The SouthWest Health Alliance (SWHA) is an independent, non-profit coalition of public and private sector employers located in the Southwest region of the U.S. who share a commitment to promote quality, cost-effective health care for its members.

As part of our strategy to inform, educate and impact the delivery of health care to our members, SWHA offers the following services to member companies.

Quality Improvement (QI) and Disease Management Efforts
An example of the SWHA QI activities is the Healthy People/Productive Community Survey, a survey project which began in Florida in 1998. The survey measures productivity loss resulting from individual diseases and presents recommendations for interventions to improve the health and health care of the affected groups.

The initial survey looked at the most common disease categories related to workforce productivity loss including:
•Allergy
•Asthma
•Depression
•Hypertension
•Diabetes

This survey is an excellent tool for employers who wish to be proactive in managing health-related lost time/lost productivity issues. SWHA will be an active participant in expanding this valuable tool into the Southwest region of the country.

Information Sharing and Management
The SouthWest Health Alliance will provide its members with timely and accurate information regarding the state of health care and health care facilities within the region via:

Data Warehouse
Using this web site, SWHA will gather relevant health statistics and information to assist its members in offering cost effective, value based benefit programs to its employees. The Data Warehouse provides comparative data from similar size organizations throughout its membership base so the information is pertinent to specific environments.
Managed Care Scorecard
This web site will also contain access to standard measures (such as HEDIS) to assist its members in assessing the performance of managed care health plans and choosing quality health care providers.
Education
A future feature on this site will include the latest information on health care trends, outcomes and best practices, as well as additional resources to answer health care questions. The SWHA chat room will also allow members to post questions and share experiences.