Matt Ohrt Wins The Alliance 2020 Health Transformation Award

MADISON, WI. (October 2, 2020) – At The Alliance Fall Symposium & Annual Meeting, on October 1, 2020, Matt Ohrt, VP of HR and Medical Services at Merrill Steel in Schofield, WI., was given a Health Transformation Award by The Alliance in recognition for his significant contributions to transforming health care in his community.

Ohrt has greatly expanded high-value health care accessibility and delivery at Merrill Steel through implementing an on-site clinic, a company-sponsored mobile clinic, and encouraging and supporting the Merrill Steel workforce to engage in their health benefits programs – all while saving his organization $4 million in health care costs over four years. In addition to no-cost prescription fulfillment and physical therapy, the clinic offers MRI’s for just $100. Ohrt also started a Local Best Practices group to help bring employers together and learn from one another.

The Alliance presented the Health Transformation Award to Ohrt during its 30th anniversary celebration of their Fall Symposium & Annual Meeting, where innovative health care leaders shared their expertise on health care topics, including payment reform, transparency, and benefit plan design. The event annually attracts an audience of employers and health care providers as well as brokers, agents, and other professionals who support employers that self-fund their health benefits.

Health Transformation Award recipients must demonstrate their commitment to promoting change in the health care marketplace based on one or more of the following criteria:

• High-Value Health Care
  • Is taking action to significantly improve the quality and/or affordability of health care
• Transparency
  • Is achieving significant gains in the availability and/or use of meaningful information to compare price and quality
• Payment Reform
  • Is developing, testing or implementing value-based payment approaches to encourage high-quality, affordable care
• Provider Network Design
  • Is developing, testing or implementing approaches to make high-value health care providers easily accessible to employees
• Benefit Plan Design
  • Is developing, testing or implementing approaches to support the appropriate use of high-value providers and treatments by consumers

Merrill Steel has been a leader in structural steel fabrication and industrial platework for more than five decades. Now in their third generation of family ownership, they are proud to offer fully integrated engineering, detailing, project management, fabrication, delivery, and erection services.

The Alliance serves as the voice for self-funded employers who want more control over their costs by providing transparent, creative approaches to network and benefit plan design to unlock savings where others can’t – or won’t – using Smarter NetworksSM and sophisticated data mining and analysis.

Celebrating 30 years as a mission-driven, not-for-profit cooperative, The Alliance is employer-owned and remains a trusted, objective partner for employers and their brokers who seek improved access to high-quality healthcare, working with more than 275 employers across the Midwest, and contracting with over 34,000 health care providers and specialists in the region.

We can connect journalists with award winners, CEO/President, and The Alliance Board of Directors upon request.