Independent Health Association Inc

“Michael w. Cropp, kenneth sodaro, anthony baynes, daniel weintraub, james dunlop, and jared gross have a business relationship (board members of a related taxable entity). Michael w. Cropp, james dunlop, john rodgers, kenneth sodaro, daniel weintraub, dan gagliardo, and jared gross have a business relationship (board members of a related taxable entity). Thomas j. Foels & david pawlowski have a business relationship (private enterprise). Iha does not do business with their private enterprise.”

“Prior to the filing of the irs form 990, the final return was reviewed with the chair of the audit and finance committees, management, and made available to the board of directors.”

“Independent health association, inc's (iha) conflict of interest reporting policy encompasses all current iha officers and employees (including highest compensated key employees) of the organization. Employees are required as part of their employment with iha to immediately report conflicts of interest that they are party to or that they observe, to management or independent health's chief compliance officer for review by the conflict of interest committee of indendepent health. Conflicts are also identified annually when employees complete attestations, confidential questionaires & pledge of confidentiality and continuing disclosures form (form highest compensated employees, key employees, officers, directors, and members of the board) are received. If a conflict of interest is identified, the individual is prohibited from participating in the deliberations or decisions related to this transaction. The resolution of conflict review will be documented in meeting minutes maintained by the conflict of interest committee.”

“The governing board of directors of independent health association, inc. (iha) appointed a group of board members to act as the compensation committee. Compensation of the ceo is subject to review and approval by the compensation committee and the bod annually. Additionally, the recommendations of the ceo pertaining to the compensation of his/her direct reports are subject to review and advisement by the compensation committee.”

“Upon request, the organization will make available; a copy of its 990, its audited financial statements and any other documents as required.”

“James dunlop - 16 birdsong parkway, orchard park, ny 14127. Eric j. Decker - 797 two rod rd., marilla, ny 14102. John mineo - 28 canterbury ln., east aurora, ny 14052. Cheryl friedman - 5580 coachmans lane, hamburg, ny 14075. Margaret steffan - 5127 willowbrook dr. W., clarence, ny 14031. David shute - 25 monta vista ct., east amherst, ny 14051. Mike reilly - 11 silver thorne dr, williamsville, ny 14221.”

“Headquartered in buffalo, independent health began operations in 1980 and has consistently been rated among the top health plans in the country for customer service and member satisfaction. Independent health's comprehensive portfolio of progressive products includes hmo, pos, ppo and epo products, medicare and medicaid plans, traditional indemnity insurance, individual and small group exchange products, and consumer-directed plans, plus coverage for self-funded employers.independent health's subsidiary companies include pharmacy benefit dimensions, reliance rx and nova healthcare administrators, inc. Iha offers a variety of resources and self-help tools to its members, including an online health risk assessment to give them the information they need to help control current and prevent future problems. Programs for members, as well as their employers, help them make good health a part of their culture. Iha offers a 24-hour medical help line with access to a registered nurse who helps members explore treatment options, discuss needed health screenings and help determine appropriate care. In addition, independent health offers access to healthwise, which has health decision tools, a health topic library, a symptom checker and medication information. Members may also download independent health's myih app to their smartphones, which they can use to search for providers, access their member id card, and check their benefits. As a resource to engage with members at any point in their day or any stage of health, brook digital health companion is a digital personal assistant to help people with chronic conditions, as well as people looking to maintain their general well-being and better manage their health via their smartphone. The first chronic condition brook addressed was diabetes. For members diagnosed with the disease, brook can help users track their daily blood glucose levels, meals, medications, sleeping patterns and exercise. Based on a user's data input and activity, brook can provide insight on what is working along with recommendations to keep blood sugar levels in a safe zone, allowing members to take the guesswork out of understanding how daily decisions affect their health. Users can access brook 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whether they are in between doctor visits, at the grocery store or traveling. Brook blends intelligent, technology-based responses with the interaction and human touch that can only come from compassionate, understanding experts. Iha's medicare family choice plan is a medicare advantage special needs plan offered in nursing facilities in western new york. Family choice of new york is a care management company that works in partnership with area nursing homes, physicians and hospitals to bring additional care - including enhanced health care and social services - to the patients who need specialized medical and nurse management. The program accomplishes this by assigning a nurse practitioner who is specially trained in geriatrics to nursing home residents. The goal is to improve not only the member's quality of care, but also their quality of life. Family choice's specially trained nurse practitioners and physician assistants are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide care and support as needed. They work in collaboration with the member's physicians and the nursing facility's staff to identify potential problems before they become serious and minimize unnecessary and disruptive emergency room visits and hospital stays whenever it's safe and appropriate. Iha also offers assure advantage hmo c-snp. This is a medicare advantage chronic special needs plan specifically developed for eligible medicare beneficiaries who have been diagnosed with chronic heart failure and reside in erie county. This plan includes providers who specialize in treating chronic heart failure. It includes benefits and health programs designed to serve the specialized needs of people with this condition. In ad”

