Here are my main pieces of advice when searching for a health care partner:

Evaluate the needs of your workforce to better understand the quality of care and services needed from a health care partner. Important factors to evaluate include member services, clinical expertise available and access to health care resources like complex care plans for long-term disease or illness care. You want a partner that understands your membership — it seems obvious, but a union that represents grocery workers is going to have different needs than one that represents teachers, for example, because the population makeup and the demands of the two jobs are so different. You need a health care partner that gets this.
Identify a partner that can truly be an extension of your organization — values are of high importance in the decision-making process. When I was evaluating a potential pharmacy benefits management partner, I vetted several PBMs. At the time, we had an existing partnership with EmpiRx Health. After thoroughly vetting through the PBM, I made the decision to continue working with them, and among the top reasons for this was their values and their high-touch service — we literally have a single point-of-contact that my members know they can rely on to help navigate any clinical or service needs. A pharmacy benefits manager, as with any health care partner, holds a great deal of responsibility for your workforce. It's essential to find a partner whose service model aligns with your workforce and is reliable for your members.
Last but not least, cost is key — you don't need to sacrifice high-quality care for lower cost. Union leaders and fund administrators should evaluate the cost of premiums, deductibles and co-pays as well as the overall value of the benefits offered. But this can't come at the expense of quality care because that wouldn't meet your members' needs. It's not an either-or situation.

Where do you foresee labor unions in the next 5 years? How can health care benefits evolve the labor industry and improve the issues at hand today?

Labor unions were formed out of a necessity to protect workers' rights and interests. While many union leaders focus on wages and salaries, health care benefits must be prioritized as well. Over the next five years, labor unions with increased membership will be the ones that continuously prioritize health care benefits.

Instant Insights /

Modernized health care benefits in labor unions: A Q&A with Glenn Di Biasi

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