2021 National Health Council Annual Report
For the National Health Council (NHC), 2021 was a year of transition. The NHC welcomed a new CEO, Randall Rutta, in February. Our new Strategic Plan was developed and adopted in December. The NHC managed the ever-changing environment during the second year of a global pandemic and a new Administration and Congress. Through it all, the NHC team rose to the challenge to deliver high-value resources, programming, and service to our members.
MESSAGES FROM NHC LEADERSHIP
Made up of more than 145 national health- related organizations and businesses, the NHC’s core membership includes the nation’s leading patient organizations. Other members include health-related associations and nonprofit organizations including the provider, research, and family caregiver communities; and businesses representing biopharmaceutical, device, diagnostic, generic drug, and payer organizations.
The NHC maintained a long-standing member retention rate of over 90% in 2021 and added 11 new members in all 5 membership categories. New members included:
NHC HEALTH EQUITY WORK ADVANCES
The NHC advanced the conversation around Health Equity by working with NHC membership and thought leaders outside of the NHC to develop policy recommendations for the four priority areas in the health equity consensus statement released late last year. The NHC also provided input and endorsed the DIVERSE Trials Act and created recommendations for the newly formed Congressional Caucus on Social Determinants of Health. We convened roundtable discussions on Equitable Access to Affordable and Comprehensive Health Insurance Coverage and an Inclusive, Equitable, Accessible, and High-Quality Care Delivery System. The NHC also hosted a virtual event on Inclusive Workplaces: Building A Representative Workforce.
COVID-19 RELATED ACTIVITIES
In support of our members, the NHC hosted regular discussions on critical issues related to COVID-19 as part of our COVID-19 CEO and Senior Staff Webinar Series. Over the past 15 months, the NHC hosted 45 webinars with 76 different speakers. The topics ranged from the impact of COVID-19 on mental health; telemedicine; medical and drug supply shortages; and planning and hosting virtual events, meetings, and fly-ins. We also continued to advocate strongly for policy solutions to help the patient community during the COVID-19 pandemic, and wrapped up this year with a three-part series in partnership with Deloitte Consulting LLC – The Ultimate Change Agent: Coronavirus Pandemic.
MEETINGS & EVENTS
- Hosted a Successful 2-day Virtual Health Leadership Conference with 174 attendees, representing 66 NHC voluntary health agency (VHA) and nonprofit member organizations.
- Held our 5th Annual Science of Patient Engagement Symposium virtually at which nearly 130 attendees explored the timely topic of Achieving Trust in and Trustworthiness of Science.
- Gathered virtually for our 2021 Washington Representatives Retreat where nearly 100 nonprofit NHC members explored critical areas of federal legislative and regulatory policy that our organization will collectively focus on in 2022.
Public Policy & Advocacy
- Secured significant NHC-recommended provisions in the PDUFA VII commitment letter, including programs on patient-focused drug development, real-world evidence, and digital health tools.
- Supported numerous actions from the Administration to strengthen the ACA marketplaces and Medicaid.
- Secured provisions of the American Rescue Plan to help people purchase and afford insurance and strengthen the nonprofit patient advocacy community.
- Conducted listening sessions to gather patient insights on telehealth during the pandemic and shared results with Congressional staff.
- Advocated successfully for inclusion of key priorities in the Build Back Better Act, including private insurance affordability, Medicare cost-sharing limits, and home- and community-based services.
Resources
- Launched the Patient Experience Mapping Toolbox (PEMT).
- Published a white paper with the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions on A Dialogue on Value Assessment that Meets the Needs of Patients and Employers.
- Initiated a project to create a blueprint the patient community and others can use to develop Patient-Centered Core Impact Sets (PC-CIS) which will establish a consensus-based approach for how impacts that matter to patients are identified, prioritized, and measured consistently for a disease/population.
- Published a white paper on Patient-Centered Real-World Evidence: Methods Recommendations from an Evidence-Based Consensus Process.
- Published a peer-reviewed publication on Engaging Patients in Real-World Evidence: An Atrial Fibrillation Patient Advisory Board Case Example, which was one of the five most downloaded contemporary articles on the SpringerLink platform.
- Published a peer-reviewed publication on Development of an international template to support patient submissions in Health Technology Assessments.
Education
- Established the Real-World Evidence (RWE) Classroom.
- Launched a series of Health Literacy Webinars.
Member Services
- Continued to offer reduced dues rates for our voluntary health agency and nonprofit members.
- Provided highly valued reports from the Management Compensation Survey and Annual Revenue Survey for our VHA members. The Revenue Survey included comparative responses to the expected impact of the Covid pandemic in 2019 and the actual impact experienced in 2020.
Financials
- The NHC posts its IRS Form 990 (add link when 2021 990 is available) on the About the NHC page of our website.
- The NHC is funded through a combination of member dues, sponsorships, and grants.
- Over 150 companies, academic institutions and government entities funded NHC activities in 2021.
- All sponsors are disclosed on our website. Find our 2021 audited financial statement here.
