About
Engaged Benefit Design is a collaborative effort of several organizations and funders. Dr. Abraham Kauvar, an accomplished healthcare innovator and Jim Hertel, a respected healthcare expert and analyst, initiated the idea of using evidence to support high-quality, high-value, healthcare decisions.
Engaged Public, a firm whose mission is to create strategies for better policy, has led and developed the implementation of this concept with the support and contributions of many.
Funding to incubate the initiative and adapt it to fit the current form was provided by the Dr. A. J. Kauvar Foundation. In 2009 the project was awarded funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to develop the current initiative. In 2011, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation made a grant through its Consumer Engagement Program to support educational efforts for this project.
A wide variety of other entities also play critical roles in the project, including the Colorado Health Institute, the San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center, the San Luis Valley HMO, Yondorf Associates, the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation and numerous others.
The EBD Medical Advisory Council, led by Dr. Dave Downs, Medical Director for Engaged Public, contributed medical and technical expertise. Additional input was provided by the EBD Project Advisory Committee.