As a non-profit health plan, giving back to our community remains top of mind all year long, and we are proud to support local organizations that share our mission of helping our communities live healthier and more secure lives. 

In 2022, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield announced the first round of recipients of our Member and Community Health Improvement (MACHI) grants to improve maternal health and health equity in upstate New York.

Eight nonprofit organizations in the health plan’s 39 county service area will share $1 million in grant funding over the next three years. Among the recipients were Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) and Integrated Community Alternatives Network (ICAN).  Funds will support MVHS’ CenteringPregnancy program and ICAN’s Maternal Health Equity for Pregnant Homeless Teens program.

This year marked the second year of our Health Equity Awards, designed to provide financial support for community programs that address racial and ethnic health disparities across our service area.

We awarded a total of $110,000 to support the following four initiative: American Heart Association’s Self Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring and Hypertension Summit, ICAN’s Evelyn’s House Racial Equity Initiative, The Center’s Maternal Health Equity for Diverse Populations, and Upstate Family Health Center’s Integrated Behavioral Health, Substance Abuse, and Primary Care.

Excellus BlueCross BlueShield also awarded 25 Community Health Awards to local non-profit organizations within our 14 county Utica region footprint. These awards provide funding to launch, expand, and sustain programs and services that promote health. Additionally, we provided 66 sponsorships to help support health specific programs, events, and services in our local community. And we were proud to once again be the presenting sponsor of the Boilermaker 15K Road Race, a trademark event in our community.

The spirit of giving back extends to our employees as well. 

More than 100 employees in the Excellus BCBS Utica region have spent a total of 730 hours volunteering at local non-profit organizations.  And our employees have generously donated to United Way of the Mohawk Valley, YWCA of the Mohawk Valley, the Utica Rescue Mission, Feed Our Vets, and more.

In addition to giving back to our communities, over the past year, our organization has continued to make strides in the area of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and have made modeling an IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity, access) mindset part of our employee values and behaviors.

We were proud to receive a score of 90% out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index, the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality.  We were also named to the Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion after receiving a top score of 100% on the 2022 Disability Equality Index (DEI), a national benchmarking survey by Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities.  A full report of our DEI initiatives and accomplishments is available at excellusbcbs.com.

In 2022, we continued our mission to provide access to high-quality, affordable health care. We received favorable ratings by The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Achieving 4.5 stars in Medicare HMO, 4.0 stars in Medicare PPO, 4.5 stars in Medicaid, and 4 stars in Commercial (based on a 5-star rating system).

And we once again received high plan ratings from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS awarded Excellus BCBS’s Medicare Advantage HMO plans and Excellus BCBS’s Medicare Part D prescription drug plan a 5-star rating.

I’m proud of our Excellus BCBS team who worked hard preparing for this year’s Medicare Annual Election Period. We were excited to have our employees who served in the military take part by helping us design Medicare Advantage plans with veterans in mind.

In closing, I would like to thank our local health care providers, community partners, and community leaders who play a vital role in helping us care for the health and wellbeing of our members. 

We look forward to continuing these important partnerships in the new year.  Happy holidays!