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Business Group on Health (the “Business Group”) is committed to protecting our members’ information and data, and to ensuring compliance with all applicable federal and state antitrust laws. Because the Business Group convenes employers and industry stakeholders, who may be competitors within the industry, we must take special care to avoid even the appearance of anti-competitive conduct.
1. Core Principle
The Business Group seeks to educate, inform, and engage employers and industry stakeholders to address and advance health and well-being. We do not engage in specific employer or vendor pricing and purchasing decisions.
2. What We Cannot Do
Members and staff must not use Business Group activities (meetings, calls, emails, conferences, working groups) to:
- Discuss or agree on specific prices, premiums, reimbursement rates, or commissions, (current or future).
- Divide or allocate markets, customers, geographies, or employee groups for competitive pricing or purchasing purposes. This does not restrict the Business Group from organizing educational forums, employer sharing calls, or other collaborative discussions that do not involve agreements on marketplace conduct.
- Organize or encourage boycotts of vendors, suppliers, or competitors
- Disseminate competitively sensitive information (such as future business strategies, vendor terms, or utilization rates) outside of approved and aggregated research.
- Develop standards or guidance designed to exclude specific competitors or business models.
3. What We Can Do
Activities that are generally permissible and encouraged include:
- Education and research: Publishing aggregated, high-level studies and white papers.
- Sharing compliance challenges with existing laws/regulations.
- General discussions of broad trends (e.g., workforce health priorities, evolving regulations).
- Policy advocacy: Jointly supporting legislative or regulatory changes.
4. Information and Data Protection
The Business Group takes seriously the need to protect member information and data. From time to time, we may ask members to voluntarily participate in surveys or benchmarking calls.
- All information gathered in these processes is blinded and not attributable to any single organization.
- If results are published, they are shared only in aggregate and de-identified form.
- Participation is always voluntary, and members are solely responsible for ensuring that their use of survey data complies with applicable laws.
More details are available in the Business Group’s Survey Participation Guidelines: viewable at https://www.businessgrouphealth.org/survey-participation.
5. Meeting Rules
To safeguard all participants:
- Agendas are circulated in advance and must be followed.
- Business Group may provide legal counsel to review or attend sensitive meetings.
- A staff member will document and maintain records of meeting content.
- Any inappropriate discussion must be stopped immediately—members should speak up if they are uncomfortable.
6. Data Sharing Protocols
Where data is shared for benchmarking or research:
- Data is collected and managed by the Business Group or a designated third party.
- Data will be aggregated and anonymized.
- No single participant’s data will be identifiable.
- At least 5 participants must contribute; no single participant’s data may represent more than 25% of the total.
7. Membership and Governance
- Membership criteria are objective, transparent, and not designed to exclude competitors unfairly.
- Decisions on membership or participation will be guided by the Business Group’s mission and compliance with antitrust law.
8. Training and Acknowledgement
- Business Group Staff must annually acknowledge the antitrust compliance policy included in the Employee Handbook.
- All member companies are made aware of the antitrust policy within their annual membership invoice under Terms and Conditions as well as the Business Group website.
BOTTOM LINE: Business Group on Health complies with all applicable federal and state antitrust laws. By following these guidelines, the Business Group remains a safe forum for representing employers’ perspectives on optimizing workforce strategy through innovative health, benefits and well-being solutions and health policy issues, while ensuring members always act independently in the marketplace.
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