BN360 Attends We Live NY Summit

On March 25^th, over 400 young professionals from across NYS convened at Cornell University for the We Live NY Summit. The Summit was made possible by We Live NY, a statewide coalition of young professional leaders focused on attracting and retaining talent throughout NYS. Buffalo Niagara 360 is proud to be a member of WLNY’s steering committee, representing WNY as the group implements initiatives that encourage young professionals to network with their peers, promote collaboration amongst their organizations, and become engaged in their communities.

The Summit featured dozens of breakouts grouped by Business & Entrepreneurship, Political & Civic Engagement, Cuisine & Culture, Neighborhood Revitalization, and Health & Wellness. Attendees were hard pressed to decide which breakouts to attend - from pitching business ideas to angel investors and entrepreneurs, an introduction to the Political Leadership Institute (for running or managing political campaigns), to attending a locally sourced wine and cheese tasting, the WLNY Summit aimed to satisfy everyone’s interests.

While the breakout sessions offered a wide variety of topics, the common theme was leadership. By attending the Summit, WLNY Chairman Jeremy Cooney said, attendees were “…taking a leadership role in the future of New York…we are committed to taking actionable and measurable steps in making our state a place that is innovative, exciting, and attractive for young professionals.” Innovation and leadership are key factors in the growth of the state, as stated in a letter addressed to attendees by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: “We depend upon…leaders like all of you, to invent the next wave of products, start new companies, and create the jobs that will drive New York’s economy into the future.”

After a productive day full of networking and learning, followed by a “Dine Around Ithaca” and pub crawl, attendees I spoke with left the Summit feeling engaged, energized, and ready to apply what they learned back to their own communities across NYS.

Quality is Key to Controlling Costs in Healthcare

Independent Health President & CEO Dr. Michael Cropp believes that providing quality healthcare is essential to controlling costs in the industry. Lawmakers continue to debate certain parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) one year after President Obama signed it into law. Despite the ongoing debate among lawmakers, Independent Health has maintained it's focus here in Western New York on ways to improve the quality, access and affordability of health care.

Read why Dr. Cropp believes we need to achieve the triple aim of better health, better care and better costs in this month's Expert Forum, Independent Health - Leading True Health Care Reform.

UB2020 passes the Senate!

This afternoon, the New York State Senate passed legislation enacting UB2020's proposed reforms! The Partnership would like to thank Sens. Grisanti, Maziarz, Gallivan, Ranzenhofer and Kennedy for sponsoring and supporting this crucial legislation, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support: 53-1. UB2020 will now go to the State Assembly, where it did not come up for a vote in 2010. Now is the time for you to contact your Assembly representative and tell them to pass UB2020 the Assembly!

Millions of Dollars in Savings

As the Partnership’s annual open enrollment winds down for its Bright Choices health insurance program this year, it’s a good time to look back and take stock at how far we have come. In response to the theme “Starting Today,” more than 125 new companies joined the hundreds of current members taking advantage of the wide choices and excellent range of products on the Bright Choices® Benefits Exchange™. This is just the latest in a series of successes that stretches back more than three years. Showing foresight, leadership and a real concern for the businesses in Buffalo Niagara, the Partnership was one of the first organizations to push for real innovation in the area of employee benefits.

In recent years, employee benefits purchased through chambers of commerce have gone from bad to worse. Chambers have watched their insurance programs erode and their members suffer. The situation has gotten so bad for some chambers that they have actually decided to drop their benefits programs altogether. They have been hit from several sides at once: the insurance companies have decreased coverages, limited the choice of plans and raised prices to the point where the chamber’s insurance plans are no longer viable. The smaller and most vulnerable businesses have been left with little choice.

It was in this environment that the Buffalo Niagara Partnership found itself three years ago. But the Partnership decided to do something about it . . . to get out in front of this issue, to serve its members and its community and to see if there was another way to approach this problem. They looked for companies with new plans and new ideas. And one of them, Univera, joined forces with Liazon to respond. Here was a truly innovative solution to employee benefits that actually helps businesses save money while providing employees with more and better insurance choices. Plus, Liazon’s solution includes the Bright Choices Benefits Exchange -- the online store with state-of-the-art decision support technology.

That first year there were four Univera plans on Bright Choices, along with MetLife Dental, Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, and Allstate Accident and Critical Illness insurance. The following year saw the number of medical plans on the Benefits Exchange grow to eight. Other plans were also added, like Long-term Care, telemedicine programs and even pet insurance. And each year more and more members signed on.

The Partnership’s pioneering efforts helped the benefits programs of many chambers around the state. Today, the Bright Choices Benefits Exchange has been embraced by over 20 chambers of commerce throughout New York, from the Buffalo Niagara area and the Southern Tier, to Albany/Saratoga, to the Hudson Valley and to New York City. In every area where the Liazon program takes hold, the businesses in that region experience significant cost savings. The Ulster County Regional Chamber of Commerce, for example, one of the newest chambers to come onboard, recently estimated that their first year with Liazon saved businesses in their area $1million in insurance premiums, simply by providing a wider variety of good choices and letting employees decide.

The Bright Choices program through the Buffalo Niagara Partnership has had an even bigger impact on businesses in Buffalo Niagara over the past three years. It is difficult to estimate the full financial impact of the program because it is not an apples-to-apples comparison -- the plans today are so robust as compared with the anemic plans of three years ago. However, looking at the experiences in other parts of the state, the savings could amount to several million dollars. That’s money that is folded back into the local economy to support new investments and job growth.

This blog was written by Partnership Vice President Fred Bristol. Please contact Fred to fill your insurance needs.

Independent Health: Working Toward a Healthier WNY

In the year that has passed since the Patient Protection and Afforable Health Act became law, Independent Health continues to work toward achieving what it calls the triple aim: better health, better care and better costs. From its Patient-Centered Medical Home pilot initiative to Wellness Tools & Discounts to tips for living healthy, Independent Health encourages Western New York families to take greater personal responsibility for their health.

Independent Health's President & CEO Dr. Michael W. Cropp discusses more about what Independent Health is doing to create a healthier WNY in this month's Expert Forum. This is the first of three pieces in 2011 discussing Independent Health's position with the local business community and the programs it offers to WNY individuals and families.