Brooklyn HealthWorks, the Healthy NY initiative launched by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce that brings low-cost health insurance to hundreds of Brooklyn’s small businesses, will soon be coming to upstate New York.  On March 12, New York State Governor David A. Paterson awarded the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce the contract to develop an upstate version of the Brooklyn HealthWorks program, which means small businesses and sole proprietors in the pilot project’s nine counties in Central New York (Cayuga, Cortland, Oneida, Oswego, Onondaga, Lewis, Madison, Herkimer and Jefferson) that previously were unable to access health insurance will be able to take advantage of premium discounts of up to 70%.  The Governor’s announcement marks another milestone in the expansion of the HealthWorks model as a means to bring low-cost health insurance options to small businesses and their employees across the state.
 
“The adoption of the Brooklyn HealthWorks model by the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce shows how effective our program has been in helping small businesses gain affordable health insurance for their employees," said Carl Hum, president & CEO, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.  "Brooklyn HealthWorks would not be where it is today without the help of the New York State Legislature and, in particular, State Senator Martin Golden and Assemblyman Joseph Lentol.  This is an exciting development for our HealthWorks team and the New York business community.”

The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with GHI, an EmblemHealth company, launched the first private label Healthy NY initiative in April 2004 in response to its Members' requests for relief from burdensome health insurance costs that prevented small business owners from offering health insurance to their employees.  According to the New York State Insurance Department, health insurance premiums for small businesses have increased an average of 13.5 percent annually since 2000, limiting or barring access to coverage for many small businesses that struggle to attract and retain qualified employees.  

The successful launch and rollout of Brooklyn HealthWorks as a solution to this growing challenge to small businesses led to legislation in 2006 that created a permanent funding stream for HealthWorks to dramatically increase enrollment in Brooklyn, as well as eventually expand the program to upstate New York.

“GHI, now part of EmblemHealth, is proud to have been part of the creation of Brooklyn HealthWorks.  We value our long-standing relationship with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and the Brooklyn HealthWorks program, and applaud their efforts in demonstrating the effectiveness of the HealthWorks model in providing health coverage to New York’s uninsured workers," said George Babitsch, senior vice president of sales at EmblemHealth.

Momentum for the HealthWorks program – both in terms of enrollment as well as its expansion beyond Brooklyn – has grown over the past year.  In addition to the upstate Healthy NY pilot program just announced by the Governor, as of Sept. 2008, the New York State Health Foundation, in cooperation with the New York State Insurance Department, is funding a small Healthy NY planning project managed by S2AY Rural Health Network in Corning, New York, that will use HealthWorks’ employer-based model as a basis for increasing Healthy NY enrollments in the project’s seven counties in the Finger Lakes region, from Wayne county bordering Ontario Lake to the north to Steuben county bordering Pennsylvania in the south.

“Since we last re-opened enrollment in Oct. 2007, the number of businesses we cover has tripled to 380, representing nearly 1,800 employees and family members,” stated Dean Mohs, executive director of Brooklyn HealthWorks for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.  “As both upstate pilot projects demonstrate, the success and continued expansion of the HealthWorks model – particularly when backed by strong partners such as GHI and the Department of Insurance – can make an important contribution in covering uninsured adults who may not otherwise qualify for available individual programs.”

On the national front, Brooklyn HealthWorks, along with 16 other programs across the country, was selected last year to participate in a study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to assist federal, state and local policymakers and program designers charged with developing health insurance programs to cover the increasing number of uninsured adults in the U.S.

The HHS study concluded that among the participating programs representing several broad coverage approaches, the four common strategies that contributed to successful enrollment were program awareness, program comprehension, program appeal and ease of application – all factors that bore out in the Brooklyn Chamber’s own 2008 survey of its HealthWorks members.

Mr. Mohs explained that, “Key factors, including strong marketing partnerships with brokers and others, prove to be crucial in our surpassing our enrollment goals.”

To learn more about Brooklyn HealthWorks visit http://www.brooklynhealthworks.com/ or call Dean Mohs at 718-943-3882.