1. www.balconynewyork.com
Thursday, May 12, 2016
BALLROOM, 4 West 43rd Street, NYC
Networking Breakfast 8:00 A.M. - 8:30 A.M.
Program 8:30 A.M. - 11:00 A.M.
A Breakfast Forum Presented by:

2. 2 | P a g e
Mayor Bill de Blasio recently unveiled One New York:
Health Care for Our Neighborhoods, a comprehensive
report outlining the City’s plan to address a growing Health
+ Hospitals financial shortfall forecasted, without
intervention, to reach $1.8 billion by FY2020. Below is a
summary of the plan released on April 26th
.
Health + Hospitals must embrace the challenge of restructuring its system to reflect the changing healthcare landscape,
with a focus on four primary goals:
Stabilizing funding: Health + Hospitals must secure a sustainable funding source to provide care for the uninsured.
 Health + Hospitals will build on existing efforts with targeted, community-based outreach to enroll people who are
eligible for coverage but remain uninsured.
 New York City will seek to work with state and federal officials to launch a program that commits to support
coordinated care for uninsured New Yorkers.
 Secure a more equitable New York State funding formula for safety net hospitals like Health + Hospitals.
Expand community-based care, strengthen coordination and care management, and integrate social supports to improve
health outcome. Even as Health + Hospitals become leaner in some areas, it must also grow to better serve high-need
communities. That effort will include:
 Embedding more health centers in communities.
 Expanding the capacity of community-based sites, through longer operating hours and new services.
 Partnering across City agencies and with the City’s many outstanding community-based providers.
All of these steps are especially critical when it comes to treating high-risk patients, who require convenient access to
multiple providers in a coordinated fashion. These efforts will also improve broader health outcomes within the target
communities.
Consolidate hospital services and improve operational efficiency. This effort will proceed on multiple fronts:
 Assess hospital services to ensure that we are efficiently delivering safe, high-quality and effective care.
 Operate more efficiently and maximize revenue.
 Develop vacant and under-utilized parcels of land on Health + Hospitals campuses to address social determinants of
health while raising revenue.
Restructure payments and build partnerships to support the health outcomes of communities. Health + Hospitals will
shift from a model that rewards doing more services to a model that aligns financial incentives with evidence-based
practice and positive health outcomes.
 Move from payments based on volume to payments based on improving patient health.
 Build cross-provider care management arrangements so patients can get coordinated care across the City, which
improves health outcomes.
The full report is available at www.nyc.gov

3. 3 | P a g e
Health Care in New York: Successes, Failures and
Challenges in 2016
Agenda
Networking Breakfast 8:00 A.M. - 8:30 A.M.
Program 8:30 A.M. - 11:00 A.M.
Forum Moderator
Lou Gordon, Director - Business and Labor Coalition of New York (BALCONY)
PANELS
HEALTH CARE IN NYS AND NYC
Hon. Dick Gottfried, Chair - NYS Assembly Health Committee
Elisabeth R. Benjamin, Vice President - Health Initiatives, Community Service Society of New York and co-founder of
Health Care for All New York
Helen Schaub, Director of Legislative Affairs and Policy – 1199 SEIU
Jill Furillo, R.N., Executive Director - NYS Nurses Association
Mark Jaffe, President and CEO - Greater New York Chamber Of Commerce
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH and WORKPLACE SAFETY IN NYS/NYC
Lee Clarke, Chair - New York Committee of Occupational Safety & Health and Special Assistant to the President - NYC
Clerical Administrative Employees Local 1549 DC37
Robert Grey, Esq., Grey and Grey, LLP - Workers Compensation
Sachin Shah, President - Zomo Health
HEALTH INSURANCE IN NYS/NYC
Dr. Susan Beane, Medical Director - Healthfirst
Suzanne Taranto, EA, MAAA - Principal Consulting Actuary - Milliman
Anthony Feliciano, Director – Commission on the Public’s Health System
We are Celebrating NURSES WEEK! Acknowledging all the nurses who are on the front lines of
health care every day

