What's a health care coalition?

Dave:
A health care coalition is typically a group of employers who form an association (through a formal set of bylaws, mission statements, and goals) in order to deal
collectively with health care costs and quality issues. The advantages of forming such a coalition include leverage for "group purchasing" of health care services, broader knowledge base on how to control health care costs while insuring high quality care, and
a "one voice" approach when dealing with proposed state and/or federal health care legislation that can impact employers.
That is the short definition Dave.
Jerry Custer

Are the employers in a group almost always in the same geographical area?

Dave:
Most coalitions, including ours, have members
who are located within a given geographical region. For example, our membership is concentrated within Central and Southern Illinois and Eastern Iowa. However, some of our employer members have employees located throughout the U.S. That is why we have developed national products for our members
(such as pharmacy networks, a PPO network, a third party administrator and a vision care network) that can compliment our regional health care products.
Jerry Custer