments.
  • Champion Practical Strategies
    Walk away with proven tools and tactics to advocate for sustainable healthcare reforms that prioritize value over volume, benefiting both your business and your workforce.

Who Should Attend?

This summit is tailored for employers, policymakers, and community leaders who want to:

  • Cut unnecessary healthcare costs.
  • Support a healthier, more productive workforce.
  • Foster a thriving Rhode Island economy.

Don’t miss your chance to be part of this critical conversation. Join us in working toward disruptive healthcare reform that aligns with the needs of businesses, communities, and the future of healthcare.

This event is co-sponsored by RIBGH, the RI AFL-CIO and RI Manufacturers Association (RIMA).

Price: Free for members. Non-members $40. 

Please note: This event begins at 7:30 a.m. Breakfast will be served. 

Click HERE to register!

 

EVENT SPEAKERS

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Zach Cooper, Associate Professor of Public Health and Economics at Yale University

Professor Cooper is a health economist whose work is focused on producing data-driven scholarship that can inform public policy. In his academic work, he has analyzed the impact of competition in hospital and insurance markets, studied the influence of price transparency on consumer behavior, and explored the causes of surprise out-of-network bills. Prof. Cooper has published his research in leading economics and medical journals including the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the New England Journal of Medicine. Cooper received his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.

Shawn Gremminger, President & CEO, National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions

Mr. Gremminger was most recently senior vice president at Reservoir Communications Group and was previously director of health policy for the Purchaser Business Group on Health, a member of the National Alliance, where he ran efforts to improve quality and affordability for consumers and healthcare purchasers through federal policy. Mr. Gremminger has held senior leadership roles at Families USA, and America’s Essential Hospitals. Shawn began his career as a lobbyist for the Children’s Hospital Association. He achieved a Master of Public Policy from George Washington University in Washington and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA.

James Gelfand, President and CEO, The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC)

Mr. Gelfand previously served as ERIC's senior and then executive vice president for eight years. He was promoted to the position of president in June 2022. He oversees all aspects of the association’s activities, which focus on programs that shape federal and state health and retirement benefit policies, and that impact ERIC member companies’ ability to operate under federal ERISA protection from a patchwork of conflicting state and local laws. Mr. Gelfand earned his J.D. at George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC, and his undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Legal Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife and son.