4. 4 | P a g e
PANELISTS
Dick Gottfried, Chair - NYS Assembly Health Committee
New York State Assembly Member Richard N. Gottfried of Manhattan has chaired the Assembly
Committee on Health since 1987. The leading advocate in the Legislature for creating and expanding
public health insurance programs, he is the Assembly sponsor of the New York Health Act to establish
universal, publicly-sponsored and publicly-funded health care coverage, as well as the Gender
Expression Non-Discrimination Act to protect the rights of transgender New Yorkers. Gottfried has
authored legislation to establish Child Health Plus, Family Health Plus, and the Prenatal Care Assistance Program
(PCAP), reproductive freedom, and the rights of New Yorkers with disabilities. He also authored New York’s Health Care
Proxy Law, the Family Health Care Decisions Act, the Compassionate Care Act authorizing the use of medical marijuana,
laws on the licensing and independent practice of midwives and extending insurance coverage to include midwife
services, and the landmark HIV Testing and Confidentiality Law. He works to protect and increase funding for
Medicaid, community health centers, school health clinics, HIV/AIDS services, and other health concerns.
Elisabeth R. Benjamin, Vice President - Health Initiatives, Community Service Society of New York and
co-founder of Health Care for All New York
Elisabeth Benjamin is the Vice President of Health Initiatives at the Community Service Society, where
she supervises health policy, health advocacy, and consumer health assistance programs, including: the
CSS Navigator Network (CNN), Community Health Advocates (CHA), and the Small Business Assistance Program
(SBAP). The programs help over 60,000 health care consumers and small businesses enroll in health insurance or access
low-cost health care through a toll-free helpline and network of community-based organizations and small business-
serving groups. She is a co-founder of Health Care for All New York Campaign (HCFANY), a statewide coalition of over
150 organizations devoted to securing affordable, quality health care for all New Yorkers. She has published extensively
and has been a frequent commentator about health policy issues.
Helen Schaub, Director of Legislative Affairs and Policy – 1199 SEIU
Helen Schaub is the New York State Policy and Legislative Director for 1199SEIU United Healthcare
Workers East. Since 2004, Helen has helped to lead the Union’s effort to raise standards for home care
workers, including those in Long Island, through legislative advocacy, community outreach, collective
bargaining and worker organizing. In 2011, this culminated in a new state law setting minimum
compensation for workers on Medicaid cases downstate, close to doubling compensation for 70,000 low-wage New
Yorkers. Prior to joining 1199, Helen spent 14 years organizing community members for quality schools, decent
affordable housing and healthy neighborhoods.
Jill Furillo, R.N., Executive Director - NYS Nurses Association
Jill Furillo, RN, BSN, PHN, is the executive director of the New York State Nurses Association, New
York's largest union and professional association of registered nurses. Furillo became a registered nurse
in 1985 and has worked as an Emergency Room nurse, an organizer, the Executive Vice President of the
RN Division of 1199, and the national bargaining director of National Nurses United (NNU), the largest
union of registered nurses in the U.S., among other roles. Furillo joined NYSNA as executive director in 2012 in order to
work with the newly elected Board of Directors and rank and file activists to help transform NYSNA into a progressive
voice and union for registered nurses throughout New York. Under this new leadership, NYSNA launched a campaign to
keep hospitals open, winning a moratorium on all hospital closures in the state until such time as an accurate and
complete assessment of the health needs of distressed communities is carried out.

