The Alliance Smarter Networks: Continuously Expanding for its Employer-Members

MADISON, WI (June 12, 2023) – The Alliance is never satisfied in its pursuit of improving access to high-value healthcare. The cooperative is continuously working to contract with new and innovative providers, expanding its network offerings to provide self-funded employers with more choice, control, and cost savings. The Alliance practices innovative provider contracting methods to purchase high-value, safe healthcare for their employer-members, their employees, and their families.

Adding Providers

As of May 2023, The Alliance’s Smarter Networks^SM include over 38,000 healthcare providers and doctors across the Midwest, offering a broad range of choices for self-funded employers, their employees, and their families. In the last year, The Alliance added 130 clinics and five hospitals in Wisconsin and Illinois, about 3,500 new healthcare practitioners, to offer even more choice and access to care. The Alliance networks include alternative care options like independent primary care, telehealth options, and bundled services which can improve care quality, patient experience, and outcomes while reducing the cost of care.

Contracting Bundled Pricing

The Alliance is increasingly contracting bundled pricing for specific procedures so patients can know the cost of their care upfront and have one payment for the episode of care. In May 2023, The Alliance added bundled pricing for gastric bypass procedures performed by Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, IL. The cooperative partnered with Orthopedic & Spine Centers of Wisconsin to provide bundled pricing for in-office carpal tunnel and trigger finger release procedures beginning July 1^st, 2023.

Driving Down Costs through Competition

The Smarter Care Advisor tool by The Alliance ranks the cost of certain procedures by provider from low to high. This tool not only helps patients seek care where the quality is good and the cost is low, it also creates competition and encourages providers to lower their prices. 

Recommending New Providers

The cooperative encourages its employer-members and brokers to share provider recommendations. Recently, an employer-member requested Talkspace and a broker requested Wire Health to be added to The Alliance networks to expand access to mental health care for their employees and clients respectively. This Alliance is actively building relationships with these providers to bring them into their networks.

The Alliance regularly reviews requests to add providers to our network from our clients, partners, and consumers. The provider contracting team reaches out to providers that are a good fit for The Alliance and our employer-members. If you would like to request that a provider be added to The Alliance network, you can fill out the new provider contract intake form.

About The Alliance

The Alliance serves as the voice for self-funded employers who want more control over their healthcare costs. Using Smarter Networks^SM and sophisticated data mining and analysis, they provide transparent, creative approaches to network and benefit plan design to unlock savings where others can’t – or won’t. The Alliance remains a trusted, objective partner for its 340+ employers and their brokers who seek improved access to high-quality healthcare by contracting with a network of 38,000 healthcare providers and doctors across the Midwest.