GPBCH Annual Conference Will Feature Innovation and Policy Insights

As the health care landscape rapidly evolves, employers find themselves at the forefront of managing rising costs, improving quality, and driving innovation. The upcoming Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health (GPBCH) Annual Conference will explore the pivotal role employers play in shaping health care policy and delivery, Tom Belmont, CAP, CLU, ChFC, RHU, REBC, president and chief executive officer of GPBCH, explains. With a packed agenda featuring state and federal policy insights, emerging trends like GLP-1s and high-cost claims, and best practices from leading companies, the event aims to equip employers with the tools and strategies they need to navigate uncertainty and lead meaningful change in employee health and benefits.

The Annual Conference will be held on June 5, 2025, at the Philadelphia DoubleTree.

This transcript has been lightly edited; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

​​What topics will the GPBCH Annual Conference highlight regarding relevant policy issues where employer input is needed?

I think one of the things that, as you look at the debate on health care and some of the discussions, employers are in a very unique position where the majority of health care is purchased by employers. So this is an opportunity, and I would kind of change that a little bit to say, the theme of the conference is really, how do we position employers to navigate the landscape and how quickly it's changing, and give them the ability to drive innovation, drive change, and really engage their employees in improving the overall health care and obviously trying to manage that quality, as well as cost of health care for their businesses. So that's really what you'll see during the course of the day, as we move from starting the morning off talking about, what’s the landscape today? What are we dealing with?

And it is so fluid right now that for employers, it's a very difficult time to know how to put into place decisions for 2026 that allow me to navigate for the long term. We'll move into giving them some of those tools and resources and best practices from other employers, some innovative topics that are going on. And then I think one of the things that's exciting is we'll finish the day with an all-star panel of employers who are really, consistently engaging their employees and dependents to align everybody along what is the best road to achieving good health for their employees and managing the overall spend.

Has there been any recent legislation that prompted this year’s agenda?

It's interesting; I heard from one of our speakers at the American Benefits Council, and we were talking about what the presentation will be. One of the things they said is that, to a large extent, they've kind of moved to slide decks that have just a couple of words on them. A lot of times, you'll have to have your phone right there on the podium with you to talk with and to look at what's changing in the minute.

I think this conference is not necessarily any one legislative issue that we're looking at, but rather the totality of what has changed. Part of what will be interesting is getting insight from both the federal level and the state level, in this case, Pennsylvania, to look at what's on their mind in terms of how we move the agenda forward in terms of health care. Then, what's the employer's role in that? What's the impact on employers? There are some changes that you hear a lot in the headlines about Medicare and Medicaid, which don't necessarily impact an employer, but there is going to be cost shifting that will ultimately hit the employer's cost. So, looking at what the future of some of these changes is, and then taking those changes to say, what's the impact on the employer?

Would you share some of the presenters and organizations that attendees can look forward to seeing?

We are incredibly excited. We have the American Benefits Council presenting. Joanna McClinton, who is the Speaker of the House in Pennsylvania, will be presenting on that Pennsylvania landscape, and it really gives a nice insight into what states are thinking. We'll hear from the president of a health care system, who will be sitting down with a health plan, talking about where there's conflict, where there's alignment, and how they are both trying to manage through the landscape today.

Then, we have a session on high-dollar claims and how to impact those, dispelling the myth that you can't do anything about large claims. We'll get into GLP-1s, medical, pharmacy, all of the issues that are hitting a lot of employers, not so much in terms of some of it will be around obesity and weight loss, but a lot of it will focus on the future of GLP-1s, and what steps employers are taking to help manage that, building accountability into the system for their existing employees and dependents, as well as for the vendors that they have. As I said before, I think at the end of the day, when we bring this all-star panel, which includes Penske Automotive and LinkedIn Financial, along with other employers, they'll talk about how they have historically engaged their employees, bringing them along with what they’re trying to accomplish in health care.