5. 5 | P a g e
Mark Jaffe, President and CEO - Greater New York Chamber Of Commerce
Mark Jaffe is an attorney and President & CEO of the Greater NY Chamber of Commerce - a NYS not-for-
profit serving over 20,000 business and civic leaders. Jaffe has over 20 years experience working with
federal, state and local agencies. He was born and raised in Westchester and currently lives in West
Harrison with his wife and three children. He attended Dobbs Ferry High School, graduated SUNY Albany
cum laude, studied business and public administration and earned his JD at Cardozo Law School. His
economic development work at the Chamber has been recognized by Governor Andrew Cuomo, and as the former
treasurer of the Manhattan Borough Development Corporation, he earned a reputation for cutting waste and getting
things done. He also volunteers as legal counsel for the NYC Hispanic Chamber; the White House Business Council; the
NYS Health Exchange Advisory Council; the NY –NJ Super Bowl Host Committee; Dr. Oz’s Health Corps and the
American Diabetes Association.
Lee Clarke, Chair - New York Committee of Occupational Safety and Health and Special Assistant to the
President - NYC Clerical Administrative Employees Local 1549 DC37
Lee Clarke is the Chairperson of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH).
NYCOSH is a membership organization of workers, unions, community-based organizations, workers’
rights activists, and health and safety professionals. NYCOSH uses training, education, and advocacy to
improve health and safety conditions in our workplaces, our communities, and our environment. Founded
in 1979 on the principle that workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths are preventable, NYCOSH works to
extend and defend every person’s right to a safe and healthy workplace. With over four decades of trade union and
coalition activism, Lee’s work has contributed to the passage of the NYS Public Employee Occupational Safety and Health
Act, the NYS Toxic Substance Act, the NYS Workplace Violence Law, and the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and
Compensation Act of 2010/2015.
Robert Grey, Esq., Grey and Grey, LLP - Workers Compensation
Robert Grey, the managing partner of Grey & Grey, L.L.P, is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University
(1987) and St. John’s University School of Law (1990). The firm represents workers in the areas of
workers’ compensation, Social Security Disability, Long Term Disability, personal injury and related
matters. During his 25 year career, Mr. Grey has represented thousands of clients before the New
York State Workers’ Compensation Board. He has also tried many personal injury cases both in New
York State Supreme Court and in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District.
Sachin Shah, MBA is the President & Chief Customer Officer for Zomo Health, a population health
management company, and of PreventionCloud, a digital health platform. In his role he is responsible for
innovation, product management, national partner relationship management, and employee engagement
strategies. He is also the founder of Elevation Mechanics, a business acceleration firm, dedicated to
supporting disruptive innovators. His areas of interest are within business strategy, technology- cloud/
mobile, consumer engagement, data analytics, behavior change, integrated marketing communications,
brand management, and culture development.
Dr. Susan Beane, Vice President and Medical Director – Healthfirst
Dr. Susan Beane joined Healthfirst in 2009, bringing with her extensive professional experience in managed
care. As Vice President and Medical Director at Healthfirst, Dr. Beane focuses on care management and
clinical provider partnerships, especially programs designed to improve the delivery of vital, evidence-
based healthcare to our members. Dr. Beane, a dedicated primary care physician and Board certified
internist, is a strong proponent of collaborating with and engaging providers to improve health outcomes.
Dr. Beane served as Chief Medical Officer for Affinity Health Plan for five years—during which time she helped Affinity’s
plan become a top performer in quality and member satisfaction. she worked at AmeriChoice and HIP USA, as Medical
Director. Dr. Beane is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

