Regional Leader Information
Website: www.nebgh.org
Region: New York State, Connecticut
Covered Counties: New York State (All); Connecticut (All)
Primary Contact: Courtney Wilson-Myers
Title: Director of Operations
Address: 80 Pine Street, 29th Floor, New York, NY 10005
Phone: 212-252-7440 x 237
Fax: 212-252-7448
Email: cwilson-myers@nebgh.org
Founded in 1982, the Northeast Business Group on Health (NEBGH) is a not-for-profit coalition of 150 businesses and is the only organization in the New York Metropolitan area exclusively devoted to employer health benefit issues. NEBGH functions as the forum for businesses to explore contemporary healthcare issues and find practical resolutions. Members include employers and health-related organizations. The mission of NEBGH is to provide leadership and knowledge to employers to promote a value-based, market-driven healthcare system.
Why did your organization decide to apply to become a Leapfrog Regional Leader?
Northeast Business Group on Health supports the employers’ quest for value in the purchase of health benefits and services. Leapfrog is a vehicle to involve the New York metropolitan area employers, health plans and hospitals in a national movement to promote patient safety and standardized national metrics.
In your view, what kind of impact Leapfrog has had on your market thus far?
Leapfrog has helped to coalesce various stakeholders around the issue of patient safety. Although Leapfrog participation in the roll-out region remains low, awareness about patient safety issues has increased.
Market Information
Population: Over 11,835,000 in New York state counties plus approximately 2 million in Connecticut counties
Number of employer/coalition lives in region: Over 1 million.
Hospital characteristics
143 hospitals in region
Insurer characteristics
Local health plans:
• Aetna
• Anthem
• Cigna
• Connecticare
• CDHP
• Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield
• GHI
• Health Net
• HIP Health Plans
• Horizon Healthcare
• MVP
• Oxford Health Plans
• United Healthcare
State/Local government activities:
In 2005 legislation was passed which requires hospitals to release to the New York State Department of Health statistics on hospital acquired infections. New York State Department of Health publishes the Adult Cardiac Surgery Report for 2001-2003 which provides information on risk factors and outcomes for isolated cardiac artery bypass surgery, valve surgery and the two procedures performed in combination. In 2003, New York's hospitals performed 14,692 adult cardiac artery bypass surgeries. This 2003 figure is a significant improvement over the 3.52 percent mortality rate recorded in 1989, when the Department first began reporting CABG surgical outcomes.