Foundation for American Health Care Leadership^sm

Mission

The mission of the Foundation for American Health Care Leadership is to create a platform for an intellectual exchange of new ideas in a neutral environment among senior corporate and public sector executives across America. In conjunction with Wye River Group on Health Care, the Foundation draws on the experience of community leaders and serves as a catalyst to bring together disparate interests at the state and federal levels. Rather than merely 'talk' about what needs to happen, the Foundation distills the outcome of discussion and debate into practical next steps. Recommendations are then advanced with private and public health sector leadership, public policy experts, and the general public.

Rationale

Throughout the ‘Community Leadership’ initiative, launched in the summer of 2002, community leaders across the country expressed a desire to interact with peers, locally and nationally to candidly discuss current issues and trends affecting the business of healthcare, and to work together to improve the system. They value the collective insight gained from highly facilitated group interaction in working through complex issues.

The Foundation creates an opportunity for executives from across the health and healthcare spectrum to gather periodically to broaden their understanding and gain a deeper appreciation for each other's perspective. They discover that optimizing relationships across sectors - physician, hospital, business, insurance, consumer, pharmacy and health policy - is a key to effectively meeting our nations' healthcare challenges.

The work of the Foundation is timely, given the convergence today of many problematic dynamics related to our country's healthcare system. Effectively addressing widespread challenges will require thoughtful and visionary leadership focused on a shared vision for American health and healthcare. Creating a venue or bridge where the 'micro' perspective of community leaders can inform the 'macro' perspective of state and national policy makers will help ensure constructive change, which places an emphasis on what is practical and ‘doable’, not simply theoretical.

Programs

Meetings are held on contemporary health and healthcare topics of broad interest. The tightly facilitated dialogue is designed to appeal to executives focused on strategy, as well as those interested in more in-depth discussions of specific issues. Meeting topics are developed with input from Founding Contributors and the Foundation's Advisory Board.

The overall goal of these multi-stakeholder meetings is to identify the 'circles of overlap' among sector leaders, and gain a common definition of issues. The Foundation then promotes recommended approaches before public policy makers and in the marketplace.

In partnership with several nationally recognized academic institutions, we distill the results of each meetings dialogue and incorporate relevant health policy research to produce each report. The reports are made available to policy makers, industry leaders and the general public, as appropriate. Such reports can focus attention of policy makers and candidates on key healthcare issues. They articulate possible solutions supported by a broad cross section of industry leaders. The reports, which highlight areas of deficit in public policy, can serve as a foundation for a larger discussion and prompt legislatures and Congress to address such areas in a timely fashion.

FAHCL closely coordinates its work with that of WRGH to ensure that the organizations build on one another’s unique strengths.

Funding

The Foundation is an affiliate of Wye River Group on Healthcare (WRGH), a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.