6. 6 | P a g e
Suzanne Taranto, EA, MAAA – Principal Consulting Actuary – Milliman. Suzanne Taranto has more than
25 years of employee benefits consulting experience. She provides advice on the design and delivery of
comprehensive health welfare plans to both corporate and union plans. Sue is an expert in the area of
accounting for postemployment benefits and specializes in financial analysis and benchmarking of health
plans. She is responsible for negotiating and supporting a number of retiree medical VEBA trusts, and she
has significant healthcare bargaining and design experience. She has done extensive analysis on the impact
of the Affordable Care Act on employer-sponsored plans. Sue has experience as a consulting actuary at a major
consulting firm. She has also held senior positions leading compensation and benefits units of major (Fortune 500) U.S.
companies.
Jennifer Faucher, Special Projects Consultant – BALCONY. Jennifer Faucher spent over 30 years as a
New York State employee, beginning her career at the Department of Labor as an Employment
Interviewer and Veterans Employment Representative. In 1984, she went on to become one of the first
women hired at the State Insurance Fund as a health and safety professional. During this time Jennifer
was also in the forefront as an advocate for members of NYS Public Employees Federation (PEF)
Regional In 1994 she was elected to the PEF office of Region 10 Coordinator, where she served four
terms. Jennifer also spent three years lobbying for the PEF legislative agenda, which included the safe patient handling
and safe staffing legislation. Jennifer continues her advocacy work as a consultant to the Business and Labor Coalition of
New York (BALCONY) Jennifer is a former member of the NYCOSH Board and Joseph Murphy Institute Labor Advisory
Board.
Anthony Feliciano, Director – Commission on the Public’s Health System
Anthony Feliciano is currently the Director of the Commission on the Public’s Health System,
a non-profit community-based, city-wide organization that fights for access to quality health-
care for low-income New York residents. Since 1991, the Commission has been actively
involved in fighting the privatization of the public hospitals in the city. The Commission has
worked hard for the expansion of primary health care services in medically underserved
communities in the city. The Commission also works to support and get funding for public
health care and services, through the organization’s membership and through building
coalitions with community organizations and unions that share common goals. The Commission is well-known for its
policy development, research, education, advocacy and organizing around health issues that impact low-income,
immigrant, and communities of color.

7. 7 | P a g e
Forum Moderator
Lou Gordon, Director - BALCONY
Lou Gordon is the founding Director of BALCONY, the Business and Labor Coalition of New
York, since its inception in 2006. He has successfully built BALCONY from a small start up to a
coalition that represents more than 1,000 New York State businesses, major labor unions,
advocacy organizations and non profits. Gordon has directed the BALCONY efforts regarding
the Partnership for Coverage initiative of the New York State Insurance Department and the
New York State Department of Health. He currently serves as a member of the New York State
of Health Insurance Exchange Advisory Committee, the Mount Sinai Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health NYC
Advisory Board, and has moderated more than 40 BALCONY forums and workshops. He is a former Congressional Press
Secretary, public relations consultant and producer of TV, sports and video programs. Gordon serves as president of the
board of directors of Dance Spotlight, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of the Martha Graham Dance Technique.
HAPPY NURSES WEEK!
The Heart of Health Care
BALCONY Celebrates and Thanks our Nurses Who are on the
Front Lines of Health Care Every Day

8. 8 | P a g e
Rate of Uninsured Drops to Lowest Level in Decades
ALBANY, N.Y. (February 23, 2016) - NY State of Health, the state’s official health plan
Marketplace, announced more than 2.8 million people have signed up for health insurance
as of January 31, 2016, the end of the 2016 open enrollment period. Since the Marketplace
opened in 2013, the number of uninsured New Yorkers has declined by nearly 850,000.
According to recently released data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the
rate of uninsured declined from 10 percent to 5 percent between 2013 and September 2015
and is at its lowest level in decades.
“We have made great strides in reducing New York’s uninsured rate,” said NY State of
Health Executive Director, Donna Frescatore. “The new Essential Plan for 2016 has helped
bridge the gap for lower income individuals and families allowing many New Yorkers,
including young adults, to get affordable health coverage through the Marketplace.”
The breakdown of NY State of Health enrollees as of January 31, 2016, the end of open
enrollment, is as follows:
 Total enrollment: 2,833,823
 Total Medicaid enrollment: 1,966,920
 Total non-Medicaid enrollment: 866,903
o Essential Plan: 379,559
o Qualified Health Plan: 271,964
o Child Health Plus: 215,380
The majority of people who enrolled in coverage through NY State of Health receive financial
assistance to help pay for coverage. While the 2016 open enrollment period for Qualified
Health Plans has ended, individuals who have a qualifying life event may be eligible for a
Special Enrollment Period. Individuals eligible for the new Essential Plan, Medicaid or Child
Health Plus can enroll year-round.