“Iha's redshirt volunteer program provides iha associates an opportunity to volunteer in their community, while promoting iha as a company that gives back to wny. Redshirt associate volunteers provide the redshirt treatment to the community through direct associate interaction and exhibit iha's message of quality care throughout western new york. The redshirt treatment is a company-wide commitment to demonstrate our core values of being passionate, caring, respectful, collaborative and accountable. To date in 2024, 406 iha associates served as redshirt volunteers. In total, these individuals volunteered at 99 community events, which represented more than 1,200 hours of volunteer time. Iha encourages its management team and associates to support the local community. To this end, we are proud to say more than 84 members of our leadership forum and joint leadership teams are volunteers or active participants as directors on community boards. The independent health associates supporting the community program, formerly known as the dress down program, allows associates to make a charitable contribution to community organizations. This program has resulted in substantial support for the charitable organizations in our community and demonstrates the goodwill of iha associates. The program is associate-driven with a goal to broadly support many 501(c)(3) organizations throughout western new york. In 2024, iha raised $12,376 for non-profit organizations in our community. In addition, iha associates support the united way of buffalo and erie county's community care campaign. The united way of buffalo and erie county works to advance the common good by focusing on wellness, income and education. It promotes long-term good health and independence and works to create long-lasting changes that will improve the lives of people living in poverty in erie county. Iha conducts a month-long campaign each fall to raise money for united way. Iha cares about making a difference in the lives of individuals in the communities we serve. The 2024 campaign raised more than $54,200. The community also benefits from iha's sponsorships that promote health and wellness. Since 2014, independent health has supported gobike (formerly gobike buffalo) in its efforts to bring greater awareness to the health and socioeconomic benefits of bicycling in our community. This support includes presenting sponsorship of the annual skyride event, which unites approximately 1,200 riders each year. Gobike celebrated 10 years of skyride last year, with plans to host the 11th annual event on july 20, 2025, at lakeside bike park, outer harbor buffalo. Independent health will once again sponsor the distribution of more than 200 bike helmets (adult and youth sizes) that gobike will offer to community groups and at community events leading up to skyride. For the third year in a row, independent health is sponsoring gobike's bike month initiatives during the month of may, which creates greater brand awareness and visibility for independent health's community engagement initiatives. This sponsorship led to greater internal efforts by independent health to capitalize on the month-long celebration, which spurred the offering of a community-wide contest. Entrants are once again asked to submit short stories on why they love biking in wny with one winner set to receive a $200 amazon.com gift card along with complimentary skyride registrations, two free reddy bikeshare memberships (or additional riding credits for current members) and a prize pack from independent health. The contest runs through the month of may and is primarily promoted at community events and on social media, with additional support from such partners as gobike and reddy bikeshare. To provide the community with greater access to bikes, iha entered into a partnership with shared mobility, inc. In 2016 to establish reddy bikeshare. This bike-sharing program first brought 200 gps-enabled bikes to buffalo and yielded such s”

