TALKING POINTS NORTH IDAHO HEALTH NETWORK

• The North Idaho Health Network (NIHN) is a non-profit network of health care providers in Idaho’s five northern counties designed to meet the health care needs of individuals and businesses in the communities served.
• NIHN emphasizes quality based on outcomes, recognizing that cost savings in health care result from efficient delivery of care designed to achieve the best possible results.
• The community physicians and hospitals of the five north Idaho counties formed North Idaho Health Network in 1994.
• The Network is comprised of more than 265 physicians and the non-profit community-owned health centers, including Kootenai Medical Center, Bonner General Hospital, Boundary Community Hospital, Benewah Community Hospital, and Shoshone Community Hospital.
• North Idaho Health Network believes the most cost-effective health care is delivered at the local level. This is a combination of the physicians and hospitals working as partners to provide the best evidence-based care at the best price.
• By using the North Idaho Health Network, employers are assured of an accountability to provide the best clinical outcomes at the best price. In fact, as the cost of health care rises at a rate of 10 percent nationally each year on average, the Network has consistently kept the costs 12 percent lower in the communities it serves!
• The only way to deliver on our promise – the trusted local health resource – the Network must be committed to keeping employees healthy through specifically designed health programs for employers; lowering absenteeism with an Employee Assistance Program, and administering the utilization of care so a person receives the best evidence-based care at the best price. This can only happen when health care is delivered at the local level.
• The North Idaho Health Network is not an insurance company. Our sole purpose is to ensure that the communities we serve have an opportunity to receive the best evidence-based health care and health programs that are cost-effective and provided at the local level. Insurance companies provide the insurance. We help to deliver the promise of the best health care for our communities.
• By developing trusted working partnerships with several insurance companies who are committed to the Network and our mission, we are able to offer programs and administration of health benefits that meet your client’s needs.
• Health care is best served at the local level for local businesses and their employees.
• Employees: 8

Interviews are available with:

• Rick McMaster, executive director of North Idaho Health Network
• Michael Dixon, MD medical director and founder of the community health concept in 1994.
• Kootenai Health CEO, Joe Morris
• Greg Helbling, Helbling Employee Benefits.