9. 9 | P a g e
By Robert Grey, Esq., Grey and Grey, LLP - Workers Compensation
http://greyandgrey.com
THE BUSINESS AGENDA TO DISMANTLE
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION
The workers’ compensation system is a fundamental part of the social safety net. Every year, over
150,000 working New Yorkers are injured on the job and file for benefits. Thousands more are injured and do
not file because of lack of information or other reasons.
Workers’ compensation was created to provide medical care and wage replacement for workers while
they are disabled, and in some cases provides modest awards for permanent injury. Meanwhile, workers
surrendered their right to sue the employer – even if the employer was grossly negligent or violated safety
laws or regulations.
For decades, workers’ compensation systems across the nation have been under attack from business
interests determined to reduce worker protections and benefits. The typical “selling point” for this campaign
is the claim that employers’ workers’ compensation costs are “skyrocketing” and supposedly driving business
out of the state to somewhere else where costs are lower. The proposed solution is never a data-driven
examination of actual employer costs or insurer investment returns and profit margins. Instead, the invariable
“solution” is to slash benefits for workers. When it succeeds in one state, business immediately hopscotches to
another to repeat the process.
Still unsatisfied with the outcome of its efforts to impoverish workers and enrich insurance companies,
workers’ compensation is again at the top of the business agenda for 2016. Its latest proposals include
employer-managed care for workers, further cuts in permanent disability benefits, new limitations on
temporary disability benefits, reductions in workers’ compensation benefit rates for workers and payments to
doctors, and more. While the Legislature rejected attempts to include some of these proposals in the state
budget, business continues to pursue its agenda legislatively, administratively, and through the executive
branch.
At a time when workers have made progress in raising the minimum wage and obtaining paid family
leave, it is equally important to protect the bedrock of the social safety net on which these new advances were
built. Workers’ compensation is a crucial part of that bedrock, and labor’s role in defending benefits for
injured workers is as vital as ever.

10. 10 | P a g e
www.balconynewyork.com
Presents
…A radio show on infrastructure and public policy in New York
State
Airing Sundays on
“Common Ground: Building and Caring for the Future of New York” is a lively discussion on infrastructure as
well as the most important public policy issues facing the New York region including education, finance, politics,
and social and environmental challenges. Our guests include leaders from business, labor, and non-profits, experts
and advocates, and elected officials.
Common Ground is hosted by Bill Ayres, an experienced radio personality with more than 40 years as a host on
WPLJ and co-hosted by BALCONY Director Lou Gordon, who will also serve as Executive Producer. Nicholas
Kapustinsky is the show’s producer.
If you are interested in sponsoring, underwriting, ad
placement, or other support for the COMMON GROUND radio
show please contact Lou Gordon, Executive Producer at 212-
219-7777 or loug@balconynewyork.com.

11. 11 | P a g e
For more information or to reserve your ticket or sponsorship now please
call Arielle Krebs or Lou Gordon at 212-219-7777 or visit
www.balconynewyork.com

12. 12 | P a g e
BALCONY FORUM STAFF
Lou Gordon, BALCONY Director
Jennifer Faucher, Special Projects Consultant
Danny Corum, BALCONY Consultant
Jeanne Suggs, Producer, Suggs Media Productions
Nicholas Kapustinsky, BALCONY Policy and Communications
Kevin Weaver, Web Designer
SPONSORS
BALCONY, the Business and Labor Coalition of New York, represents more than 1,000 New York businesses, labor unions, and trade associations.
BALCONY seeks common ground in the public policy debate in New York to spur economic development through the adoption of business/union
friendly, socially responsible common sense laws that maintain and improve the quality of life for working New Yorkers.
BALCONY is a 501(c)(4) non-profit.
Contributions are not tax deductible and BALCONY makes no political endorsements nor campaign contributions.
A special thank you to Alan Handell and NY Prints, LLC for printing this program with union labor.
4 West 43rd Street, Suite 405 | New York, NY 10036 | 212-219-7777 | www.balconynewyork.com
https://www.facebook.com/BALCONY
NewYork/
https://twitter.com/BALCONYNY