At first glance, some employers might not see the connection between teaming up with a state public health agency and lowering their own health care costs. Yet a chorus of public health officials believes such partnerships are advantageous to private-sector employers concerned with medical inflation and work productivity.

Employers should care about public health initiatives that eliminate racial and ethnic health care disparities because the American workforce is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, Dr. Jaime H. Rivera, director of public health at Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, told attendees yesterday at the Public Health Congress, a three-day event in Washington, D.C.

Recently, Delaware commissioned a taskforce to recommend public health initiatives to address racial and ethnic health disparities within the health care system. The private-sector employers that were part of the taskforce were committed and engaged in offering suggestions to the governor, Rivera said.

"We are past the point where employers are questioning whether this issue of racial and ethnic disparities and cultural competence in the health care system is important to them," he added. "They recognize that any difference in the way their employees are being treated out there is going to make a difference in outcome, therefore a difference in costs."

Consequently, it becomes a matter of economics, Rivera explained. "If the quality of care being received is less than a dollar here verse a dollar spent elsewhere, then that's not a good thing for employers in the private sector. "We want to make sure that every dollar goes toward the highest quality health care."

Although public health officials and business leaders might sometimes disagree over the timetables in meeting benchmarks and not speak the same professional language, such challenges should not hinder public-private partnerships on health initiatives.

"The human resources of any business are its most valuable assets, and if you can protect the health of those assets, then you will have a much bigger bottom line," said Dr. Lesa Walden-Young, director of Live Healthy Georgia, a statewide wellness initiative.

Dr. Bruce Goldberg, director of Oregon Department of Human Services, remarked,

"When I talk to small business owners in our state, the biggest thing on their mind is the increasing cost of health insurance. Right there is the reason why I think some employers in Oregon are looking to partner with us" in terms of our wellness expertise and programs, which might lower health care costs and bring about a more productive workforce.