“Understanding healthy habits must be nurtured from a young age, iha joined together with the buffalo museum of science to open the first permanent health-science studio in 2012. "explore you presented by independent health" allows visitors of all ages to explore anatomy and learn about important choices that can be made to improve and maintain one's health. Independent health's naming rights agreement for the exhibit concluded in 2023; however, explore you continues to be part of the annual community health day activities until the exhibit is reconstructed. At each event, independent health hosts a variety of activities and distributes thousands of giveaways. Independent health also extends an invite to its community partners each year, which has included ymca buffalo-niagara with free fitness activities, reddy bikeshare demonstrations and discounted annual memberships, playstreets programming from the police athletic league of buffalo (pal), and smoothie bike demonstrations from gobike. Independent health's participation also includes activities and information from the state product/sales team, wellness, and the independent health foundation. For the fifth year in a row, independent health is continuing its presenting sponsorship of wellness walks at tifft nature preserve. This weekly walk, held every thursday morning (weather pending), is free and open to the public year-round. Knowledgeable volunteers from tifft guide participants on unique routes through the preserve, offering an opportunity to get healthy while taking in the sights and sounds of nature. From may 1 through december 31, 2024, tifft reported 165 participants from buffalo and beyond. Participants have expressed gratitude for the no-cost nature of the walks, courtesy of iha's sponsorship, in addition to having a guided group walk versus navigating the trails alone. Iha is also proud to partner with larkin square to sponsor many community events and bring healthy initiatives to its revitalized public gathering space all year long. Through this partnership, the independent health foundation was able to implement the healthy options buffalo program into food truck tuesdays, requiring each participating food truck to offer at least one pre-approved healthy menu item considered to be lower in fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. Each year, between 2,500 and 3,000 people attend food truck tuesdays every tuesday from june through august. Additional giveaways are distributed at independent health's table, along with information on different health and wellness programming and an enter to win contest. This year, participants will have the chance to win a grand prize just for simply interacting with independent health, including an amazon.com gift card and a "bringing healthy to you" prize pack, bringing greater exposure to independent health's wide-ranging community partnerships. Independent health's partnership with buffalo riverworks launched in 2015, offering a wide variety of seasonal activities for individuals of all ages and fitness levels. Built around promoting health and exercise, participants can try their hand at kayaking, water bikes, paddle boarding, zip lining and more when the weather is warm, and then lace up their ice skates or partake in a friendly game of curling when the cold weather sets in. Adventure-seekers can also test their agility and strength on the two-level ropes course, open year-round (weather pending). As the official health and wellness partner of buffalo riverworks, iha members can show their id cards and receive discounts for any health and wellness activity. Additionally, there are several healthy options items on the menu at riverworks, making it easy to eat healthy while dining out. Riverworks also offers open roller skating sponsored by independent health on select dates. Further capitalizing on the outdoor health and wellness opportunities available in our community, iha became the official health and wellness partner of”

“As of may 2024, more than 90 percent of western new york provider practices participate with healthelink. More than 600 data sources are connected, approximately 380 million results (lab, radiology and transcribed reports) are available and more than 1.5 million community-wide consents have been signed by patients authorizing treating physicians to access their electronic medical records through healthelink. Iha coordinates the delivery of health care services for 178,000 members of iha's commercial products under article 44 of the new york public health law, medicaid managed care products as administered by the state of new york, and medicare managed care products as administered by cms at the conclusion of 2024. Independent health provides health benefits and services to individuals in western new york and throughout the country. The company has consistently been rated among the top health plans in the country for customer service and member satisfaction. For the second consecutive year, in 2024, independent health was the only health plan in new york state to receive the highest possible rating of 5 out of 5 stars for clinical quality and member satisfaction from the national committee for quality assurance (ncqa) for its commercial hmo/pos line of business. Independent health's medicare advantage plans received a 5 out of 5 star rating from the centers for medicare & medicaid services (cms) for 2024. This marks the 14th consecutive year that independent health's hmo plan has received a 4.5 or 5 star rating and the 9th straight year that our ppo plan has achieved it. Independent health was named the second highest ranked health plan for member satisfaction in the new york region, according to the j.d. Power 2024 u.s. Commercial member health plan studysm. Conducted through an online survey across 22 market-based regions, j.d. Power's annual syndicated study examines the experience of health plan members and recognizes health plans in the country that achieve a high level of customer satisfaction for their members. The study ranks members' experiences in six categories: billing and payment; cost; coverage and benefits; customer service; information and communication; and provider choice. In addition, dating back to 2010, independent health has now been recognized by j.d. Power as being the top-ranked plan for member satisfaction in its region six times (2010-13, 2016 and 2020) and the second highest ranked plan another six times (2014-15, 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2024). For the third straight year, independent health achieved tier 1 status as part of the medicaid managed care quality incentive program through the new york state department of health (nysdoh). Independent health's overall score, which was based on data reporting from 2022, was the highest among all participating health plans throughout new york state. The nysdoh medicaid managed care quality incentive program focuses on the performance in quality and member experiences of health plans. It uses an algorithm to award points to plans for high quality in the categories of effectiveness of care, access and availability and use of services. Our consistently strong star ratings and third-party assessments are a testament to our long-standing commitment of delivering high-quality coverage and outstanding service to our members. Long before the enactment of the affordable care act (aca), iha was taking steps to transform health care in western new york, providing our members with many of the quality coverage and market reform provisions contained in the law ($0 copay for preventive services, age-extension riders up to age 26, no lifetime limits on members' coverage, and comprehensive internal and external review processes to ensure our members received needed health care services). Iha continues to look for opportunities to improve the quality and affordability of health care for our region, as achieving health care reform will require community ownership, wide-ranging par”